Top 10 Tips for Successful Software Development Management

by Jack Bicer

71% of the software projects do not succeed!

Here are some time tested guidelines that have been used extensively to deliver web

development projects successfully, on-time and on-budget. Although most of the

projects developed are between 1 to 10 man years of effort, these tips also scale nicely

for smaller projects of 2 man months to larger projects of 25 man years.

1. Understand the user’s needs, write the specs before coding and keep them up to date. Develop the User Interface with the specs and flush out design issues.
2. Break projects into modules of 1 week or shorter.
3. Implement risky modules early.
4. Create validation milestones, every 3 to 4 weeks.
5. Provide the necessary resources.
6. Get developer buy-in for features, timelines and milestones.
7. Keep people accountable to their commitments.
8. Resist “feature creep” during implementation and testing.
9. Use automated functional testing tools and do stress testing.
10. Under-promise, over-deliver and plan a pleasant surprise at the end.

In every project, one or more of these guidelines will be broken. A breach of a guideline does not mean a project will be unsuccessful. Other guidelines will usually pull you through and help the project succeed. It is the large number of breaches and the depth of the breaches that will create project failures.