The Diary of a Software Manager

Some time ago I had the idea that I would write a book about software management, to persist into a more concrete form the gems of wisdom gleaned from my experiences over the last decade in the software world. As much for me as anyone else - lest I ever forget.  The idea was for the book to be structured like a diary of a theoretical 12-month software project.  It would state, month-by-month, each activity that must take place and each artifact that must be created in order for the programme to run to completion successfully: on time, on budget and with minimum headaches.  It would act as a step-by-step guide and checklist for any manager embarking on a software project.  And as the principles covered would be general, so the stages it refers to would be scaleable.  If a programme was to run for 24-months then you could simply double the length of the each of the phases detailed in the book. 

This is still the plan, but I figured that along the way I would also post the content here in a more haphazard format, should anyone be interested enough to read and comment on it.  Hopefully you will find something of use. 

But before all of that, why should you care what I have to say about the art of software development?  Well, by way of convincing you, let me first make you aware that I am an actual real fully-instantiated software manager.  I am not an abstract-thinking head-in-the-clouds pure-virtual academic.  After my computer science degree I went straight into industry and have been there ever since.  I started out as a developer, soon became a team lead, then architect and manager.  I have led the development of numerous large-scale systems, between 18 and 30 months in duration, with team sizes up to 30 people.  And so far, they have all been 'successful'.  And by successful I mean they have been completed in-line with the schedule and budget that I devised on my day one – not the schedule and budget imagined by project management during the bid phase, which in some cases can be quite a creative work of art.

Let me make clear that I attribute no success to any exceptional ability on my part - and those who know me can vouch for that - but simply to two factors.  Firstly, being lucky enough to be told how to do things properly early in my career; and secondly, being blessed with a basic dose of common sense.  I can do nothing to bestow upon you the latter, but I can at least help you out with the doing things properly bit.  I hope you enjoy.