Twelve Requirements Basics for Project Success
The author provides a set of 12 requirements basics; these recommended approaches will contribute to your project’s success. The requirements basics are based on industry experience; guidance from requirements-related books, articles, and Web sites; and the author’s involvement with projects. Having an experienced requirements subject matter expert on the project staff can help the project [...]
Running an Open Source Software Project
Some people would be happy to convince you that managing an Open Source Software (OSS) project is completely different than managing acommercial software project. People working on Open Source software argue thatthere are no deadlines to meet, that quality issues can be left for thecommunity of users to identify, and that their are no complications [...]
Extreme Project Management
Extreme Project Management (XPM) is project delivery process. It consists of a series of practices to help manage projects more effectively. The practices help you control project schedules, assign work tasks, and assure that work is done efficiently and correctly.
Negotiating testing resources: A Collaborative Approach
How to Save Time & Money in Testing
This session is about saving time and money. As in all aspects of product development, a time-honored way to waste time and money is to work without clear requirements, in a chaotic rush to meet unrealistic and unachievable deadlines. As testers, we often see the mess that [...]
10 Lessons in Guerilla Tactics of Project Management
While many brilliant books and articles have been written on good project management, there is little attention paid to all the possibilities a project manager has to create the appearance of managing a project well without the burden of actually doing it. The following article is a summary of such tactics, which I could not [...]
Uncomon Techniques For Growing Effective Technical Managers
This article utilizes real project scenarios to demonstrate a set of techniques that support common patterns employed by many effective technical managers across a range of organizations. Planning, status, metrics, and communication (with task performers and senior management) are addressed. If you are a lead engineer, technical manager, or project manager in a growing organization [...]
A Framework for Systems Engineering Development of Complex Systems
In developing complex systems, evaluating potential schedule and cost risks is essential. With the Incremental Commitment Model (ICM), schedule tasks can be evaluated against manufacturing and technology risk drivers. In this article, these risk drivers are analyzed using a comprehensive approach with emphasis being placed on quantitative risk analysis through Monte Carlo simulation. Through modeling [...]
All We Need to Know About Software Project Management, We Can Learn From Watching Star Trek
Are you Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura, or Scotty? If you are part of a modern-day software engineering team, chances are you fit one of these roles. As we have read about Star Trek’s influence on technology, sit back for a warp drive look at how a software engineering team’s structure mimics that of the [...]
It’s Not Just Standing Up: Patterns of Daily Stand-up Meetings
We stand up to keep the meeting short
The daily stand-up meeting (also known as a "daily scrum", a "daily huddle", a "morning roll-call", etc.) is simple to describe: the whole team meets every day for a quick status update. We stand up to keep the meeting short. That's it. But this short definition does [...]
Risk Factor: Confronting the Risks That Impact Software Project Success
Every systems and software project involves risk. Often, how you manage your program risks is a deciding factor in the eventual success or failure of your program. If you ignore the risks, your program has a higher chance of failing. On the other hand, if you try to track and manage all possible risks, you [...]