What is IT Project Management?

 

From starting of design document to signing off the last project module delivery to the client is all about project management.

In between, a lot of elements play a vital role to complete the entire project, like:-

1. Platform to use to develop the system
2. Resources/ People
3. Design Phase
4. Dividing and allocating task to right person
5. Predicting approx timelines
6. Documentation!

I am not talking about the hierarchy of a project, here I want to discuss about what are the things which project manager needs to  take care of?
Generally we think the real stuff is done by the coder in a software project but that's a false assumption.
 "Quality and on time delivery of the project depends upon how manager manages the team!"

Stages of a project?

In each of this phase there is a vital role of a project manager, what? needs to be find out by the manager itself. It's not that Design phase is for Business analyst, Development phase is for developers, Testing phase is for tester.  It's not about checking that everything is happening on time, managing means lot more than that.

• Making sure the Business Analyst (BA) has gathered all the specs and prepares the SRS document which gets a sign off from the client.
• After this, BA rights the use cases (covering all the scenarios).
• UI Mock-up is prepared & finally signing off from the client as the spec and definition of the system has been locked for this iteration, any new feature request will go in another iteration/ cycle.
•  Once the above 3 process is done, next starts the Documentation process:-
• Defining the list of Users, their Roles, and each functionality of the system covering all the scenarios as defined by Use-Cases. (This takes time and patience but quality doesn't come in hurry work)
• The entire system can be broken into different Modules and Sub-Modules.
• Categorizing all the functionality under these Modules.
• Assigning each Module to Resources.
• Finally, preparing the timeline of each module by discussing it with the Resources (as they are the one who know how much time will it take) and thus locking the overall timeline of the project.
•  After this only the real time tracking of the project can be done. For us, it works like this:-
• On time DB schema preparation
• List of APIs/ Data Flow
• Data Structure/ Model class definition
• On behalf of each API, queries or stored proc, if required
• Using the Mock-up, Front-end design
• Using the API doc, WS coded or back-end api creation
• Binding of back-end with front-end
• Unit tested from developers side 
• Passed to tester if completed
• Tester tests it & pass it or iterate it through bug list
• After all the modules has been tested and passed, deployment!
• Analysis that we are delayed, which functionality took time (development time or bug fixing time) & who was responsible (not to nag, but for improvement) - this is called soul searching phase 
• Celebrate with a party!

Generally the manager who has the experience of all the phases of a software development life cycle (SDLC) knows how things work and how it should be managed is preferred, theoretically gaining knowledge of SDLC from an MBA degree will make him an idealistic manager hence resulting to develop an ideal system which practically is impossible, as defined by physics.
Lots of things comes under consideration, which can't be documented or taught, which comes from intuition and that, my friend, is gained through experience.

Managing a small team & Running a startup

When the team is small (5 members), the enthusiasm is there and each one of us communicate and understand the need of hard-work  to be given to the company [dedication].
But when the count increases, there comes the real challenge. Challenge to coordinate & communicate properly and effectively with each one of them and maintaining the same level of enthusiasm becomes pretty hard.

All the members will share and work towards the same goal or vision of the company is really an uncertain expectation to have.

Simple enough solution when you don't know the future or are not certain about it, work towards making one. Put in effort to help each one of them to understand the purpose of their work. The work which will collaboratively take the company one step further towards it's goals [direction].
Let them take responsibility for the quality and punctuality [deadline] of their work.

Obviously this can be uncertain and unrealistic solution from management point of view but they need to understand that controlling from one node (manager) is not the definition of management. Each node (members of the company) has to self manage themselves and their work as well [dynamic].

What is the difference between a manager and a coordinator?

A manager is the person who takes critical decision all by itself and articulate the instructions to be followed to the members of the company.

This has been widely accepted in the corporate world and thus no one (usually the person sitting on the top level) isn't aware of how things should work and what need to be done in order to improve the overall system as it should not just be looked at from his/ her point of view but also from the ground level, as this also comes under the system.





A coordinator cum a true leader: This way is complex and really puts the manager into a test that how well he/ she can manage the team's communication and coordination.

