This tag is for questions about software development projects, as opposed to questions about construction projects, or some other field that doesn't involve software.
3
votes
2answers
34 views
How useful are Green Belt techniques in medium/small software projects?
Background -
I work for a ~100 person sized genetics company that is newly owned by an ~8000+ person corporation. Over the last 2 years I've been our software development project manager and have ...
3
votes
2answers
109 views
Vision for a team with multiple projects
Steve McConnell mentions in his Rapid Development book that a team needs a shared, elevating vision or goal to be a real team not just a group of people.
What could be the vision when there are ...
3
votes
2answers
338 views
How to structure a software development team
Given a 15x strong software development team working on individal projects, and small, medium, and large projects; what is the best way to structure this team and what is the best software development ...
13
votes
11answers
415 views
How to allow developers to get enough quality development time while keeping to support & maintenance obligations
I work for a small company of 6 multi skilled developers where we have developed our own product which requires constant improvement but also maintenance and support to the current release from end ...
-1
votes
2answers
90 views
What lightweight software to use for recording functional and non-functional specifications? [closed]
I am planning a software product, and I'm in the very earliest stages of the process. I need to start capturing functional and non-functional specifications, use cases etc.
I move between several ...
6
votes
5answers
173 views
Should there be separate PMs for projects which involve development of new hardware and new software?
My company is developing a new product which consists of several embedded systems. The hardware for these devices is being developed by electrical and mechanical engineers and the software is being ...
0
votes
1answer
67 views
Learn flow of a project to maintain [closed]
I joined as a Fresher(trainee) in Software Company for Windows Store development. I don't know much about C#. My company is newly started Windows Store development. they don't have Dot net development ...
0
votes
0answers
29 views
Where are Primavera's old baseline dates stored after rescheduling the project?
Any idea Where are Primevera's old baseline dates are stored after rescheduling the project?
We can see the old dates in the Client but I want to query the database to get all the dates which were ...
-1
votes
1answer
58 views
What's the best approach to structure a project plan for a JSF project? [closed]
We're a Software Development Company that's about to start working on a JSF (JavaServer Faces) project with a Hibernate persistence layer. I'm managing the project, and we have 2 developers on the ...
2
votes
0answers
38 views
Which popular software projects have successfully used formal methods? [closed]
At university, when studying computer science, I visited lectures about formal methods, for example Z notation.
It has been impossible for me to find or stumble upon information about any real world ...
8
votes
2answers
129 views
When is “control of a software project” less important?
In the article titled Software Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?, Tom DeMarco says that:
To understand control’s real role, you need to distinguish between two
drastically ...
2
votes
3answers
108 views
Release Team vs PM
In terms of releasing the code and separation of responsibilities, should it be the project manager or the release teams that inform the business of the releases? I believe it should be the release ...
-2
votes
1answer
88 views
Which tool you would recommend for the chain from ticketing to software development? [closed]
I am looking for a tool where customers can commit any software product related tickets such as "How do I start the application?" or "There is a bug XY".
From the latter the support members should be ...
12
votes
6answers
511 views
How to apply daily stand-up meetings with a large team on multiple projects
Background
There are:
4 .Net Developers
4 PHP Developers
2 QA Specialists
2 Integration Specialists
2 Analysts
3 PMs
11 Projects in active development. None are trivial. Some are programs with ...
7
votes
3answers
340 views
How to improve and facilitate prioritization of bug fixes?
In a long-term software project with frequent releases, end-users regularly report bugs and defects in the product. When the reported bug is highly critical, the fix is generally developed and ...
10
votes
3answers
514 views
How to spot the lazy team member in a self-organized team?
Some context first: I am a project manager in a software development company with a Kanban environment. In the team I am managing there is no such thing as people reporting their work to me, or people ...
3
votes
2answers
168 views
How to enhance project management practice for the small team?
In our team, we have a small team of 3 people, fresh graduate from the computer and networking stream.
2 people are responsible for software development , 1 people are responsible for back-end ...
17
votes
5answers
442 views
Should I explain the root cause of a bug when a client asks for it?
Our client asked for the root cause of a bug after we delivered our fix. Should I explain it to her? For example, should I say that the bug arose from a wrong condition check or from bad configuration ...
4
votes
2answers
151 views
Hiring new team with limited resources using Scrum
My team consists of 4 people
Myself (Division Director, Senior Developer and Project Manager (adhoc PM))
Emp1 (Data Administrator/Data Entry for entire agency)
Emp2 (Junior Developer - Have not ...
1
vote
3answers
154 views
How to apply project management skills for different projects?
A typical project for me is a 3 months web development and Android Apps project with a 3 person team. All development work is started and required all software development life cycle activities ...
2
votes
2answers
152 views
How to apply project management skills for a bulky project?
Suppose I was working on a 3 months web development project, alone. And I had to start developing everything from scratch. I had to perform each and every activity that a software development life ...
0
votes
1answer
93 views
Canned project breakdown suitable for training interns in scheduling
I'm looking for a project with a well-constrained breakdown that would suitable for training interns in scheduling projects. (The desired context is actually software project scheduling, but I'm ...
-1
votes
3answers
114 views
How to work on a programming project remotely [closed]
I have several workers working for me remotely. We contact via Gmail chat. The problem is how can we all work on the project without having to send it via email and sending it back.
Thanks for your ...
1
vote
3answers
166 views
Project Management for Inconsistent Development Efforts
I am a CS grad student, and I am interested in applying project management or software/system engineering methods to research projects at my university. I have experience applying the Scrum framework ...
3
votes
2answers
405 views
What are the key roles in a Scrum team?
Based on my understanding, Product owner, Scrum Master and Development team are the major roles in a Scrum team. I have to setup a .Net Scrum team with 5-8 members. I don't have enough knowledge about ...
