Anyone can code. Anyone can learn to write algorithms. Anyone can learn to do anything theoretical. But, there is one and only one leader. To be a leader, you need to be more efficient, processing tasks concurrently, and improving the throughput of your organization. In the software industry, you start to call yourself a leader once you become the software development manager. Software development management is included of much of your soft skills. How you manage people, and the type of resource that they hold on them, and inculcate their talent in the project at the right place at the right time, makes you a good software development manager.
Software development is logical, reasonable, and so is the management of getting this logical task done. There are no particular predefined rules that you will have to learn to be a project manager. All it requires is for you to be a little better at people and tasks than the other people. Experience and the willingness to learn makes you into this guy, that you want to be. There is no specified course in MBA, or any other management degree that will teach you on how to manage software development. You will have to learn it yourself as your experiment new stuff, and get everything going!
Though, there are no specified rules and regulations. But, here is a list of some of the tips and tricks that you must take care of, which will help you a lot in your project management processes. You will automatically start to see sudden improvements in the throughput:
5 Essential Rules of Software Project Management:
Mystical Man month:
Well, yes. We have always been taught that bigger the team, the lesser it takes to finish anything off. But, in some situations it leads to a deadlock, and stuff getting delayed for long, and this is the same thing that happened during the software crisis in the 1970’s, when none of the projects were delivered on time, leading to a chaos in the industry! The developer will have the logics in his mind, and the coders under him will do as he says. Hiring more than one person for a job creates conflicts, delays stuff, and turns you into a fail project manager.
No Silver Bullet:
Keep everything simple. People may suggest you to use the latest complex technologies, which may or may not address the whole problem, or a part of it, but this leads to further complications. Technologies and Software teams are expensive and your company will not hesitate in cutting you off to pay the expensive team that you hired! So, keep it clear, and try not to implement the silver bullet thinking if your project can be solved using a basic simple approach! Moreover, there is no benefit of complicating the stuff!
Estimation Problems:
A sad realization, but your developer are also a human. He also has some limits to what he can work on, and to what he can do stuff. He can not be running 24×7 as a machine and doing stuff for you all the time. Quantifying the work per human is very important. Keep it comfortable for everyone, when assigning the work assignments.
Dancing with the bear:
Well, keep one thing in your mind, that software management is something actually all about risk management. You need to prepare yourself mentally and resourcefully that you will have to take some risks through the entire process of working on your project.
People ware:
Well, People ware is the term, coined by industry experts that means nothing but the problem when people have a lack of communication and have an unhealthy relationship among themselves. Project management is also about managing the right people, and keep them happy. A happy team produces happy results! Keep your HR policies good and wise for the same.
