Project Management for Software Development
Tutorials and tools for managing, estimating, planning and tracking software development projects: PMP, Agile, Scrum, Lean, Kanban
Self-inflicted scope creep happens when a team increases the scope of their project without their customers actually asking for anything new. It’s painful to watch because it can mess up your plan, create fear and anxiety, and undermine the trust you’ve worked hard to gain with your client. This explains...
Current agile methods could benefit from using a more quantified approach across the entire implementation process :t development, production and delivery. The main benefits of adopting such an approach include improved communication of the requirements and better support for tracking progress and getting feedback. This article first discusses the benefits...
This article explains how, given the current global economic climate, many IT organizations’ frozen budgets and cost-cutting drive down value-adding and innovative IT initiatives. It describes how Lean principles can help to institutionalize IT Demand Management processes in the correct manner so that it reduces investment risk, optimizes resource utilization...
The article “Moneyball for software engineering” explains how metrics-driven decisions can build better software teams. The basic idea is that organizations can use statistical data to build more competitive teams. Most of us work in software project teams, but we rarely use metrics to identify strengths and weaknesses, set and...
One of the most common myths is to believe that being “Agile” means avoiding planning. This myth couldn’t be further from the truth and people use it as a way to avoid agile practices. Agile planning does not mean “no planning” but rather a flexible plan that changes with the...
In the world of software development, estimates usually don’t hit the mark. This article discusses the need to manage software development projects from a financial perspective and not just with estimates and progress tracking.
Your team has adopted the relative story point estimation and you are now ready to jump into your first planning poker session. Where do you start? What is a 1-point story? What is a 3-point story? What is a 13-point story? Your team is looking to you and this process...
In this blog post, Gary Reynolds explains why the traditional appraisal systems (performance reviews, 360 feedback, evaluations) are in conflict with Agile values because they focus on the individual and not on the teamwork. The challenge is that individuals within an organization expect and deserve feedback on their performance, thus...