What features would make a Project Management application invaluable?

[crushinata]

Hi guys,

I'm a senior software developer and a project manager myself for a small software project team in Sydney Australia. I'm working on my own piece of software [link myteamplan.com]myteamplan.com[/url] (on the side - away from my professional job), a piece of project management software aimed at facilitating project, task and team management. I'm wanting some opinionated feedback as to whether my software is worth using or not, and what features it is missing if any to make it something that people will use to run teams and manage projects.
Any feedback will be taken on board and good feedback will be acted upon.

Cheers,
Chris Low.

 

[johnherman]

Functionality, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. There are thousands of features in Excel that I never use, maybe don't even know that they're in the product. But someone thinks they're valuable.

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[pgmr777]

Easy, get rid of the PMs, just do the work that you would have to do anyway without their self-aggrandizing interference.

 

[johnherman]

Yeah, and if you get rid of the Programmers, there won't be any bugs. Same logic pattern.

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[pgmr777]

Hmmm...well, no programmers no bugs but no programs either, but no PMs still programs, just produced faster.

 

[johnherman]

I am not against self-managing teams (or individuals) and Agile methods like Scrum and Kanban certainly remove the traditional PM from the picture. However, large projects require Project Management. Project Sponsors (the ones that control the money) are usually too busy or lazy to do the necessary tracking of the budget, contracts, staffing, scheduling, quality and risk management, and coordination of everything else that comes into play with PROJECTS.


Software PROJECTS are a lot more than programmers. They usually involve Infrastructure folks, Database specialists, and Testing Teams. They may also involve Security and Compliance, Business Analysts, External Vendors, and other groups and individuals.

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[crushinata]

Being a part time project manager / senior developer (having worked under some absolutely clueless project managers in the past) I have tried to approach the job in such a way that I am benefiting the team rather than burdening.

I try to do the following:
* Give clear job / task priorities so the team knows what to work on and when
* Vet requirements to ensure they are clearly stated and unabiguous
* Define jobs, tasks, subtasks, milestones in such a way that makes everything a series of quick wins building towards a big win.
* Reduce excessive noise (eg outside requests) / that make demands on the devs time
* Provide assistance wherever it is needed whether that be assistance in nutting out a coding problem, obtaining resources, doing some research...
* Report to higher management, giving clear rationale as to why things have been done in a particular way. Always defending the dev team if needed.

Generally I just try and do whatever I can to help the team progress.

 

[johnherman]

In principle, that's what management is all about. Enabling those working for you to do their job, or do it better. It's appropriate to ask "What do you need from me?" early and often. "What can I do to help?", "Do you need me to escalate this issue, or can we resolve it ourselves?", etc.

Sometimes, you need to get into the weeds and work out the details with the team, or individual members. Sometimes, you just need to get out of the way and let them do their work. The trick is knowing when to do which one.


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[pgmr777]

Try having a "strategic huddle" with your "data center infrastructure ambassador" and "interface with him" on your "cloud-enabled big data strategy" as it pertains to your "global strategic realignment initiative" "going forward".

 

[johnherman]

When you "crank out code" and it completes "compilation" without "bugs" for a GUI interface to a relational RDBMS. Yeah, the language gap goes both ways. That's why we have PMs in the middle to do the translation. Not the only reason to have PMs, but a good one.

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