When you contact a mobile software company, you will have to communicate and collaborate with various representatives of the company. If you know which specific people will be involved in the creation of your application, and what contribution each of them will make, you will clearly understand the entire project development process.
The project manager is one of the important participants in the software development process. In this article, you will learn about what functions it performs and why it is important for the successful creation of your product.
A project manager is a person who is responsible for project planning, development, tasking and control, and project completion. He is responsible for decision making, risk management and uncertainty minimization.
Simply put, he is the captain of the development team, who oversees the work of software engineers and other specialists, makes sure that they stick to the plan, and helps them make the best use of their time.
This approach is cost effective for clients as the administrative burden is reduced, the project is completed faster and errors are minimized, all of which translates into a positive impact on the overall budget.
Key Roles and Job Responsibilities of a Project Manager
A good manager knows all aspects of the application development process, which allows him to reduce risks, organize processes optimally, and successfully start work. All these factors ensure a smoother development process and avoid additional costs or unexpected problems.
Here are some key responsibilities of such a specialist.
- Communication with customers and developers.
Communication with clients and the development team is an important part of a project manager’s job. Working with the client, he discusses the technical specifications and approves the development stages (action plan, timeline, budget). When it comes to the team, he sets deadlines, controls processes and deliverables, and being interested in the team’s performance, he also motivates the developers.
- Record keeping.
Maintenance of technical and project documentation is an important part of the work of the project manager. It documents every stage of negotiations with customers and discussions of tasks with developers. After the task is completed, the manager generates a corresponding report. Proper documentation increases the efficiency of the project and avoids chaos at the operational level.
- Project team management.
Clear and understandable plans, organizing processes that stimulate the team and allow it to reveal its potential on the way to the final goal — this is how the work of a good project manager should look like.
Many specialists of different profiles (developers, analysts, designers) can participate in the work on the project, and it is very important to be able to properly coordinate the work of all these people. To organize work in the correct sequence, the project manager must see the big picture.
- Project scope management.
The scope of the project includes the time frame, description of the work to be done, required resources, evaluation criteria, quality requirements and expected results. In other words, this is all you need to do to get a product, service or result.
If the system consists of a large number of interconnected elements, a change in one of them will necessarily affect all the others. This means that the project manager must track every change and apply it to the rest of the project.
Project scope management is critical.
- Work planning and time management.
Many projects fail due to poor planning, unrealistic deadlines, and misjudgment of team capabilities. Work on the software takes place in several stages. To create a good plan, you need to consider the complexity of each stage, the capabilities of the team, and other factors.
Clients typically rate the success or failure of a job based on whether the job was completed on time. Therefore, the project manager must do the following:
- Determine milestones and to-do list.
- Plan a sequence of actions.
- Estimate the time needed to complete them.
- Establish a work schedule and monitor project progress.
- Process control and progress tracking.
Process management at each stage of the project ensures that deadlines are met and any unforeseen problems are dealt with efficiently. This is why process management is an important task for the project manager, who must be constantly aware of the development.
The road to the successful completion of the project will not be without some difficult moments. If something does not go as planned, the project manager must take strict corrective action, personally monitor progress, and notify clients of any problems.
- Risk and problem management.
Once resources are identified, a plan is in place, and processes are in place, everything should run smoothly, right? However, reality is always different from intentions.
The development process can bring many risks and challenges that will impact timelines and prevent the project from progressing as originally planned. These can be various things such as employee turnover, delays in payment, or some external factors.
Risk and problem management is another important responsibility inherent in the project manager, as he must ensure that the work goes smoothly and the team completes the project on time.
Now that you have read this article, you should clearly understand the role of a project manager in software development. This person becomes a partner for the client and is interested in bringing the software product development process to its successful completion.
Such a specialist as a project manager is highly valued because he is a person who knows all aspects of working on a project, plans and controls the development process, and communicates with clients.