The Software Project Manager's Handbook: Principles That Work at Work

Bring a new level of effectiveness to your software projects

Remember when creating software was fun? It could be again, if you use the methods in this book to help you plan and manage your project. In this new edition of The Software Project Manager’s Handbook, expert Dwayne Phillips outlines the fundamental principles that project managers and software practitioners can use to help them succeed on any project.

Success on software projects has more to do with how people think individually and in groups than with programming, asserts Phillips. In clear and concise steps, he shows software project managers and their team members how to manage projects effectively by paying attention to four basic principles:

• Balancing people, process, and product
• Making ideas visible
• Applying configuration management properly
• Using standards

The book describes the requirements, planning, and risk management stages of the development cycle and examines the middle and late stages of development including design, test and integration, and maintenance. Phillips shares proven methods for dealing with common stumbling blocks for managers such as customers who want a voice in the design and endless test-fix cycles, and for planning maintenance so the customer is not left out of the process.

Finally, the author examines past projects in detail–demonstrating why some projects were successful and why others failed. Phillips helps you apply these lessons with a "cookbook" formula that walks you step-by-step through a Waterfall, an Evolutionary, and a Spiral project.

New material added to each chapter covers current issues including the role of process in software projects and the Agile Methods. The Software Project Manager’s Handbook, Second Edition is the most innovative and up-to-date guide to making every software project a complete and painless success.