Software Project

Ten Commandants for Project Manager in Requirements Change Management

Requirements Change management if managed haphazardly may become a disaster for both customer and the product, so it has to be managed very wisely and tactically. And the role of a project manager in this is very crucial. In such a case the role of Project Manager can be sequentially summarized...

Project Manager – A Solid Bridge between Customer and Product Manager

Let us talk about existing software required to be implemented at a new geographical location. Definitely because of a different location there will be certain new requirements plus some changes here and there in the existing built to meet customer specifications. This need to be handled very...

How Requirements evolve during a Software Project?

New requirements or change in existing requirements is an inevitable process in any software project. As a project manager you encounter it during every phase of a project. Some requirements emerge internally by your own team and some come from the customer. Internal requirements result from...

Ten cautions in case of a self sponsored project

What if you have chosen to develop a product for which you don’t have a customer right now? If you perceive that by the time you complete development phase and the product will be ready to launch if will not be obsolete as per technology or concept, go ahead but take care of following cautions to...

Project Scope – Customer needs to be shown the right path

One of the project managers of an ERP implementation company got himself into a tight corner. He found himself in a tough situation where an already ‘mutually sealed’ project scope asked for one or two new requirements (or changes in the existing functionality) from the client everyday while...

Eighteen commandants for Project Management Meetings

18. All meetings related to the project must be fruitful for its continuous progress and timely actions. 17. Duration of the meetings should be optimum to cover all major concerns and immediate actions required. 16. Meetings should bring all participants close to break the barrier between...

Five ‘must-have’ skills to be a Business Analyst

As stated in my previous post, a Business Analyst is a quite powerful role that establishes the base of a project. It is the first visible pillar for a project which involves communication, leadership, writing, technical and functional skills together. A business analyst has to have a great depth...

Various roles of a Business Analyst

Business Analyst is a quite powerful role forming the base of a project. It is the first visible pillar for a project which involves communication, leadership, writing, technical and functional skills together. A business analyst has to have a great depth of knowledge of the business on one hand, a...

Performance Management has nothing to do with the Project Size

Be it large organization or small performance management is the key concern for any size of organization. Every organization has a goal to achieve their goals bound to be for a stipulated period, gain profits, enhance, and set higher targets. Growth is important for every organization. The same...

How to predict the number of bugs in the next code of a programmer

You have a programmer who is writing codes for years that comes to you for testing. The programmer might be coding for a number of projects simultaneously or sequentially. Similar would be the case with you. You would be testing a number of projects simultaneously or one after the other. By now...

Five Tips for a project manager for driving (and completing) a Project successfully

Involve all stakeholders throughout: This does not mean that all people involved in the project have to keep them available full-time during the project but it means that the knowledge about the project, project progress, shortcomings, bottlenecks etc. should be continuously shared...

20 gems for project managers

1. A project manager is always right 2. Quality is seriously maintained by developers while developing software 3. A separate set of people (quality control or testers) is not required to take care of the software produced or developed 4. Testers don’t do any substantial value addition in...

What customer type you are?

One customer type focuses on current requirement, rightly built, with more flexibility towards the business requirements built-in in the database rather than in the code. They believe that if the software meets their current requirements well, the future requirements will be built in at the need of...

What sort of driver are you?

I have seen different type of drivers on road: some drive very fast violating all rules and regulations to reach the destination. Can this attitude work in software development and delivery? I don’t think so, if the project manager is more worried about reaching the implementation stage without...

Project Lifecycle – 2012

Phase I: There is nothing called ‘off the shelf” product. It is all ‘made-to-fit’ technique. You specify your requirements and that too at a broader level. For micro level leave a red-mark at areas that need to be looked into at the time of building of software. The more red-marks will mean...

Yu-ai = developer-tester

Yu-ai in Japanese means fraternity means people engaged in a particular occupation. It corresponds to "you and I" in English. Any software project does not shape well without the exhaustive contributions of developers and testers engaged in that project. Both communities are singular pieces of a...

What is the ‘unit to measure’ your project progress?

A project starts with initiation phase and ends up with project closure report. Then afterwards there is post project feedback (after a considerable amount of time given to the customer to get conversant with the product) and warranty support followed by support contracts over a period of time. ...

Quality of documents says it all about the health of the project

A software project has to undergo various stages before reaching the final stage of customer sign off. At each stage of the project there are certain set of documents that are maintained by the project team for internal or external purposes. These documents are prepared by various team members...

Five ways to workout ‘testing effort”

A new project, a new product development – as a QC head how do you estimate your testing effort? Well, some quick steps for this: 1. Customer requirements: Customer specifications or requirements captured at the time of initial study period would be a quick reference guide for estimating...

How do you do your project sizing?

Next month is a marriage in your close relation. You plan to buy an expensive suit length and get it stitched by the best tailor in the city. You buy the best cloth, go to the best tailor, he takes your measurement and gives you a trial date suitable to you. You go on that date, find minor or no...

Top 5 reasons of Project Manager getting fired

Project Failure: First failure will downgrade the level of next project to be given to the project manager. Not only this, but it will also trigger hidden cameras in the organization that start monitoring each and every step of project manager. These hidden cameras could be top management or some...

The 80-20 rule for Developers

The 80-20 Rule or most commonly known as “Pareto Principle” was first formulated by the famous Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1895. The principle was named after him and still holds good almost in all the aspects of life. Vilfredo Pareto found that 80% of Italy’s wealth was with 20% of...

