Time: the critical success factor for software development project

Managers and IT professionals are interested in understanding how to create a software development project plan that will be more likely to be successfully help a software project be delivered on time, with the right functionality and that adheres to the necessary standards for quality, reliability and usability too.

There are many reasons why software projects fail. One of them is that the project plan was not properly created. If you do not define all of your tasks correctly, you risk over-running your schedule and creating an inferior product (or even worse, not making it to market at all). To make sure this doesn’t happen, we have compiled ten tips for creating a project plan that will help to stack the odds for successful project outcomes in your favour.

Tip #1: There must always be enough resources available for each task! As soon as you reach the maximum capacity for any task, there is no way around it anymore – items will have to wait until somebody who is with their work can pick them up. This will cause a domino effect, causing the entire schedule to be either delayed or useless.

Tip #2: Also make sure that there are always enough tasks on each resource’s plate – even if this means that some features have to wait until the next release. Although it may sound counter-intuitive at first, adding too many tasks to an already overbooked resource is even worse than having some items only partially finished. This creates another domino effect where backlogs pile up one after another and people start working with overtime… which of course brings us right back to my first tip!

Tip #3: There must also be enough time scheduled for testing (manual and automatic). If you do not include enough time for testing on your project plan, you run the risk of releasing an unfinished product. The reason is that you have to allow enough time for the testers to thoroughly test all components and report their findings so developers can fix any problems before shipping or deploying them. If not, bugs will only be found by users which might hurt your reputation even more than a half-finished product… In turn, this also means that there must have been sufficient resources available during development – otherwise they need to continue working on testing instead of delivering features.

Tip #4: Make sure to define quality gates well in advance! Some tasks may seem very straightforward but even small modifications can cause big problems if you do not take certain steps at certain times. For example, if you plan to ship code that has not yet undergone unit testing, you will immediately be asked to do it. If there was no time scheduled for this task, the entire project will be delayed which leads us back to tip number 1 once more.

Tip #5: You need to include buffers in your schedule – otherwise you risk over-running your schedule and eventually reaching a point where it is impossible to complete all items on time. This happens because of blocking tasks or activities that still have a dependency on another resource which is already fully booked. In turn, this makes buffers necessary – even if they might look like they are adding too much slack to the schedule at first glance. The reason for this is: To make sure everything is resolved as fast as possible, you need to allow some time for the project teams to solve integration problems before they affect all other tasks. In addition, by including a buffer of time at the end of each task you already know that it is impossible for one single task to block the entire project – if something bad happens on one single task, there still is enough time available until the end of your project deadline.

Tip #6: Include a contingency plan for any ‘risky’ tasks or features in your schedule. This means that you have to make sure that every potential problem has at least two solutions which describe what will happen if development runs into problems. If both solutions are equally good (or bad), pick one and stick with it. The reason for this is that even if it seems like you have an alternative solution to your problems, nobody knows how long it will take until the task may actually be implemented. This inevitably causes teams to start turning towards the first option they come up with… which brings us right back to my tips 1 and 2 again.

Tip #7: Communicate status updates regularly! As soon as you are stuck somewhere in your schedule (and chances are high that you will) everybody else needs to know about it immediately. Otherwise, over-running schedules will only be the beginning of your problems… instead, once people realise what is going on, they can identify potential risks or bottlenecks before work gets out of hand – allowing them to take the necessary steps to avoid them or at least making it clear once they are unavoidable.

Tip #8: Allow plenty of time for bug fixing! If you plan to release on a certain date, you have to allow some time for system maintenance and bug fixing if problems are found after the first release. This is especially true for large projects with many developers working together where integration between components can be very complex involving hundreds or even thousands of files. In this case, delaying your project deadline will most likely become inevitable – otherwise you risk tarnishing your image because bugs might exist that seriously affect users’ workflows which means that they will feel betrayed if their employers rush them into using an unfinished product…
Late may be better than never but definitely not the same as never!

Tip #9: If you have to, manage people rather than tasks. This means that you have to monitor which resources are available and how they are being used. This is especially important if a task or a resource has a dependency on another one which is already fully booked – in this case, it’s better to switch around dependent tasks with each other so that you’re able to free up at least some resources. In addition, when managing people instead of tasks it becomes possible for team leads to prioritize their work according to urgency. Thereby problems can be solved more quickly even though they were not planned for originally because capable team members know what needs their attention immediately and what can wait until later when they finish something more pressing.

Tip #10: Make sure that each team member knows how his work relates to the project’s goal! If everybody knows what they are working on, they can tell if the whole team is moving towards the same direction… otherwise it might be possible that some people experience their work as being pointless because it only supports some other part of your app which nobody sees or uses in the end. This can have a serious effect on motivation. After all, doing something invisible very hard just so another team has an easier time with theirs doesn’t sound too attractive to me at least… unless you get overtime pay for it 😉

So, don’t forget about communicating your vision to everyone involved…

Tip #11: Plan ahead before starting any work! Make sure you understand all the implications of your decisions. Otherwise, problems might be unavoidable later on during development which could have been prevented with a little more planning and research.

