Software Development Crises Management

On this post, I am going to talk about how to manage a crises inside a software development project.

In order to manage a crisis, you have to know at first that there is a problem. Knowing that there is or there will be a problem is the first step to get it solved.

There hasn’t ever been any project that didn’t have a crisis, and yours is not going to be an exception. So you cannot avoid having a crisis, but you have to be able to manage them.

1. Customer should be notified as early as possible of the delay

One of the most recurrent situations where expectations need to be managed is when a project is going to be late. What usually happens when the project is late is that the customer is not told about that because the project manager hopes that the deviation can be corrected or because being afraid of disappointing the client. 

What more often happens is that the customer is told too late of the delay, when there’s no other option, and what it could have been a minor, or not so big issue by managing the expectations and postponing the deadline or the scope of the release, becomes a major issue that sometimes puts at risk the entire project.

2. Project Manager have to listen to developers

In software development, programmers are the only source of productivity, and for that reason, there is nothing more important than making sure that they have what they need to do their job.

Unfortunately many project managers prefer to focus on dates, meetings and deadlines, which sometimes is good as it makes the project move forward, but sometimes developer feedback is overlooked causing productivity issues, technical debt, low quality products, etc.


3. Be Transparent

Managing a project is to take responsibility when things go wrong and making sure that all the stakeholders are well informed of what is the current status of the project. Hiding information is never good in the long run.
Unfortunately, one of the most difficult activities is to learn what the real status of the project is. There are many projects that died because it was discovered too late that the project was heading the wrong direction and it was too late.

4. Manage uncertainty

Project uncertainty should be specified on the project -it is called Epics- even if you do not know how to release this uncertainty on the beginning of the project, but it should be identitfied and given a weight to be resolved.

5. Have an Emergency Plan

Every project should have an emergency plan, you need to know who, how and when can be contacted in case of emergency and what availability they are supposed to have. There is nothing that can fully prevent you from having a crisis, os when they do appear, you have to react accordingly.

6. Stop being most of the time under pressure.

When you spend too much time under a high quantity of pressure you will start becoming less productive.

References:

• http://www.makinggoodsoftware.com