Software Development

It’s All About The People

Introduction

Project Management

Project Team Life Cycle

Personalities

Classic Mistakes

Four P’s of Project Management

People Recruitment, training, organization, team development

Product Define project scope and design of product

Process Establish framework for software development

Project Understand complexities of project development

Project Team Life Cycle

Team Formation

Team Development

Team Maintenance

Team Composition

Technology Specialists

Application Subject Area Experts

Customer Support Experts

Project Management Specialists

Team Formation

Technical Skills Database design Detail design & debugging Network design Application architecture Requirements specification Test script writing Configuration setup Tools setup/support Customer problem analysis

Soft Skills Personal ambition Level of commitment Interpersonal

communication skills Strong biases Experience Attention to detail Sense of urgency Flexibility/Maturity

Team Development

Ample communication Treat each other with respect Clear understanding of each person’s

assignment and role Not hiding a chronic laggard Understand and support team goals Follow agreed-upon process

Team Maintenance

Reward

Punishment

Attrition

Growth

Personalities

Intuitive vs. Sensing

Feeling vs. Thinking

Extrovert vs. Introvert

The Best Fit For The Job

Team Leader Intuitive and Feeling

Systems Analyst Thinking

Programmer Extrovert

Personalities (cont)

Delivers vs. Prototypers vs. Perfectors

Converges vs. Divergers

Producers vs. Fixers

Finishers vs. Non-finishers

Classic “People” Mistakes Undermined Motivation Weak Personnel Uncontrolled Problem Employees Heroics Adding People Late to a Project Noisy, Crowed Work Spaces Unrealistic Expectations Lack of User Input Wishful Thinking

Future “People” Issues

Different Languages

Different Cultures

Different Time Zones

Different Continents

References

1. Gorla, Narasimhaiah and Yan Wah Lam, “Who Should Work With Whom?”, Communications of the ACM, vol.47 no. 6, June 2004, pp79-82.

2. Howard, Alan, “Software Engineering Project Management”, Communications of the ACM, vol. 44 no. 5, May 2001, pp 23-24.

3. McConnell, Steve, Software Project Survival Guide, MicroSoft Press, 1996.

4. Pressman, Roger, Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, McGraw Hill Companies, 2005.

5. Tsui, Frank, Managing Software Projects, Southern Polytechnic State University, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2004.