Project management in software development of patent management software, brand management software, IP software or other software

Monitoring, observing, and tracking a software project can be challenging. First of all, there are some truly great agile methodologies for creating a framework that allows everyone to at least get started with some scaffolding. One of these agile methodologies is, of course, Scrum. Agility in software development demonstrably leads to more flexible, faster, more transparent, and more user-centric software solutions than previous methods, such as the waterfall method. Of course, there are areas where nothing works without the waterfall method, such as aerospace development. But we won't cover that here.

Back to our agile programming methods. The problem with all these wonderful agile project management methods is that they require a certain level of commitment and know-how that many managers lack or simply don't understand. However, you want to know, "on the fly," what you need to do, without having to think too hard or get involved, in order to achieve a successful software development project. For this bird's-eye view, I can perhaps offer a few essential tips, but I generally recommend taking a course in agile project management methods to avoid any potential crashes. Nevertheless, here are a few tips:

1. Always consider the requirements that are presented to you from two aspects,

a. The first aspect is the importance for your customer and thus the importance for all your customers (experience teaches that everything that is particularly important to one customer is usually at least important for all other customers as well).

b. The parallel aspect is the importance for your company. Do the requirements to be programmed correspond to your business goals? I'm deliberately not asking whether you have defined clear, transparent business goals for everyone involved, because that would be cheeky.

2. Sort the requirements by importance.

3. Communicate with your customers the approximate timeframes they'll likely need to meet their requirements. Be transparent about this. If possible, don't promise fixed delivery dates unless you can keep them.

4. Now handpick the software programming tasks, as described above, into a project management system, in as small, yet clearly comprehensible, modules as possible. This could be Microsoft AZURE DevOps, for example.

5. Get your team involved. The team should consist of people who understand the requirements, the customer benefits, and what is important for the company and the customer, as well as the order in which each element should be implemented.

6. Let the team do its work and give them free rein. However, establish regular meetings where you understand

a. what the team is currently working on,

b. what the team is not currently working on,

c. why the team may deviate from some of the order of importance,

d. what you can do to help the team maintain the order of importance and

e. Whether you may need to contact the customer again if the team's prioritization needs to be changed for understandable reasons. Experience shows that many appointment commitments in business can be extended to include additional appointments after consultation with the customer, as long as you contact the customer well in advance of the agreed appointment and act transparently.

‍

‍