Project management ultimately ensures quality development output for the technology companies. In spite of having a sound team of talented developers, a development company may not be able to deliver optimum quality simply because not setting things right with app development projects. Question is, whether there are any proper and time-tested principles that can be effective for a variety of development projects undertaken by the tech firms.
In the technology field, other than the so-called task management, there is a lot of unique challenges to ensure success for a project. Many of these challenges are unique and deserve special attention with domain-specific skills and approaches. With the agile development methodology becoming a mainstay of software projects, development projects now need more precision and focused approach than ever before. This is precisely why a technology company needs to dig deeper for finding appropriate project management solutions for their development teams.
Let us explain here some of the most credible and effective project management tips for the technology companies of our time.
1. Set Expectations and Project Goals
Every app development project has specific objectives to achieve and these objectives are basically set by aligning the expectations of the clients. After setting expectations as per the objective of the development project in hand it is the responsibility of the company and the project manager to have a dialogue with the development team. The focus should be establishing a common ground of expectations and goals between the team and the client. Secondly, each team member must feel aligned with the project goals and expectations concerning the output.
2. Evaluate and Measure the Tasks Against the Ultimate Objective
In most cases, the members of the development team only have a limited view of his tasks and responsibilities while remaining in complete darkness about the total picture. In an agile and proactive development process, such a mindset is completely ineffective. Agile development requires cross-functional knowledge to take care of various development tasks at one go. Moreover, having an understanding of the entire project is beneficial to ensure proactive engagement of the team members.
3. Understanding Agile Development
Project management strategies also differ significantly based on development approaches. The project management with the traditional development approaches is a lot different compared to the agile methodology simply because of the sheer focus on pace and precision. Agile development methodology fulfills the demands of pace and precision by detecting and solving errors concurrently with the development tasks. Thanks to agile development methodology a technology company can easily ensure faster time to market while delivering uncompromising quality.
In Agile development, every part of a software product is tested while other development tasks continue. This process ensures addressing the flaws and errors concurrently. In agile development, several parts of the software application are built concurrently while each part undergoes testing, evaluation, and process of fixing errors as soon as they are developed.
4. Evaluate Every Phase and Deliverables
A software development project generally has four milestones, respectively initiation, planning, execution, and closure. Each of these phases needs to be evaluated after completion. Every deliverable of the respective phase needs to be evaluated. Ranging from the parts of the final product to plans and documentation to the risks and vulnerabilities to the solutions of the problems, the output of each phase needs to be evaluated. With such rigorous and continuous evaluation and testing throughout the development lifecycle, a software development company can prevent the drainage of resources to a great extent.
5. Remaining Open to the Communication
One of the biggest responsibilities of the project managers is to keep the communication channels open. As a project manager, you must be in complete command over the communications during the project. You need to have a consistent communication plan and you should stick with it throughout the development process. The communication should be transparent, clear and mutually engaging. You need to be constantly in touch with all the decision makers and the development team members throughout the project lifecycle.
You also need to ensure that every team member has the necessary information and guidelines to take certain key decisions and go with the project. Make sure as a project manager you regularly come with updates and status reports concerning the project.
6. Mind Both the Tree and the Forest
Project management in software and technology companies is far from just task completion. The broader picture relating to the product output for pushing business growth should be taken into consideration. Besides being particular about each and every task related to the project the team also needs to stay tuned to the entire project objective. The project manager equally needs to be meticulous about the individual tasks of a project and the total picture.
The development teams should always have a very holistic view of the solutions their product is offering to the target customers. Apart from completing the task allocated to one team member, it is also to be seen how far these tasks are successful to create the value they are intended for. A technology company should take into consideration every aspect of the software product lifecycle ranging from the planning, development, launch, marketing to the post-development support.
7. Minimize the Distractions
A technology company also needs to ensure a distraction-free environment for the development team. The workflow in modern technology companies is vulnerable to a whole array of digital distractions like emails as well as chat and text messages of numerous types. On the other hand, for complex development tasks, rigorous attention is required from the developers. This is why you need to ensure keeping the digital distractions low at all levels during a development project.
8. Balancing a Flexible Environment without Relaxing on Goals
The success of a technology company in dealing with complex development tasks largely depends on how it ensures flexibility to the developers without really compromising on the project goals. You can allow developers to respond with a schedule of their choice depending on emerging conditions, but cannot change the entire project roadmap. Sometimes, you need to have an empirical approach to deal with certain challenges and at times you need to encourage creative ways to solve problems. But all these should actually help to achieve the project goal, not compromise on it.
9. Testing and Evaluation
As we have already mentioned, the deliverables should be tested at the completion of every phase to help the final product to meet project goals. This concurrent testing approach actually helps to stick to your original development plan. This is why modern development companies embrace the agile approach and concurrent testing for fast-paced and phased-out development. Concurrent testing alone solves the vast majority of challenges for development companies by simply detecting and addressing the flaws early and often.
10. Conclusion
The above project management tips stem from the experience and wisdom of seasoned project managers who dealt with a variety of complex and challenging software development projects for businesses of diverse niches. The project managers in a tech company can only be responsible to adopt and execute such principles for the last few miles of the entire project roadmap. The development company has to take full responsibility to incorporate these time-tested principles and practices.
