Software project management: Moving beyond project plans

Project managers (PMs) normally regard the creation of project plans as a means to improve software delivery performance. After managing many large software development projects, however, we have found that a project plan should be written after the project-management process has been defined. To plan and manage a software project successfully, we must view project management as a process, and the project plan as an activity that prepares data for the process. In our experience, a project plan written early in this process was out of date before it was released, and the project was not managed according to the plan. Recently, our training and experience has focused on a work-breakdown structure (WBS) for managing a project. We have developed methods and responsibility matrices to clarify the tasks associated with project management and to write clear, revisable project plans to fulfill the specific needs of the project-management staff. Thus, we can complete project planning more quickly, define and agree on management techniques, and understand the roles and responsibilities of each member of the project. As a result, we can satisfy our customers by delivering high-quality products on time.