Tip #12: Don’t over-analyze things before starting to code. At first, design and implement only what is absolutely necessary because this will save you time for implementing new features as soon as possible and reap the benefits of creating an actual working product much sooner than if you would take your time and plan everything perfectly down to the last detail (which almost never happens anyway). After that’s done, optimization can start – here comes tip 13…

What kind of software project doesn’t run into specific requirements along the way? There’s always something to improve and new requirements to implement.

Tip #13: Refactor mercilessly! Make sure you don’t leave unused code lying around – if a class, method etc. is only required in one place, move it there as soon as possible because this will simplify development work whenever you want to add things later on as well as making your project much more readable and maintainable if you or others need to change things again in the future. Also, don’t forget to refactor your code from time to time during development because this will help you avoid problems that might otherwise appear when making changes later on.
Additionally, removing unused stuff helps towards achieving tip # 11 …

Tip #14: Make sure that people responsible for different parts of your project know each other! This will help you to avoid redundant work as two team members might both implement something the other one already did – and it’s always better to reuse existing code than writing new stuff from scratch. In addition, if team members are allowed to prioritize their tasks themselves instead of following some predetermined structure imposed by management, they can use this knowledge for choosing a more efficient order in which they do things – there’s nothing worse than solving a problem only to find out that somebody else had done exactly that before and could have helped out a lot earlier…
During my first internship I experienced how high-performing teams operate: My colleagues were extremely skilled technically but most importantly they knew each other’s fields of expertise and automatically asked for help whenever they were facing a problem that was not their own responsibility or did not fall into their field.

Tip #15: Test before doing something new! Try out your ideas as soon as you can, even if it’s just on paper ̶ you might catch some mistakes early on with this approach instead of wasting time later with implementing things that don’t work in the end after all…
Asking questions is one of the most efficient ways to learn how things work.

Tip #16: Always ask questions when you are unsure about anything! This will help you make sure you understand what other team members tell you about your project and will prevent misunderstandings between developers working on different parts of the same project.

Tip #17: Make sure that you and all the other developers on your team read code that other people wrote! You don’t need to understand and remember everything, but knowing how things work (and where to look for certain functionality) will make development much easier. It’s also a great way of spotting potential problems early on because you can see if somebody else implemented something incorrectly or left out parts of their code…

The best way to learn something is by doing it yourself.

Tip #18: Don’t be afraid to try things out! Try different approaches when developing new features as this might lead to completely new ideas and solutions. Just make sure you document your work so that others can review it later – and you should be doing that anyway because it’s a great way of learning how the system works and catching potential mistakes and problems early on…

Adding things to your project will always add complexity, even if somebody else did all the work for you – otherwise it wouldn’t be worth adding in the first place. Make sure that you document everything properly so that other team members can understand what’s going on when reading code later…

Tip #19: Write maintainable code! This is one of the most important things to keep in mind when developing software – make sure that everyone involved understands how different parts of your software interact with each other and make sure everyone knows which information is available where (so they can choose whether or not to use certain functionality) and which parts of the system get affected by new changes or additions you make to your project.

Tip #20: Plan for the future! Think about everything that could possibly go wrong when developing something new so that you can prevent problems later on…

Don’t develop software without having at least an idea of what it’s supposed to do in the end. You will find out how much stuff is missing when trying to use your product but maybe nobody else will ever even care about it…

and Tip #21: Always document your work! Documenting things properly allows other people (and yourself at a later time) to see if mistakes were made, whether certain functionality is available or not, etc. This knowledge will help you make smart choices when working on your project – and it will make everyone’s life a lot easier…

Remember, ignore truisms like: “plans are of little importance but planning is essential” and “failing to plan is planning to fail” at your peril!

Do you have plans for a software development project that we can help become a reality?

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Multiple resources recommend to document everything you do as a software developer. Writing documentation doesn’t have direct benefits for the reader of the document, but instead improves your programming skills by improving your understanding of the system you are developing and makes future changes easier.

Writing good documentation, though, is difficult and takes time. Instead of writing the documentation first, some developers choose to document as they go along, to make it easier and faster for them to write the documentation and prevent the forgetting of information. This way, however, other developers might get the wrong understanding of how the system works.

Even if you document as you go along, it’s useful to take some time to review the documentation at some point, to make sure you didn’t forget anything. Also note that writing documentation takes time and doesn’t have any direct benefits for the reader, as mentioned in the article. Contact Warrington Apps so we can help you understand the fundamentals for software project success.