Project Management for Software Development
Tutorials and tools for managing, estimating, planning and tracking software development projects: PMP, Agile, Scrum, Lean, Kanban
Do project managers in software development use software to manage their projects? Or does the shoemaker’s son always go barefoot as the famous proverb says? A recent Methods & Tools poll asked the following question: “Does your project use a software tool to plan, estimate and track project activities?”
Many project tracking taskboards look like they were imposed on the team. They are monochromatic, small and rarely providing too much useful information. A clear and informative taskboard is the heart of a successful team. It keeps everyone focused, radiates loads of information useful on many occasions.
Every organization has to make the decision to replace or make significant business changes to their current legacy system or codebase. Using well-known, core Agile principles, we have found that this transition to software that adapts to rapid business change does not have to be painful, nor expensive, nor technically...
This shares a case study of an organization that needed to re-establish itself as a leader in a transformed financial market. This required the early delivery of business benefit from its new channel website, but when the project was planned using the organization’s standard waterfall approach, it showed the requirements...
David Martin had a problem as a project manager: his projects never came out on time or on budget. He tried to apply all PMBOK best-practice guidelines: taking care of schedules, tracking progress carefully, making sure that the team estimate correctly and ensure requirements stability. It still didn’t work and...
A Scrum BurnUp Chart is a specific Big Visible Chart that is used to show progress for a release or iteration. The horizontal axis represents Time and the vertical axis represents Scope. For a release burn up the horizontal axis is used to represent iterations while for an iteration burn...
Many agile implementations start off with good intentions, but do not deliver on the promise of agile. This article discusses three recurring themes of failure related to agile implementations: inexperience, lack of planning and limited executive sponsorship. Before you embark on your agile initiative, or if you are looking to...
This article presents the story of a project that was performed in a Scrum manner without even knowing that the method was Scrum. What initially looked like an impossible project was delivered in six months, with exceptional customer satisfaction and confidence all around. Facing uncertain requirements, the team decided to...