{"id":12432,"date":"2020-12-15T08:13:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T13:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.analystik.ca\/blogue\/?p=12432"},"modified":"2020-12-14T12:09:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T17:09:46","slug":"3-challenges-software-development-project-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/language\/en\/3-challenges-software-development-project-management\/","title":{"rendered":"3 challenges of Software Development Project Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Services company faces more than one challenge in Software Development Project Management. Unlike a product company, a Service company must constantly match its sales to its ability to deliver.\u00a0 The goal is to serve customers well while avoiding \u00ab\u00a0non-billable\u00a0\u00bb time.\u00a0 Project \/ Production managers in a company generally face 3 main challenges:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Capacity management<\/li>\n
  2. Timeline<\/li>\n
  3. Budget<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let’s analyze each of these challenges!<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Software Development Project Management, an ongoing challenge on several levels<\/h2>\n

    In addition to the difficulty of identifying its software development priorities<\/a>, especially in times of pandemic, the Services company must constantly be on the lookout for any changes in the market in order to adapt to them and respond quickly.<\/p>\n

    In addition, it must implement rigorous project management processes so as not to let costs get out of hand, deadlines stretch and opportunities slip away due to a lack of capacity!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Capacity Management<\/h2>\n

    Characterized by hiring<\/em><\/strong> management and bench<\/em><\/strong> management, capacity management is certainly one of the factors in a Services company that has the most impact on the \u00ab\u00a0bottom line\u00a0\u00bb.\u00a0 Indeed, paid employees who do not bill have a major impact on cash flow.<\/p>\n

    When the nature of the service offered is unique, capacity management is simplified because it becomes purely mathematical.\u00a0 The company has X resources available and the projects require Y resources.\u00a0 Capacity Management becomes much more difficult when different business lines come into play.\u00a0 In the information technology (IT) sector, for example, there will be analysts, programmers, architects, etc., who are all involved in the project.\u00a0 The company is often in a position where it lacks, for example, \u00ab\u00a0architect\u00a0\u00bb type resources and has too many \u00ab\u00a0programmer\u00a0\u00bb type resources.<\/p>\n

    Obviously, a large company will be at an advantage because it is able to \u00ab\u00a0smooth\u00a0\u00bb its resources.<\/p>\n

    It’s easy to understand that managing capacity in a multi-business and multi-project context is a great puzzle and that it is difficult to solve without tools. Of course, there is a whole range of tools, from Excel spreadsheets to Microsoft’s Project, a project management tool that is not intended for small businesses because it is too complex.<\/p>\n

    Each company must therefore find the right balance in the way it manages this capability.\u00a0 In some small businesses, there is still sometimes a \u00ab\u00a0one man show\u00a0\u00bb that can distribute resources, let’s hope it’s healthy.\u00a0 Otherwise, most small and medium-sized businesses need to equip themselves with management tools; Excel is certainly the one that will be found most often.<\/p>\n

    At Analystik, we still use a Gantt to plan and visualize at a high level the distribution of our resources.<\/p>\n\"Gestion\n\"Gestion\n

    In a company that has to manage hundreds of resources from different business lines and several projects at the same time, the tool may need to be more advanced and more complex.<\/p>\n

    Regardless of the tool used, a common problem found with these tools is that they are not interconnected, and the monitoring of ongoing projects requires constant readjustments and a lot of follow-up work.\u00a0 We will get back to that topic and with possible solutions in a future post.<\/p>\n

    Timeline \/ Schedule Management<\/h2>\n

    The second challenge for Project\/Production managers in Service companies is schedule management.\u00a0 The impact here is customer satisfaction and capacity management when the project \u00ab\u00a0stretches\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n

    In the IT sector, the notion of \u00ab\u00a0Agility\u00a0\u00bb has been around for a long time.\u00a0 This methodology allows us to steer projects by the Added Value and not by the Plan. When this methodology is applied, costs and time are fixed.<\/p>\n

    To achieve this, the project (the deliverables) is broken down into tasks.\u00a0 Then, the deliverables are grouped into \u00ab\u00a0Sprint\u00a0\u00bb, which is actually a definition of the deliverables to be delivered at the end of a given period, usually three weeks.<\/p>\n

    Two major products allow us to apply this methodology: DevOps and Jira.\u00a0 It should be noted that these products track the \u00ab\u00a0Remaining To Do\u00a0\u00bb and not the time executed in a given project or task.\u00a0 They can therefore be used to calculate the deadline but not the actual cost of the project.<\/p>\n

    These products are really well used by the IT community.\u00a0 They allow to gather a group of individuals around the same objective, the deliverables of a Sprint.<\/p>\n

    Therefore, an IT project, managed in Agile mode, is the result of delivering a set of Sprints and the deliverables are \u00ab\u00a0adjusted\u00a0\u00bb to meet the delivery deadlines.<\/p>\n

    For traditional projects, especially when they are long projects, the risk of exceeding deadlines is more present.\u00a0 A good way to control time is to manage change requests.\u00a0 In fact, change requests are an integral part of projects and are often the main cause of cost and schedule overruns and resulting conflicts.\u00a0 If change requests are professionally managed, everyone involved knows the impact of a request in terms of delays, costs, extra work and even code rewriting.\u00a0 Therefore, there are no surprises when the project arrives at the end of the original schedule.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Budget Management<\/h2>\n

    This is the third challenge for Project \/ Production Managers of Service companies.\u00a0 Fortunately, when the first two challenges are well met, this one is easier to control.\u00a0 Indeed, we have indicated above that there are two main methodology of Project Management, the first is driven by the plan and the second by the value.\u00a0 In a plan-driven project, costs are one of the two variable factors, so one must be vigilant.\u00a0 In Agile mode, costs and time are normally fixed, it will be the scope that will vary, therefore the deliverables.\u00a0 In normal times, it will be easier to track costs.<\/p>\n

    Most of the budget problems come from two main sources:<\/p>\n