How to Fail at Software Development |
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3. Does the project manager understand software development? |
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| Score from 0 to 5 | ||||||||
| Score 0 if the project manager has recent experience as a programmer on a project that included several other programmers. A software project can be fully understood only by someone with some level of experience in every part of actual software development. And this kind of knowledge expires with time, so the experience should be within two or three years. Score at least 1 if the project manager has experience in software development, but one or more areas of the current project are outside of his experience. For example, if a device driver must be written but the manager has experience in other stuff but doesn’t know how a device driver works, score 1. This goes for databases, communications protocols, or any other part of the project. The larger his blind spot, the higher the score. Score at least 2 if the project manager’s programming experience was five or more years ago. A good manager can overcome the forward march of technology by studying and keeping up, but that usually doesn’t happen. He will have books and magazines in his office, but if you take a close look, they haven’t been opened. Score at least 3 if the manager has a technical education or background, but no software development. Managing other kinds of projects with a group of technically minded people will somewhat prepare a project leader for the things that will happen, but he will not be able to make wise decisions based on real technology. Score at least 4 if the manager has software in his background, but his background is entirely the wrong area of software. For example, if the current project is to develop a program to manage a local email network and his experience is a while back and in processing telephone company records for billing, give this one a 4. This experience is a mismatch. Score 5 if the project manager has no technical background other than maybe project management. The project will not be like any other he has encountered, and while it’s possible for him to learn something about software while the project is in progress, it is a rare thing for such a project to succeed at the same time. Throughout the book How to Fail at Software Development you will find a number of explanations of the sort of things that happen if the project manager is operating in the dark. |
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