There has been a lot of interest for software that can generate the code automatically or build applications without the need for coding.
…the insights provided by the programmers on the need, utility and the requirement spec of good web software development tools clearly established that people are looking for tools to help automate most of the tasks, with manual intervention needed only for the utterly complex ones.
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Celeroo Builder is all about making web software development fun and easy for developers and business users. Here is a series where I will give a thousand feet view of web stuff in a way you love (pun intended!)
The first article in the series is an overview written for entrepreneurs, application architects, business analysts and programmers. To understand it, you need not know much about software development. But it helps to read up a bit about dating, though. Read more
The articles in this tutorial series were meant to provide you with a sound footing in software development practices, even if you are new to it and did not have prior experience. They were made simple and fun, and yet prepare you for success in managing and executing software development projects.
Below are a few resources for additional study and guidance. Many of them have further links to help you dig deeper. Read more
Once the requirements are finalized, the technical lead (in many cases, that role may also be played by you) starts architecting the software and designing the database.
Do have a meeting with the entire team and ensure they understand the bigger picture.
…Assign tasks to team members through tools that will help you track the progress of each task, thereby helping you to track the project plan continually. Read more
You have planned the project meticulously. You also have been tracking it religiously and updating it regularly. But the other stakeholders also need to know it. Project reports are not simply some data put in some document and sent across to the various stakeholders. You must understand the needs and expectations of each stakeholder and create reports that they can easily and quickly understand, and get a feel for the project’s progress and health. Read more
A detailed, nicely crafted project plan is worth nothing if it is not tracked and updated regularly. On the other hand, if tracked religiously, it throws up risks with respect to schedule, costs, etc. well in time to be able to take corrective measures. At the completion of a project, when you look back to see the lessons learned, a properly tracked plan will help gain a lot of insight based on the differences between the plan and the actual time and cost spent. Read more
It is important to mark certain tasks as milestones to be able to track progress with regards to the deliverables of the project and/or important stages completed.
Technically, a milestone is a separate task with a duration of 0 days. This is a good way of doing it as the Gantt chart shows the milestone as a single spot, and having a task or a phase covering many days as milestone would get displayed by a spot instead of a bar covering those days. But this is a technicality. Read more
After assigning resources to tasks and setting timelines, you must verify if one or more resources have been over-allocated in one or more tasks. In spite of your best planning efforts, this is quite likely to happen.
MS Project has an option to automatically level resources under the “Tools” menu. However, in order to be effective, this requires a lot more information to be input. Within the scope of this tutorial, we will only cover leveling resources manually. Read more
Once the tasks have been thoroughly planned, the next step is to assign resources to each task. Do keep in mind that the client is also a resource and tasks that need the client’s involvement must also be listed in the plan and assigned to her.
Once the resources are allocated, durations and timelines have to be set for each task. Read more
Plan the tasks in as great a detail as possible and also organize them (e.g., by task category (UI Design, Programming, etc.), by phase, etc.). Planning the smallest details and organizing them in a structure that mimics the process flow helps track the project and identify risks early on. Read more