An IT guy posted a question on LI… regarding software project development and testing…

On LinkedIn an IT projects guy posted a question about plus and minus of outsourcing software testing for his software project. After getting 12 replies from various experts he posted his intention behind this question. The intention was to outsource development and testing to two different vendors...

Six indicators for a project manager – of their downfall (or failure) in project management

If you, as a project manager, are fond of thunderstorms, volcano eruptions, etc. it is ok howsoever you drive a project. Otherwise look below at six indicators mentioned below. Even if one of the reason prevails in your project’s lifecycle, manage it, get rid of it, immediately, before a small...

Seven Questions on ‘Average Cycle Time’ of your projects?

What is cycle time? Cycle time in terms of a software project is the time taken from its initiation to handover. Another measure in terms of commercials could be order to execution to recovery... A project lifecycle in other terms Do you measure it? You might be banking on your experience...

Ten golden rules for Project Management Standards – evolution to adherence

1. Evolve, develop and freeze standards. 2. Keep a breathing space by not developing too rigid standards. 3. Live with open mind. Always be open for change in standards, if it is for improvement, and if it makes sense. 4. Let everyone involved in the projects have the same drink at the cocktail....

Responsibility of a tester – a different perspective

The responsibility of a tester is to ensure the peace of mind of the end users who are going to use the software product. Another target should be to safeguard customer's investment in the product. In order to discharge this responsibility, the tester should focus all his skills on understanding...

Why hit the people? Hit the process if there is a failure in a software project

People are not wrong, processes are. People in an organization do what they are told to do. Organizations who hit on people at the time of failure are not doing the right thing. It is the process that is to be blamed not the person with Q-tag. As long as quality is considered to be the child of...

Who owns the Q-Tag in a software development company?

In any software development and implementation company there is always a need of quality assurance and quality control people who own the responsibility of setting the right methodology and framework for development and implementation (QA), bugs identification and product approval (QC). Usually...

Five phases of Performance Testing

As in a software project, the complete project lifecycle comprises of different phases. Similarly the performance testing lifecycle also comprises of various phases. Performance testing is usually, as the name suggests, is done to evaluate or examine the performance of the software product with the...

If you don’t change with the ‘Change’ you get [ex][change]d

In my June 15 2009 post – “Do’s (+) and Don’ts (X) in Project Management”...

The life of a Project Manager in a Software Project

At the birth (inception) of a new software project the project manager is puzzled and confused just trying to gather and understand customer requirements. He starts like a wanderer in the dark islands of customer for collecting various requirements and understanding their business norms. The moment...

Fifteen Checkpoints for project managers – if your commitment towards project merely a Pretence?

You, as a project manager are most crucial factor of a project being the key driver. Your commitment matters most as it can do any wonders. Your real commitment can put fire in your team member’s belly to run the project full swing. But if your commitment is merely Pretence, it can wipe off the...

Outsource in a software project without losing control over it

We learnt in earlier two posts about the strategic decision of a management to outsource a complete project or part(s) of a project depending on certain factors, and the factors respectively. In this post let us see at the various components of a project that are most widely outsourced or otherwise...

Five Reasons of outsourcing

Outsourcing is neither bad nor good. It is a strategic decision based on certain parameters taken by an organization to offload some projects or part of a project to a third party. Offloading certainly comes with many boons and many banes. Offloading should be managed very carefully as the project...

Role of Vendor and Customer in managing User Manuals

As already has been discussed, User Manuals play a crucial role in any software project and are the solid bonding between product, users, customer management and vendor project team. The stronger this bond is the more comfortable and happy each stakeholder will be. Each player has to play a crucial...

Six Pack User Manual – how to build

Six major key points that should be kept in mind while preparing User Manuals can be as listed below: 1. Simple – Never expect your product users to be as knowledgeable about your product as you are. Remember when you first time tried working on this product, how ignorant or untrained you...

Why User Manuals are so important in Software Project Management

The product owners or stakeholders might be many in a software project, but the real frontrunners who drive, run and use the software product post implementation are the key users and other users. It is their feedback that matters most. They must be the most comfortable lot on usability,...

Do’s (+) and Don’ts (X) in Project Management

Ten symptoms to know if your project is infected with influenza A (H1N1)

10. When you start getting increased number of bugs as compared to earlier releases 9. When your developers stop thinking about quality in code 8. When bugs pass through QC unnoticed 7. When you stop acknowledging quality efforts and start giving more importance to speed and volume of...

Ten Reasons of getting into pitfall of leaving a scope of software development at customer site

In the previous post we learnt what all could a software project could lead to in presence of higher scope of software development at customer site during implementation phase. Let us see what all factors are responsible of insufficient requirement gathering during business study phase of a...

Five pitfalls if you are leaving a scope of software development at customer site

Ideally, in a software project, for an offshore customer, the requirement gathering phase should be given an extra care to understand to a maximum extent so that the product developed and tested when ready for implementation at customer site requires no development. Practically, it is very...

Five guidelines for customer project team while filling Post Implementation Review form

The Post implementation review is usually filled collectively by customer project team and signed by the project sponsor, who is usually one of the senior members of management. This form is to be submitted back to vendor (after filling) to serve the purpose of – sharing experience, product...