Project Managment - Challenges

Software Project Management differs from other project managements in several ways.

The Project Manager, like a captain on a ship, is ultimately responsible for the success of a project. The project manager, besides being the focal point for the project execution, is responsible for driving organizational initiatives and changes, and keeping the customer delighted all the time. Most of the software projects fail not because they are inherently complex, but mainly because of the poor project management. You can be a smart
programmer capable of writing complex programs, but it is not enough for project management. The project management skills are quite different. It involves getting the work done by others, the way you want and yet making them feel happy about it.

Challenges in Software Project Management

Software Project Management is different from other disciplines or fields. Some of the factors contributing to the differences are listed below, and these factors complicate Software Project Management:


1. Working Remotely: At times, you need to work with people living geographically at different locations, which you might not have met. This leads to a lot of communication problems.

2. Invisibility of the Final Product: Though there are intermediate work products in each phase of the software development life cycle, the end user and at times the developer are not able to visualize the final product through the various software artifacts. In contrast, in case of a bridge or building construction, the end user and the worker can actually visualize the final product evolving.

3. Knowledge Workers: Working with well-educated people is easy as well as tough. As the developers are smart and equally educated as the project manager, managing them becomes easy. It becomes more difficult mainly because of the knowledge level differences in a particular technology or domain where the developers may have more knowledge.

4. Technological Changes and Market Openings: The software developers have to continuously improve the knowledge level due to the technological changes. This, on the other hand, paves a way to them to acquire jobs that lead to high attrition rates, which ultimately lands the project manager in trouble.

Thinking of how to handle these challenges.