Tough Lessons Learned as Software Project Manager

The presentation was done by Gregg Boer,  a Principal Program Manager of the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Team.  Let me first say that his presentation was outstanding.  His presentation skills and his work experiences really stuck a cord with me when I am wear my PM hat.  Many of his discussion points matched exactly some of the challenges that we face every day at Weston.  This was by far the best presentation I have attended at any of the Tech-Ed events.

• Obviously he uses Visual Studio Team System (VSTS).

 

Prioritize Ruthlessly

• Everything takes longer than expected.  Make sure you are working on the most important things.
• Rank the features
• Always have to be cutting features because always grow bigger than planned.  The reason we are cutting features is that we are working on the most important features.
• PM’s job is to defend every feature cut and every feature was kept.

 

Understand “WHAT” and “WHY” we are doing it so we can understand the product to be delivered. 

• Manage Scope, Schedule and Resources.
• Understanding the “WHY” guides the cutting knife.
• Keep the small items small. Don’t let them grow.

 

Define Scenarios and Testing

• Words from the customer on how they will use the product.  This will allow us to test the app the way the customer uses it.
• Customer reviews
• Scenario driven testing
• End-To-End Testing.

 

Schedules

• Aggressive schedules don’t motivate
• Staff won’t believe your estimates.
• You have been branded as not meeting schedules.
• Never commit to unrealistic schedules.
• Ask why do you want to shorten the schedule?
• Never commit to a schedule you don’t think you can meet.
• How much OT is reasonable?  Speakers is 45 hours per week over a long period of time.  Most people developing software are not productive at more than that.
• Present and defend a realistic schedule.

 

Politics

• Politics are dumb, but ignoring politics is even dumber.
• Politics is simply people defending their territory
• Everybody has a stake like reputation, being right, principles, bonus, promotion, job and self worth.
• Need to manage the teams needs.
• Manage the politics so they make the project success.

 

Risk

• Need to manage risk.  There is always going to be risk so plan for it.
• Most project risk is known, but not managed.
• Ask the team what could cause this project to fail.
• Hope is a 4 letter word.  You have problems when the word hope is used.
• Creating plans and finding risks don’t mix.  Create a plan and then go to your team a try to poke holes in it.
• Whiteboard the three biggest risks and manage them.  When a risk is removed place another on the list to maintain the 3.

 

Popularity

• Project management is not a popularity contest.  Need to gain respect by doing the things previously discussed above.
• You will nnver have all the _______ you need to do the job.  You need to accept that.
• If we are doing our job we will eventually upset someone.
• Our job is to deliver the project in a way that you planned.

 

People

• You work with people not resources.
• Need to truly care about the people on your team.
• Treat them with respect like you would treat a member of your family.
• The people you work with are more than the job they do.  Home life issue affect the job they do.
• Don’t minimize people to a resource checklist.