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
Weekly tracking and updating the project plan you must. If you have tasks that span less than a day, you should take stock of the situation at the end of the day. But, don’t be a bossy person and jump at conclusions if the “targets” were not met.
After all, estimates are estimates only.
Communication lapses do cause a lot of heartburn and do cause projects to fail. Reporting is as important as planning and tracking. 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
Project planning is an essential step that is quite often ignored, or if followed, not followed earnestly enough throughout the project.
If you have done due diligence with your requirements and the consequent functional specification, the first step in project planning is probably already done, for the most part.
We are referring to breaking down the work into small tasks in a structured way.
The philosophy remains the same as for the development of the functional spec… Break complex modules into smaller features and each feature into sub-feature(s) till you have broken them down into tasks that take no longer than 2 days each. Read more
One of the most critical aspects of successfully executing a project is planning it, and planning must involve both tasks and resources. In addition, it is not enough to simply create a plan and start executing tasks without properly tracking the progress. Proper project reporting to all stakeholders involved is an equally important part of project delivery. Read more
