Effective Project Management Strategies for Software Development

Best Project Management Strategies for Software Development

In 2013, the US government launched the Healthcare.gov website. It crashed within two hours. Six years later, Hertz filed a lawsuit against an IT company that couldn’t deliver on its digital promises. And then, in 2021, IBM scrapped its supposed cancer care robot, Watson… costing the company $4 billion. These are just some stories of software project failure and how it plagues modern businesses.

The Forbes Technology Council recently got together to discuss why this happens. Soon, an Achilles’ heel of sorts was discovered—poor project planning. Without it, there are considerable knowledge gaps between executives, developers, and software end-users. How can we prevent such a disaster? By choosing one or more project management strategies and sticking to them.

Two Project Management Giants: Waterfall vs Agile

Waterfall project management has been a thing since the early 1970s. It’s traditional and relatively rigid, but it works when you need meticulous project scheduling. Everything must be planned carefully from start to finish with Waterfall PM. The project manager is a master planner who divides the work into phases that must be completed chronologically (unexpected changes? Never!) and cannot run off schedule.

Agile project management emerged in the early 2000s as a more flexible alternative to the waterfall method. The central dogma of the Agile Manifesto is “responding to change over following a plan.”. This type of project management was created by IT engineers and is still the most popular project management methodology for software development.

Waterfall Project Management	Agile Project Management
Linear approach that follows a rigid plan	Iterative approach with an adaptable plan
Deliverables provided at the end of the project	Must provide mini deliverables in stages
The customer only provides input at the beginning and end	Requires constant stakeholder communication and customer feedback
Strict scope with accurate cost predictions	More risk of scope creep and overspending

Agile Project Management Strategies for Software Development

Agile project management reigns supreme among software teams because it allows for unexpected hurdles and makes direction changes easier. All the following methodologies and techniques fall under the agile umbrella.

Scrum

Teams work towards short-term goals with regular deliverables. These mini-projects are called “sprints” and usually run for one or two weeks. The team meets daily for a “scrum”—a short meeting to share progress updates. Scrum methodology is iterative, with a team review after each sprint to guide what the developers will work on next.

Kanban

The project follows no strict timeline but progresses organically as the team completes tasks on their backlog. This is visualized with a Kanban board—a diagram that categorizes tasks by their progress status and moves them along the chain until they are complete. Scrumban is a hybrid of Kanban and Scrum project management strategies.

Lean

As the name suggests, lean project management is all about cutting down on waste and being smarter about resource allocation and management. In software development, that means removing the unnecessary and focusing only on what brings value. The goal is to develop user feedback loops to guide each phase of the project.

eXtreme Programming (XP)

XP was developed specifically for software engineers with a heavy focus on programming. The five core principles of XP project management are simplicity, communication, courage, feedback, and respect. Teams that use XP openly share their code and ask for advice to develop better programs in less time. This method is best suited for smaller projects.

Rapid Application Development (RAD)

Like Extreme Programming, RAD has a technical focus. However, where XP focuses on quality, RAD focuses on quantity. This methodology aims to get the team into prototyping as soon as possible to allow more time for testing. Prototyping is driven by user feedback and not back-end code enhancements.

Using the RAID Method to Manage Risks in Project Management

Risk assessment and mitigation are other vital parts of project management. New threats arise consistently when developing software, so risk analysis should occur at all stages of the project. The RAID method – Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Decisions – helps project managers predict and plan for future problems to prevent them from throwing the project off track.

Software project managers usually create a RAID log at the beginning of the project. The RAID log should be updated to reflect any unexpected challenges as it progresses. This prevents delays and keeps software projects within budget.

Finding the Right Project Manager

Each project is unique, and how you run it is your choice—but remember, not all project management strategies are made for software development. This requires quick decision-making and constant iteration, for which agile methodologies are perfect. Zelifcam provides a premium software project management service as part of our development offering.

For more information, please get in touch.
SOURCES:

Effective Project Management Strategies for Software Development

Best Project Management Strategies for Software Development

Two Project Management Giants: Waterfall vs Agile