I have met more than a few developers that see project management as an unnecessary overhead for software development. On the one hand, I have experiences where PM was done wrong and slowed down progress. However, I have also seen where it can be a critical factor in the success of a solution. That leaves us to consider where personal project management can bring value to or small or side projects.
Finding A Balance
We need to look at personal project management as many other things in life. Moderation is required and a determination of the value of balance. Any project management is an overhead to the implementation process. Unfortunately, that is not arguable. We are making lists or adding documentation that is above and beyond the coding and testing. However, there is a value in that overhead that can reduce the costs associated with implementation.
The goals of project management are to avoid missing details, provide a plan, and reduce wasted effort. If these goals seem foreign to you, that is ok. I just made them up. However, when you think about it, that is precisely what we want from our PMs. These are the guidelines that help us stay on track, reduce the overhead of decision-making and allow us to focus on the solution. We will find that a lot of overhead is not needed for these small projects. However, small PM deliverables like a schedule and a plan will pay dividends in providing our map to get from start to solution.
The Mentor-Mastermind Group
This series comes from our mentoring/mastermind classes. These classes are virtual meetings that focus on how to improve our technical skills and build our businesses. The goals of each member vary. However, this diversity makes for great discussions and a ton of educational value every time we meet. We hope you enjoy viewing this series as much as we enjoy creating it. As always, this may not be all new to you, but we hope it helps you be a better developer. Drop us a line to find out when the next one is so you can join our group.
Slide Deck: The Better Developer Philosophy
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