The Complete Software Project Manager : Mastering Technology from Planning to Launch and Beyond.

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Table of Contents -- Dedication -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- About the Author -- Introduction -- Software Project Management -- A Holistic Approach -- For Medium-to-Large Projects -- Agile vs. Waterfall -- Why Listen to Me? -- Who Is This Book For? -- Chapter 1: Software Development Explained: Creativity Meets Complexity -- A Definition of Software Development -- Why Is Software Development So Difficult? Hint: It's Not Like Building a House -- The Simple, the Complicated, and the Complex -- Metaphor #1: Piles of Snow -- Metaphor #2: The Ikea Desk -- Metaphor #3: Heart Surgery -- Using the Three Metaphors in Project Management -- Chapter 2: Agile, Waterfall, and the Key to Modern Project Management -- Agile and Waterfall -- Waterfall -- Waterfall's Problems -- The Requirements Requirement -- Inflexibility -- Loss of Opportunity and Time to Market -- Customer Dissatisfaction -- Agile -- Lack of Up-Front Planning -- Lack of Up-Front Costs -- Stakeholder Involvement -- Extensive Training -- Where Agile Works Best -- The Need for Up-Front Requirements in Many Projects -- The Real World -- Agile Enough -- The Software Development Life Cycle -- Chapter 3: Project Approaches -- Off-the-Shelf and Custom Development -- One Comprehensive Tool and Specialized Tools -- Phased Launches and Pilots -- The Custom vs. Off-the-Shelf Approach -- History -- The Benefit of Off-the-Shelf -- Off-the-Shelf Examples -- Thinking You're Editing When You're Actually Creating -- Common Challenges with Off-the-Shelf Software -- Business Compromise -- Discovering You Made the Wrong Choice with Packaged Software -- Breaking the Upgrade Path -- Locked into a Partnership and the Product Roadmap -- Expense of Off-the-Shelf -- Where Packaged Software Works Well -- Frameworks and the Blurring Worlds of Custom and Packaged Software.

Integrations vs. One Tool for the Job -- To Phase or Not to Phase -- Bigger Is Not Always Better -- The Pilot Approach -- Why Not Pilot? -- Chapter 4: Teams and Team Roles and Responsibilities Defined -- Teams and the Roles on Teams -- Project Leadership -- The Key Business Stakeholder -- The Project Sponsor -- The Program Manager -- Project Manager -- Multiple Project Managers -- Confusion About the Project Manager Role -- It's More Limited than You Think -- Project Team -- The Business Analyst -- User Experience -- Designer -- The Programmers -- Architect -- Systems Administrator -- Team Member Choice and Blending Roles -- Getting All the Roles Covered -- Real-World Examples for Role-Blending -- Professionals and Personalities -- Insource or Outsource: Whether to Staff Roles with Internal People or Get Outside Help -- The Myth that Insourcing Programming Is Better -- Inexperience with Projects -- How Knowledge Goes Stale -- Outsourced Teams -- When to Use Internal or External Teams -- Roles Easiest to Outsource -- Roles "in the Middle" -- Roles that Are Usually Internal -- Vendors and Hiring External Resources -- Some Tech-Types to Avoid: Dot Communists and Shamans -- The Shamans -- Boundaries, Responsibilities, and Driving in Your Lane -- Techies Who Don't Drive in Their Lane -- Business Stakeholders Who Shirk Responsibilities -- Business Stakeholders, Step Up! -- Have a Trusted Technology Partner -- How Best (and Worst) to Work with Your Technology Partner -- Too Many Cooks -- Chapter 5: Project Research and Technology Choice -- Conflicts at the Start of Projects -- Four Additional Project Delays -- Initial Pitfalls -- Choice of Technology, a Definition -- The Project's Research Phase -- Current State -- Integrations and Current State -- Data and Current State -- Business Needs -- Possible Technology Solutions -- Demos -- Comparison Grids.

Talk to Other People, a Journalistic Exercise -- How Do You Know When Your Research Is Done? -- Research Reality Check -- You Can't Run the Control -- Religious Wars -- Passion over Reason -- Business Stakeholders and Controlling Ego -- How to Stop a Technology Religious War -- Not So Easy -- Preventing a Technology Religious War -- Being Right -- Stopping a War in Its Tracks -- Détente and Finally Ending a Technology Religious War -- Clarity -- The Role of the CIO -- Two Most Important Factors in Core Technology Decisions -- Other Conflicts that Delay the Start of Projects -- The Project Charter, a Key Document -- Chapter 6: Final Discovery -- Project Definition, Scope, and Documentation -- Budgeting and Ongoing Discovery -- Discovery Work Is Real Work -- Budgeting Final Discovery -- What Comes Out of Final Discovery: A Plan -- Getting to a Plan -- The Murk -- Getting Out of the Murk -- The Plan for the Plan-Company A -- How Anyone Can Make a Plan for the Plan -- Different Approaches to Elicit the Plan for the Plan -- Exception to the Murk -- Breakout Sessions -- The Weeds Are Where the Flowers Grow -- Not All Questions Will Be Answered -- Agile, Waterfall, and Project Documentation -- The Scope Document -- Project Summary -- Project Deliverables -- Out of Scope -- Constraints -- Assumptions -- Risks -- Timeline -- Budget, Scope, Timelining, and Horse-Trading -- Metrics -- What About "the List"? -- Defining and Visualizing and Project Scope -- Where Does Design Fit In? -- Working with Marketing Stakeholders -- How You Know You're On the Wrong Track -- A Word About Ongoing Discovery -- Chapter 7: Budgeting: The Budgeting Methods -- Comparative, Bottom-Up, Top-Down, and Blends -- Accurate Estimating -- An Unpleasant Picture -- What Goes on Behind the Scenes -- a Scene -- Budgeting Type 1: Comparative Budgeting -- Gotchas with Comparative Budgeting.

