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Software Project Management
What is Software Project Management?
Software Project Management is the process of leading a project from beginning
to end. According to the
Project Management Institute:
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"...a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or
service."
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"...every project has a definite beginning and a definite end."
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"...Unique means that the product or service is different in some
distinguishing way from all other products or services."
Along with leading the project team through the series of tasks to completion,
the Project Manager is responsible for being transparent and predictable about
the ongoing health of the project, and the project's probability to
be completed on-time and on-budget. This is, perhaps, the most difficult
part of project management.
Fortunately, the discipline has evolved, and today there are several tools and
techniques for helping the project manager with these responsibilities.
Agile vs SDLC (Waterfall)? Which is right for me?
Although the Waterfall (SDLC, or Plan-Based) development model has been with us
for many years, Agile Development has made headlines lately due to many
successful development groups improving their capabilities to deliver software
projects on-time and on-budget using the Agile Development Model. Many
groups that are poised to adopt a development methodology want to know just
what the Agile Development Model is and how it is different from the
traditional Waterfall method.
Waterfall projects are best suited for life-critical applications, government
bid-type contracts, offshore-developed projects, and large enterprise-size
development projects where time-estimation, external-system impacts, and
progress-tracking are important. Waterfall projects also cater well to
quality systems like CMMI and ISO.
Borrowing from Agile, Waterfall projects can be enhanced with daily
standup-meetings, sprint-meetings, and periodic user-reviews to improve the
communication process.
Projects that don't require a quality system, aggressive up-front estimation, or
life-critical planning fit well with the Agile Development Model.
Internal tools, non-enterprise products, and development shops that are not
calendar-driven find Agile a good fit.
In reality, a good software development department would know how to do both
models, and would implement each were necessary. Read on to learn
about these models.
OOAD vs SDLC? Which is better for me?
Object Oriented Analysis & Design verses the
traditional Software Development Life Cycle (or System Development
Life Cycle). Which is better? This is really a trick
question.
A good SDLC model uses OOAD. You might say that OOAD is one part of the
entire SDLC process. Read about the
SDLC Development Model
to understand why.
How is Project Management different from Product Management?
Software Project Management is Different from Software Product Management in
that the Product Manager is responsible for the relevance of the content in the
software produced, whereas the Project Manager is responsible for the project
completing on-time and on-budget.
Read more about Software Product Management
Recent Posts on Project Management...
The Bat-Phone (3/28/2008)
Do you have one of those executives that harasses you with status updates to projects, yet never attends the status update meetings?
Perhaps they call you, email you, stop in to your office, and want to know what the latest on project X is?
Is the behavior effecient? What suggestions do you have about how to convey [...]
Book Review: Under Pressure and On Time (12/6/2007)
Ed Sullivan’s book, Under Pressure And On Time, is a no-nonsense guide for delivering software products to market in a timely manner.
In this industry where the average software project is late, over budget, or a complete failure, there are so many books written about what not to do. It’s refreshing to read a software development book that [...]
Book Review: Software Project Survival Guide (11/29/2007)
In Steve McConnell’s book, Software Project Survival Guide, he describes the foundation and procedures for managing a successful software development project.
Researching from NASA, IEEE, and some other industry giants like Grady Booch and Tom Demarco, McConnell summarizes software development into six stages:
Planning
Design
Construction
Testing
Release
Wrap-up
McConnell also offers some great ideas like keeping a project history to record lessons learned [...]
Book Review: Reinventing Strategy (11/28/2007)
I just finished reading Willie Pietersen’s book, Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance.
Pietersen first sets the stage for the rest of the book by underscoring the need for organizations to be adaptable. He paraphrases Charles Darwin, concluding that is it not the largest, the strongest, or even the most intelligent of species [...]
Book Review: Results (11/24/2007)
I finished reading Results: Keep What’s Good, Fix What’s Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance, by Gary L. Neilson and Bruce A. Pasternack.
I have to admit this book seemed much like many of the other “improving business performance” books that I have read, except that this book kept me confused through most of it.
The authors discuss [...]
Book Review: Integrating Agile Development in the Real World (11/15/2007)
Hooray, another book on Agile Development!
In Integrating Agile Development in the Real World, Peter Schuh explains in depth how to get your team to adopt the Agile Development Model.
Schuh covers several Agile Metholodogies including the problems to watch out for during the process.
I do have to say, this book seemed like a “whole bunch of everything” and so [...]
Agile Development and Government Contracts (11/14/2007)
So I attended our SLC-based agile development forum yesterday. Alistair Cockburn was there, along with some other associates from around the valley.
We discussed various successes and challenges with using the Agile Development Model for software development. One particular topic that became a main discussion point was how to get government agencies to accept Agile Development [...]
To Gantt or not to Gantt? That is the question! (11/9/2007)
A curious experience is looking on Microsoft’s Project Template website for ‘Software Development Project Plan Templates.’ With Microsoft being a software development company and Project being what it is, you would think there would be many software development templates–some for Waterfall, some for SCRUM, some for XP, some for Crystal, etc.
I found only two. Both [...]
Meetings? We don’t need no stinkin’ meetings? (11/8/2007)
There seems to be no set standard for development meetings. Some groups complain about being ‘meetinged to death,’ while others complain about a lack of communication, direction, or group cohesion. Given the two options, it is generally agreed that overcommunication is much better than undercommunication.
One of the more innovative approaches to cutting down on meeting [...]
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