There has to be a transparency to a certain level. This helps to have clear understanding and support a better communication and coordination between each member of the organization.
This responsibility is of the manager who resides at the core of the entire system.



# What are the important elements for an organization to succeed in the initial level?

• Direction - in which direction are they working on?
• Dedication - being focused, hard working and disciplined for the work and it's completion.
• Deadline - not to ambitious but not to lenient as well, identifying the estimated timeline.
• Dynamic - flexible enough to adapt new changes or accept drawbacks (failed attempts) & work on improvements.
• Develop - end result or the output should not say that you have succeeded, but in the process one keep succeeding and developing everyday.

Dead..Lines__

Think of a deadline for any task! It's kind of scary, isn't it?
It should be if you don't know how to break the path to achieving the task within that deadline. If you know how to manage it, then you might like giving deadlines to you.
It is similar to discipline, which we use to hate in school, never practiced in college but instantly faced it in corporate and started disliking it. It's just like, you were not giving attention to Triangles in your class 8 and 9 and suddenly you have to give board exam for Trigonometry chapter. Obviously, you are going to hate it, not because it's not acceptable by you, it's because you don't know how to tackle it, solve it.

You are not aware of the basics about how deadlines work. Might be no one taught it to you or if someone did then you were forced to follow it, instead of giving you the proper underlying basics of it, the logic how deadline works.

Let's start from the worst scenario, what happens if you are not disciplined? (want to check? answer these following question link here) and on top of that you don't give/ or like to give deadlines to yourself.

Here is a Ted-Ed video on what happens inside the mind of a procrastinator? It's funny but it's meaningful.

What's the result of being not disciplined? You procrastinate, effects are at times you may end up asking to yourself any of these two question:

1. Which direction are you going?
2. What are your accomplishments so far?

These are the symptoms, the ways you can actually find out, are you a procrastinator? Do you like to be disciplined?

Now, if you desire to improve then how to solve it? How can you get rid of this?
Let's discuss this in the next post.. keep tuned ;)

Who's life are you living?

What is the framework of life which has been taught to you or specifically saying what have you chosen to learn out of all the events or lesson taught by the fate?

Q: Why start a post with a question?
So that I can give a direction to your thoughts and skepticism as you are going to relate this blog post with your life and then judge this post. Now this doesn't mean I don't want you to judge, sure do, it will improve my perspective and quality of thoughts.

Back to the question, who's life are you living? In today's world, most of us compare our self with the achievers, like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Ellon Musk. Yes, we do when we come to know about them for the first time and get fascinated. The question which comes to our head, as it has became a universal question in this scenario, is "They were working their ass off and achieve things even when they were at the age of me at this point, what have I achieved?" and get sad enough to give up on what we were working on and have achieved or accomplished so far.

Q: Why do we do that?
Human nature. We focus on negative side more than on the positive part, we as humans have the tendency to think all the possibilities to fight with different kind of scenarios which may come in front of us, this way we prepare ourself for each and every situation. This is how our ancestors survived and thus we are alive.

But, todays world is mentally more challenging in comparision to previous age. Today we have anxiety disorder, worry about same thing in an infinite loop of thought unless it pass on, have attention deficiency sydrome without being aware of it.

Then, how come They have become achievers and you haven't or doubt that you will. They did what they loved and were fixed to their GOAL. Are you? Yes, obviously you are. If so, lets quantify..

So, which direction are we flowing towards? Apart from all the digital mess which is around us today, all the unchosen chaos residing in the head of each individual including our self, have we took time to ask ourself before consuming any maturely written content, which is meant to be marketed well rather than create value in the mind of readers, and without judging it whether this is related to your goal, aaahhhh your goal!!! let's cut the train of thoughts here and focus on one thing,

"What is your GOAL?"

Have you even written it down some where, either on a piece of paper or on your journal? Because after that only you can sketch the path towards it and hence chose what comes in your path, which article should be read to influence you so that it may direct you or motivate you towards your GOAL.

Hence, decide your GOAL, don't just make a mental note of it, write it down and read at certain intervals to keep you focused.

Last thought which I want to leave with you is, before reading any article or consuming any post on Facebook or watching any video on YouTube, ask yourself does this fall on your path or is it just a lucrative content which attracts the lost souls who haven't chosen the direction of their life.

