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 on time and within budget.
Like project initiation phase, the first step after planning is the requirements gathering and analysis.
The PM should be involved in this process since he/she will have to make sure that all the requirements are understood by all parties involved including developers, testers, business analysts etc. The PM can also help with identifying any missing information from these stakeholders as well as ensuring that there are no conflicts between them.
Depending on the team and company structure, the project manager can serve as a business analyst before the project requirements are even presented to the software development team. Once those requirements are converted into tasks, the PM translates them into Gantt charts that can be presented to the client.
Requirements gathering involves collecting all relevant information about a product or service from various sources such as documentation, customer interviews etc., so that you can get a clear picture of what people want out of it before they start building anything new on top of what’s already been built by someone else (which may not necessarily work out how you imagined).
Source Code and Documentation
In some companies, the project manager needs to manage the project documentation and actual source code as well. In this case, the PM must understand the technical details of the project and communicate these with others on a regular basis. He or she will also help with communication between team members, clients, and other stakeholders involved in this process.
Communication
The PM plays an important role in communicating the tasks with team members and clients. The PM uses project management software to communicate with the client and team. The PM can also use tools like Asana to communicate with them.
Communication frequency is something that the project manager needs to feel out when speaking with the client. Some clients want daily updates while others are more comfortable with weekly status updates.
Error-Free Projects
Where no QA team exists, the PM plays a major role in ensuring that actual product is error-free. The PM should be able to find and report bugs in the product. Even with a proper QA team, project managers tend to quickly smoke test the application before presenting them to the client.
Collecting Feedback From Customers
When you are developing a software product, your customers should be involved in the process. The feedback from them will help you improve the product and also improve your process of software development.
You can collect feedback from customers at various stages of development such as before launch, during beta testing and after launch.
Conclusion
The project manager plays an important role in every stage of software development. It is the PM who helps in keeping all the team members on track. The PM sometimes needs to determine which approach would be most suitable for a particular task, so as not to waste resources and time unnecessarily.