5
votes
2answers
332 views
Agile Games for working in vertical slices
Is there a game for highlighting the wonders of working in vertical slices rather than horizontally?
We are exploring techniques to represent the sum of the work that has to be done in a particular ...
-2
votes
1answer
93 views
What is Factory design patterns? [closed]
This question is a silly question for somebody. But i want the clear clarification for that. I read in the website of interview questions. But it's not helpful to me . So i asked that. Please any one ...
0
votes
1answer
89 views
What are the steps to be taken in the initial projects in Software Companies? [closed]
I'm working in the middle level of a software company. My role is a software developer. I don't know what processes are to be handled in the Software Development company?
Can you explain me in ...
1
vote
1answer
443 views
JIRA - generating work log reports
We are using JIRA to manage our tasks and to allow our client to review the progress and decides what to do next. Our developers are logging their work pretty accurately.
Ideally our workflow would ...
0
votes
1answer
160 views
What tools do you use for distributed scrum backlog/board [closed]
Which tools do you guys use for your distributed scrum teams?
I have had a look at Jira, Teamspace, Scrumworks and wanted to know if there any others used in the community. If possible please state ...
5
votes
10answers
315 views
How can I ensure our project gets developed successfully, without having any project management experience?
I'm a web developer who is part of a three-man team that has been tasked with a rather large and complex development project. Other than some direction and impetus from management, we're pretty much ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
Should patches which cause regression issues be accepted? [closed]
This question comes from the perspective of a business analyst at the project site who identifies/tests issues which are fixed by a remote group.
Say we receive a patch for issue A which resolves ...
3
votes
3answers
79 views
Handling detailed feedback from many sources
In software development, when you near the time for delivery, there's often a huge amount of feedback. Testers report bugs, customers ask for minor and major tweaks, designers have last-minute ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
What software quality KPIs do you use?
I need to define the KPIs which will help me to say if software coming out from the project is good or bad. I mean does it fulfill quality KPIs which were targeted or not. The question of course is ...
2
votes
3answers
182 views
Best project management methodology for virtual office
We're a team of 10 developers working in a virtual office. It basically means that we're not located in one office but in different towns and countries. All of us are in the same timezone and only one ...
8
votes
4answers
451 views
Tool suggestion to manage multiple projects / people working on several projects at once? [closed]
This is the situation in our office and I would need a recommendation which tool to you to facilitate our work. At the moments, things are slowly slipping out of my hands.
What we have:
many ...
5
votes
2answers
160 views
Do I Need to Match-up the Functional Spec with the Spec in the Contract
This maybe a bit of a noob question to you client facing PM's out there, but I'm a PM with a pre-sales background, so please bear with me.
I'm used to working on projects where you have an initial ...
10
votes
12answers
1k views
Project management software for a small team with shifting priorities
We have a small team of developers (currently 3, possibly 4 soon) trying to run all the IT tasks for a retail/ecommerce company. We have a point-of-sale system we built in-house, as well as our main ...
4
votes
1answer
175 views
Link requirements within PDF or HTML files to increase traceability
Do you know of any tool (or plugin for such tool) with following features:
Manage Requirements (like Redmine, DOORS, Borland Caliber and many more...)
Link Requirements with parts of a PDF or HTML ...
2
votes
2answers
562 views
Project Management Document to prepare for Technical Team Leader
I am recently promoted to team lead, with this, my organization has also recently started to following the process of software development life cycle, but so far not too many things are streamlined.
...
7
votes
6answers
426 views
Allowing PMs to grade/rate developers
We're trying to introduce some new/updated ways to quantify developer productivity, and we want to include our Project Managers' thoughts. What do you think about allowing PMs to "grade" or apply ...
2
votes
3answers
384 views
Tracking punchlist items in a project plan
As a project gets closer and closer to handover to QA, I find myself tracking a list of outstanding items that need to be completed before the software is completely ready for testing. I'm trying to ...
2
votes
3answers
722 views
Software project workflow template for the lonely programmer?
My problem is simple: I am the only software developer in an organization trying to start organizing projects for me. Management directors don't care and ignore EVERYTHING about corporate governance ...
33
votes
24answers
9k views
How do I measure employee (software developer) performance based on bugs created?
I am trying to implement KPI for employees of my company.
One of the KPI have listed is the quality of code, as measured by bugs created by developers.
Now my problem is: I am planning to give 40 ...
11
votes
5answers
471 views
How to make better software developers out of less-than-average ones?
I've asked this before in other places, and I'm now turning to you guys to see what sort of advice you can offer.
Some background: I'm a project manager at an offshore company. I’m in no way the best ...
6
votes
5answers
403 views
How to organize multiple releases/feature sets
I'm the product manager for two of my company's application sets, and I've been running into some difficulties trying to manage future releases and how best to move them around. If I have version 2.2 ...
5
votes
4answers
256 views
Setting your own deadlines when your primary responsibilities cannot be scheduled
I know questions about setting your own deadlines have been asked before, but I think I'm in a unique situation. I have many software development projects, and one of the managers (though not my ...
6
votes
11answers
311 views
Trust issues with a client
I've been negotiating recently with a client who is... well... a bit difficult to work with, to say the least.
He was the first to contact me and request my services. He wants me to build an ...
10
votes
4answers
526 views
As a development manager, what are your first steps joining a new company?
I've recently been offered my first position as a development manager. I would be taking over a team of 4 at a small software development shop with the mission of creating structure, and improving ...
3
votes
7answers
2k views
Time Tracking in basecamp no longer supported. What are some alternatives? [closed]
I work for a small web development company and for a few years now we have managed our time tracking through basecamp.
With the recent news that basecamp will no longer be supporting time tracking in ...
