Perspective: Software Project Management
Project Management, anywhere in the world, is all about planning, monitoring and control. But when it comes to Software Project Management, hereafter referred to as SPM, it becomes little different. Why? Because you will not have a tangible product to develop and deliver and hence, managing such projects become, undoubtedly, difficult and challenging. On top of that, there is this ongoing classical and clichéd debate on whether a Project Manager, PM, needs to be a techie or not. Well, I leave by the time you finish going through this write-up, I hope you will get an answer to that.
When you are managing software projects, don’t simply take them as projects only. If you do so, I believe, you will miss the bigger picture and take SPM for granted. Hence, to understand the very essence of SPM, think every project you manage as the software company itself. So, you are now not managing the project, you are actually managing the software company.
Project == Software Company
In order to run this little company of yours, let’s see what ingredients are needed.
CEO
The PM becomes the CEO of the company. He or she is responsible to plan, monitor and control for on-time delivery of quality software products and services [mission of the company].
CTO
In order to lead the development and envision the design, you will now need someone who can take the role of CTO or in other words you will need a Tech Lead in your project.
Thus to achieve the mission, the CEO and CTO now need a team of high performing individuals.
Team
Your company now needs various teams that are needed to deliver and perform. These teams typically are development team, QC team, support team etc. All such teams now become departments which could be intrinsic or extrinsic to your company. As a CEO [PM], you are now to work, in synch, with all these departments [stakeholders], both intrinsic and extrinsic, to meet the common goal [on-time delivery of quality software products and services].
Great!! You have the company with all the individuals to develop and deliver. But where does the money, to meet the operational costs, come from? Well, in projects you have top management which is responsible for paying salary, providing bonuses, availing hardware and software resources and what not. And in this case [of our little company], you have Venture Capitalists or Angel Investors to back you up.
Software Project Management
If you perform well, keep on delivering and satisfying clients, you will receive additional funding from the investors else your company may just hit the rocks. Same goes with your software projects.
Hence, if a project manager considers and treats every project as the company and translates same to the team, he/she can definitely motivate the stakeholders to deliver as required.
Finally, to wrap up, one must, great Warren Buffett’s words “Run the business like it’s the only business that his/her family can own for the next 100 years”
So taking this notion to SPM, if a project is run with the same philosophy and passion, it is more likely to succeed and provide good returns.