Next blog post: How big companies are using internet as a platform to suck your time to make their own profits? Ethical or not, no one is mature enough to judge that, will you try even?

Time vs Productivity

I don't have time!
I thought I will work on an App and make it to the play store, a decent and workable app which will let user engage with it every day for a minute and provide an insight into their lifestyle related to how active it is?

I did hire interns (two) and started the virtual internship and here I am not able to start with the task completion and achieve any milestone, not even a single step.
I got busy with office work and also got overburden by the work.

Now I guess this might happen with any guy who is working and had taken responsibilities  at office but still has the fire to do something of its own.

So, here is the list of things which I started, All of this started in the month of May:

1. Huge workload at the office got to complete tasks as well as with tight deadline.
2. At the same time, I thought I will hire two virtual interns and ask them to work on the project which I wanted to work since last year. Hired them but then before doing all this I have to prepare the scope of the project, functionalities documents as well as project roadmap (with milestones and timeline). I failed to do this and as a result, I am not able to coordinate with them every day and give them the task for the next day.
3. Along with this, I started running and doing exercise in the morning as well which makes me exhausted by the evening and hence I can't work on anything when I return to home after office.

Possible reason I am failing:

• I am unable to work in the afternoon, feel drowsy and procrastinate. I guess my productivity cycle is in the morning (8 to 12 or 1) and then in the evening (5 to 9).
• Either I open up YouTube to watch Justice League videos ( a new trend in me) or I open up Facebook. One as never ending suggestive videos algorithm and the other has an infinite scroll with relevant content which the user will like to read. Both of the algorithm as written to keep engaging the user and trap him/her. I have become the victim of it.
• When lots of people are in the office, they talk and this distracts me from working that's why when I am alone in the office or with very fewer people then the productivity goes higher. I can accomplish more stuff.

Why I am not able to be an entrepreneur

Few years back when I was in 4th year of my engineering, I did a course called Tech Entrepreneurship from Online portal which was being taught by Standford's professor. Doing that course filled a lot of energy to me then and I was so hyper active. I use to think of numerous of ideas and eager to make a venture. I was ready to take a risk.

Now, I am as if stagnated, unproductive, stable. I don't hustle anymore. I am fearing about what will happen if I take this risk then I may loose someone. I can't fulfil my dreams, or this is just a mere thought. What I think is you have stopped making small projects and experimenting them. Dump this thought that you are not taking the risk because of losing someone, this is a just mere excuse. Try to be realistic and practical, on what grounds are you willing to take this risk, do you have any plan? any business model?? any idea even?

Firstly stop thinking that you know much, and stop acting like you are a teacher, this thought is what stagnating you, stay foolish and stay hungry, never get mature, be a child from the mind. You shouldn't act like you have to teach someone something, just be like as if you are talking and if they find it helpful then they may accept it and appreciate it. Most of the people out there are more  matured than what you are right now, so stay hungry and eager to learn. 

After many months, I enrolled myself in the entrepreneurship course (I guess I like business end more than the technical end) and looking at the people around me I became skeptical that oh they are doing like this, I wasn't like this before. I know how I became skeptical. I need to throw out this nature and be optimistic.

Positive things happen to Positive people 

Something very valuable I learned about making a startup: 

Zuckerberg in an interview said that he use to do small projects always and out of which one hit the market and it went viral. I got to incorporate this habit in me.

Some mindset change thing which I learned today:

• So far any documentary or interview or lesson I use to watch or read, I use to get an idea of how I don't fit into those shoes who became a successful entrepreneur or don't have the quality which they had in the early stages.
• But, today when I listen to Zuckerberg interview there was this point which I can't recall but it made me feel that yes I have this quality in me hence I can be an entrepreneur one day, yes that quality was - making small projects and experimenting them out. Zuckerberg also mentioned that college or institutes shouldn't be taken in a sense that you need to learn these particular skills but in return one should focus on what he/she knows and add it to his/her knowledge base and work around that, focus on what are you good at.  Even Elon Musk use to skip his college and work on a separate project which he wanted to sell.