Where Coding and Project Management Skills Excel I joke around with my wife frequently that project management is the answer to life. But I’m only half joking. Once you understand project management, you can apply it to anything to get yourself organized and stand out from the rest. One of the main reasons that I’m confident that I can land a job in most companies is for my project management skills. Understanding that most people do not know project management well enough is an advantage that I take everywhere with. I’ll start at a new job, organize the company within
Category: Project Management
A Symbiotic Relationship If you’re a software engineer, you might think that project managers are just not that important. But the truth is, they are. A project manager has a completely different skill set than one who works on development alone: they need to know how to manage the project, lead capacity planning, and handle interpersonal relationships in order to successfully complete projects. In this article we will explore some of the differences between developers and project managers so that you can understand why these roles are so important for each profession. Project Managers: Simply Explained A project manager is
Shaping Success or Sabotage A good project manager is crucial to keep your team happy. They are the backbone of software development and are responsible for planning, coordinating and managing activities throughout the project. The success of your team depends on how well you manage them. In this article, we will explore several aspects which can lead to poor project management and how you can avoid them. Failure to Manage Effectively The most common reason for a software development project failure is the failure to manage effectively. A frequent reason to this is when the project manager does not understand
How Project Managers Shape Software Success In this article, we will discuss what does a project manager do in software development. In Project Management, there is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ approach. A Project Manager has several duties to handle in every phase of software development. Planning As any other project, a successful software development process requires a lot of planning. There are many steps involved in software development, each one being a separate project with its own set of stakeholders and responsibilities. The project manager is responsible for ensuring that all these projects run smoothly
The Cornerstone of Efficiency and Consistency How many times have we all been here? One individual knows how to go through the entire process (whatever that process may be) and that’s that. The information lives in their head. Sometimes it’s inadvertent and other times it’s intentional. After all, you can’t fire John if he’s the only person that knows how to do this, right? That’s more on the negative side. Most of the time, it’s just something that people don’t have time to create, or don’t make time to create. They’re busy with other tasks and don’t see the
Navigating Complexity for Success I was just talking about the topic with one of my friends. I’ve joked before that project management is the answer to life. I tend to go overboard with project management, but then again work does seem to go smoothly. Could there be a correlation? You can have the best software developers but with a poor project manager, your team will not succeed. Project management is an essential aspect of software development. It is a process that involves planning, organizing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals within a defined timeline. Software development projects can be
Balancing the value of actions against their costs The Impact vs Effort matrix is a simple yet powerful tool that can be used to prioritize tasks or projects based on their potential impact and the effort required to complete them. The matrix is particularly useful for teams that need to manage their workload effectively and make the best use of their limited resources. It is also known as an Eisenhower matrix, named after former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who famously said, “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the
Is it possible for Non-Technical People Manage Software Projects? Yes. For it to be successful, there needs to be a separation of tasksYes. For it to be successful, there needs to be a separation of tasks and an understanding of the basics. Everything else is high level enough that the project manager can be successful enough without having any background in software development or software development projects. Is it easier for projects to be managed by technical project managers? Of course. Having a deep understanding of software development is extremely beneficial in a small team, but can be a
If you’re working for a company where the PM is the boss, run. You’re not going to work in a more toxic environment than that. Cross if off your career list and never reflect back on it. The Project Manager should not be viewed as the boss in a software development team. Software Development teams are functional teams with each person serving a specific role. The project manager manages the project, which means that it’s their responsibility to keep the project on track. What else do Project Managers do? Developer Support They support developers when they need information from the
This is one of my absolute favorite topics to discuss in software development: Definition of Done in Software Development. While my approach is not fully flushed out for every environment, it’s gets you 90% there. This will help with creating a team and setting expectations. When is each team member actually done during the software development lifecycle? Have you found yourself saying, “well I know I said it was done, but it’s not really done?” Before we can start looking at each individual’s Done definition, we have to outline the members involved. Business Analyst Project Manager Development Manager UI/UX Engineer