Budgeting Type 2: Bottom-Up Budgeting -- The Rub in Bottom-Up Budgeting -- Budgeting Type 3: Top-Down and Blends -- Why RFPs Don't Work -- Accurate Estimating and Comparison Budgeting -- Effective Estimating in Top-Down and Bottom-Up Budgeting -- Establish a Base Budget for Programming, Ongoing Discovery, Unit Testing, Debugging, and Project Management -- Percentages of Each -- Programming Hours-Raw and Final -- The Math Part -- Additional Items to Consider -- Budgeting and Conflicts -- Chapter 8: Project Risks: The Five Most Common Project Hazards and What to Do About Them -- Budgeting and Risk -- Five Always-Risky Activities -- Want Versus Need -- Optimism Is Not Your Friend in Software Development -- Facing Risks -- A Few Words About Fault -- Identifying Risks Up Front -- Talking to Your Boss -- Hidden Infections -- The Contingency Factor -- The Cost of Consequences -- In the Real World -- The Good News -- A Common Question -- Long-Term Working Relationships and Contingency -- Chapter 9: Communication -- Project Communication Strategy -- from Project Kickoff to Daily Meetings -- Project Kickoff -- Project Kickoff Cast -- Project Leadership -- Company Leadership -- Who Gives the Kickoff? -- Kickoff Presentation -- High-Level Project Definition -- Business Case and Metrics -- Project Approach -- Team Members and Roles -- Project Scope -- Out-of-Scope -- Timeline -- Budget -- Risks, Cautions, and Disclaimers -- Monthly Steering Committee -- Monthly Steering Committee Attendees -- Monthly Steering Committee Agenda -- Weekly Project Management Meeting -- Weekly Project Management Attendees -- Weekly Project Management Agenda -- Daily Standup Meeting -- Well-Run Meetings -- Insist on Attention -- Timeliness -- Getting "into the Weeds" -- Needs to Be Kicked Upstairs -- Poor Quality Sound-Speakerphones and Cell Phones -- Too Much Talk -- Agenda and Notes.

Chapter 10: The Project Execution Phase: Diagnosing Project Health -- Scope Compromises -- What Should Be Going on Behind the Scenes -- The Best Thing You Can Ever Hear: "Wait. What Was It Supposed to Do?" -- Neutral Corners -- What If Things Aren't Quiet? -- Making Decisions -- How to Listen to the Programmers -- SneakerNet and the Fred Operating System -- Demos and Iterative Deliverables -- Why Iterative Deliverables Are Important -- Why Iterative Deliverables Are Hard -- What You Can Do to Achieve Iterative Deliverables Even if It's Hard -- Demos -- Scope Creep -- Dealing with Scope Creep -- Early Is Better -- Scope Creep and Budgeting -- Scope Creep and Governance -- Types of Scope Creep -- Scope Creep and the Team -- Chapter 11: First Deliverables: Testing, QA, and Project Health Continued -- The Project's First Third -- The Second Third -- A First Real Look at the Software -- The Trough of FUD -- Distinguishing a Good Mess from a Bad Mess -- An Important Checkpoint -- Getting to Stability -- First Testing and the Happy Path -- Quality Assurance -- Bug Reporting -- Regression Testing -- Bugs: Too Many, Too Few -- Testing: The Right Amount for the Job -- Too Much Testing? -- Bug Cleanup Period -- Timeline So Far -- Chapter 12: Problems: Identifying and Troubleshooting the Three Most Serious Project Problems -- Criteria for Cancellation -- A Rule About Problems -- Additional Resources -- Fault-A Review -- Common Late-Stage Problems -- Lurking Infections -- Wrong Technology Choice -- Lack of Leadership -- Chapter 13: Launch and Post-Launch: UAT, Security Testing, Performance Testing, Go Live, Rollback Criteria, and Support Mode -- User Acceptance Testing: What It Is and When It Happens -- Controlling UAT and "We Talked About It in a Meeting Once," Part Deux -- Classifying UAT Feedback -- Bugs -- Not Working as Expected-The Trickiest Category.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.