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Software Project Management Tips and Tricks
The document provides essential tips and strategies for effective software project management, emphasizing the importance of planning, scheduling, and risk management while highlighting key skills and qualities of successful project managers. It outlines Agile principles that focus on communication, customer satisfaction through early delivery, and maintaining simplicity in development to enhance efficiency. Ultimately, the effectiveness of project management relies on a combination of good practices, proactive approaches, and continuous adaptation to changes.
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Software Project Management Tips and Tricks
- 1. Software Project Management Tips andTricks By Dr. Syed Hassan Amin
- 2. Objectives/Goals Stay withinBudget Finish On-Time Stay In-Scope Create Quality
- 3. Basic Qualities ofProject Managers Command of basic facts Proactiveness Assertiveness Command and Control Inquisitive Nature(ask questions) Creativity Mental Agility Relevant professional knowledge Ability to Learn and Adapt Emotional resilence Emotional Intelligence Empathy Developing Team Members Client Focus
- 4. Basic Management Skills Plan Coordinate Communicate Delegate Control Estimate Track Verify
- 5. P in ProjectManagement >> Planning Being agile means, you will be working with incomplete information a lot of times A project without a critical path is like a ship without a rudder. Think Ahead, Plan Ahead Planning is always done with client deadlines in mind Failure to plan, is planning for failure
- 6. Important Questions WhenPlanning Purpose Stakeholders Expected output Constraints Budget Assumptions Work to be done Dependencies Resource Availability Risks
- 7. Project Management >>Constraints Givenall the time and all the resources, anyone can do it ! Resources will always be limited, and there will always be deadlines Art of project management is like juggling three balls – time, cost and quality.
- 8. Project Management >>Estimation Estimationis always done with single resource assumption and without having any specific resource ! Differentiate between estimation, planning and scheduling
- 9. Project Management >>Scheduling Inproject management, a schedule is a listing of a project's milestones, activities, and deliverables, usually with intended start and finish dates. Those items are often estimated in terms of resource allocation, budget and duration, linked by dependencies and scheduled events. Scheduling Tools Gantt Charts Milestones
- 10. Project Management >>Schedule Compression To shorten the total duration of a project by decreasing the time allotted for certain activities. It's done so that you can meet time constraints, and still keep the original scope of the project. You can use two methods here: Crashing – This is where you assign more resources to an activity, thus decreasing the time it takes to complete it. This is based on the assumption that the time you save will offset the added resource costs. Fast-Tracking – This involves rearranging activities to allow more parallel work. This means that things you would normally do one after another are now done at the same time. However, do bear in mind that this approach increases the risk that you'll miss things, or fail to address changes.
- 11. Project Management >> TrackResource Utilization Always measure efforts involved in managing projects, and getting various tasks done ! Effective communication Don’t forget to track actual effort, including QA and project management effort
- 12. Project Management >>Assumptions ! Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups Trust but verify
- 13. Project Management >> RiskIdentification and Mitigation Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong PM needs to plan and prepare for various risks
- 14. P in ProjectManagement Get the right people. Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That’s what management is all about.
- 15. Project Management >>Controls Youcan’t keep it all in your head. Project control tools are an absolute necessity for the control of large projects. If it is not documented, it doesn’t exist … As long as information is retained in someone’s head, it is vulnerable to loss. Project Status Reports(Daily, Weekly) Project Budget Tracking(estimated versus actual) Estimate and Effort Tracking Change Control QA Status
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- 17. Agile Principles >> Communication Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to- face conversation.
- 18. Agile Principles >>Delivery Ourhighest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
- 19. Agile Principles >> Delivery Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
- 20. Agile Principles >> Simplicity Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done- -is essential. XP-term ‘YAGNI’ (‘You Aren’t Gonna Need It’) defines simplicity Simplicity facilitates creating product with minimum functionality that is easy to use and has simple user interfaces and to achieve Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Doing refactoring now keeps code and design simple and easy to change with less effort. The leaner/agile solution would be to write the first implementation in the simple way just to get the product in front of people.
- 21. Agile Principles >> AgileTeams The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
- 22. References https://gcimmarrusti.wordpress.com/pm-quotes/ http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_71.htm