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3 Best Practices to Manage Software Projects

Managing software projects can be complex. Delivering the best product with features that conform to the client’s requirements as well as that stays within the time and budget is challenging. Most project managers it seems are not adopting the right techniques when it comes to managing digital projects.

Statistics show that only around 34 percent of the software is delivered on time. More than 51 percent software projects are over budget and 15 percent fail altogether. The fact is that managing software projects require an entire set of different skills. It goes beyond using effective collaboration software to manage the team.

Here are important best practices that can help project managers to effectively manage software projects.

1. Hire the Right People

The quality of developers will determine the outcome of the project. Experienced coders can complete the task quickly without much supervision. You won’t be able to complete the project on schedule if you don’t have experienced and certified developers.

Hiring quality project developers will result in quality project delivery. It will ensure that the project goals are met and that the client receives the project within the specified time and budget. The right developers include:

• Programmers with the right credentials (Microsoft or Oracle certified, and others)
• Individuals who are passionate about coding
• Self-sufficient without requiring much supervision
• Team-oriented attitude
• Eager to give the extra time to improve the skills

2. Give Developers the Flexibility to Code

Programming is a creative and mental task. A project manager should give flexibility to the developers to do their work at their own pace. Let them think outside of coding and help them out with creativity. Part of successful software project management is to trust the coders and let them do what they love doing in a way that results in the most effective outcome.

3. Manage Non-Development Work

The most important task of a software development project manager is to manage the non-development work. The manager should protect the software developer from time sinks and other activities that negatively influence their work.

The project manager needs to ensure that the important tasks are done first. The manager should schedule the tasks based on priorities. Also, when scheduling tasks, it’s important to ensure that the deadlines set for the tasks are realistic. When setting the deadlines, it’s important to ensure that the efficiency of the average workers is kept in mind rather than the top performers.

In the end, make sure that all the work is properly documented. Most software development requires creating effective documentation of the program. In addition, it’s important to ensure that the best practices of coding are adhered to by the developers. Finally, project managers should set benchmarks for different activities. The actual performance should be compared with the benchmark performance to ensure that the team is performing efficiently.