As time went by and the demand for going digital increased,
people got used to having a big part of their daily works done in online
context, using websites, different applications and software.
With this huge need for getting done everything online,
people’s demand for having multiple software for different needs increased so
widely that many businesses were searching for answer of this question: how to
grow online presence?
They actually noticed this huge new
trend that is being so popular, is going to change the way people shop, get
this daily stuff done, etc.
As a result, software teams tried to get
their act together and provide the desired service for clients.
But at the very first point of providing
people with their needs in software development, there was a big blank: Who
would get all these processes together?
At that time, software development teams came to realize they
wouldn’t be able to keep up with all these increasing demands without the
presence of a “project manager”.
In this article, we are going to take a look at the most
important roles of project in software development. Before that, it would be
better to realize how did it all start and what was the first trigger that
revealed the software manager role.
A
Brief History of Software Manager’s Birth
Everything started at late 1980s, when businesses were about
to realize the importance of knowing how to grow online businesses.
At the time, Microsoft was going to launch one of its big
projects and all of a sudden happened to realize there was an obvious need for
a key figure: a role who would handle all processes going on, the projects in
hand and coordinate all of them. Yes you are right, it was the project manager
role.
In other words, without the presence of project manager,
everything especially big projects, were messed up and team members did feel
the lack of this vital role.
As a result, the Microsoft team came up with a solution and
decided to choose a person in charge. This role gave the whole authority to
project manager to organize the team and coordinate new projects.
Eventually when they picked up a dedicated role as project
manager, team members found much time to take a good
care of their specialized role, works inside the team went smoothly and they got
the desired results.
Currently, more than 30 years after that
first trigger, project managers still have their important roles in software
developments and most of the teams are not able to continue their work
successfully without this vital role.
But the question is, what does actually
a project manager do in software development teams that we feel their
importance more than ever?
Here is why we need PMs in our teams to
get our stuff done correctly.
The Most Important Project Manager roles
Before we walk you through different
roles of a project manager, it would be better to know some of the basic
responsibilities of this role.
Basically, we know project manager as a
person who provides the team with the blue print of the project, vividly transfers
team members the most important objects of each project and somehow connects
different departments of company.
Below, we have explained the other
important roles and responsibilities of project managers in detail.
Leading Members
The first and most important role with
which we know the whole project manager, is leader.
The first thing project manager should
be, is a leader and he/she must know how to lead their team properly, in a way
that leads the team toward success.
Therefore, it is a must for project
manager role to know how to behave team members not to make them avoid him/
her.
For becoming a successful project
manager, they must make their team members understand what the expected result
is and with choosing which direction they can achieve the best, most expected
results.
For you as a project manager who wants
his/her team to obey the orders with pleasure, you must consider these items:
·
In
your speeches, clarify the exact role and responsibility of each member.
·
Try
to get together a team, including different skills with different knowledge.
·
Require
each member of the team to explain their role to you, so you can make sure they
are convinced.
·
In a
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to give each person a relevant role so they can do their best.
Not to mention the fact that being a
leader is no easy and not everyone could take responsibility to be in charge of
a big team with a lot of projects.
Because of that, first you need to make
sure you are able to control yourself in tough situations. Imagine yourself
being judged because of a wrong decision, would you tolerate all this?
As you know, at the end of the day
whatever result the team receives, it all rests on the project manager’s
shoulders. So if you can see yourself in all these difficult situations acting
properly, you are probably a good candidate for being a project manager.
Activity and resource planning
One of the vital concepts in running a
software development team as a project manager, is to know what the best
activity and resource planning is.
Since project manager must be doing
every single preparation to get the best results, the timing and planning for
each activity going on in the team is essential.
Most of the projects are meant to get
ready at the exact due date considered before, and even a little delay in delivering
project may cause big fails.
As you see, a good project manager first
of all must be able to communicate the exact project’s scope and also available
resources to team members.
Great project managers should also know
how to estimate approximate time considering team member abilities and
available resources.
The other characteristic that is a must
for project manager role, is to be able to predict every possible and unnatural
event which may occur along the way. That way, both manager and members are ready
for any unexpected happening along the way and won’t get surprised.
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Project manager as a liaison
The third important role for a project
manager team to have, is to act like a liaison in team. You may wonder what it
means to be a liaison.
With “liaison” we actually mean that a
PM should be a link between his/ her team members, clients and the supervisor.
This way, they can smoothly handle all complicated stuff, coordinate all
important data and transfer information from the team members and clients to
the upper management.
To be able to achieve this goal
properly, project manager must work so closely with both clients and team
members to understand what exactly clients demand.
Eventually when all of the demands are
observed and every single capability of each team member is considered, it is
the time for project manager to monitor the ongoing process and take action
accordingly.
Cost estimating
As you see, today in this age money
talks and nobody accepts a project manager role without necessary skills for
developing company’s budget.
A good project manager must be able to
consider all of the factors and ask these questions to have a good control on
team’s budget:
·
What
is an affordable project?
·
Does
accepting every kind of project will boost our profit?
·
What
does it mean to weigh situation correctly and make a decision with the least
possible harm?
If a project manager could answer this
questions properly and know how to deal with them, we can say they are able
estimate costs effectively and protect the profits of company.
Besides, the PM should also take care of
another factors, too. For instance even if a project is delivered on time and
meets all if the client’s needs, if it goes over the team’s budget then in
counts as a failure.
Accordingly, a good project manager must
have a good control on company’s budget and make decision upon this vital
factor.
Project manager as a mentor
This is an important thing to remember
that besides being a manager and supervisor to your team members, you should
also be a mentor to them.
A great project manager must guide and
teach his/ her team members, providing any kind of information they need to
keep going toward process’s success.
Anyone who is in position of project
manager role, should be available to give useful tips and advices to team
members whenever they need it.
For example if an employee in website
design position needs some help to complete her/his duty, project manager must
provide the employee with all they knowledge they have in this specific area.
Conclusion
By moving forward and world getting more
and more digital, company’s demands for different positions in software
development companies are increasing as well.
One if this major positions, is project
manager role with which the big part of ongoing projects in team would continue
toward success.
This vital role, have different and
important responsibilities such as being a mentor (while managing the software
development team), getting a good control on team’s budget and acting like a
link between clients and team members.
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