What does a Project manager do in a software development process?

You are a Project Manager? In general, there are many types of a project manager, project manager for a marketing campaign, project manager for a construction project, or project manager for a software project… Of course each project manager will need different requirements, and still, have some similar thing. As in this blog, Adamo Software will share our experience of project manager for a software project, then you can get the idea of what a software project manager does and why we need this.

A project manager or a PM is the key person who coordinates among clients and an IT team. Even you have a great dedicated software development team but you don’t have a good PM then your team cannot be considered as providing a perfect software outsourcing service. 

What does a project manager do?

As the project manager’s responsibilities have changed a lot in the last 5-10 years, the definition of project manager now has a much wider purview including leadership and strategy. The main responsibilities nowadays should include at least five points as: 

1.         Fulfil project requirements

The project manager should be the one who understands the whole idea of the project to make the details description and send the idea to the whole software development team. The objectives, the key functions, and design of an application are the main point that a PM knows and has to send to his team.

2.         Build up a project milestone

In order to well organize and control the project, a PM has to build up a project structure or timeline as a public material for both clients and software developers follow the process.

3.         Organize materials

To keep the workflow smoothly run over a development team, a PM has to make sure all materials are put in the right place and developers can easily find during developing. 

4.         Keep track the budget

Budget management is one of the most important tasks for a PM. A good PM can strictly follow the budget and always try his best to manage the project in the budget

5.         Encourage team member

The working spirit is very important, especially in a project. An experienced PM is a person who knows when and where to encourage members and solve the dissent in a team.

Why we need a PM for a project?

To get the answer to this question, it is better to look at a detailed software development process and see the role of a PM in each step. Let’s take Adamo Software development stages as an example. All the services that we provide usually follow the standard process from finding the clients requirements, development, testing and delivery. 

1.         Getting clients requirements

In every outsourcing project, getting clients’ idea and requirements is the first important step to make sure the strategy and planning follow the same vision and solve the issue raised by clients. During software development team learn about the soul of the application, the client can learn about the development team then they can be better coordinated in the future. In this stage, a PM will be the leader of both two team to connect them together, help them understand more about each other. 

2.         Development

With the planning, the development process will start, from designing UX, UI to coding part to part of the application and updating status to the plan, so the whole team can follow the planning and support if need.

3.         QA and Testing

During coding, the testing and QA process occurs to make sure every piece of code is properly set up with the function in the plan. All the processes strictly follow the planning and timeline to make sure the product is delivered on time.

4.         Delivery

Delivery or Release time, this is the final step after finishing developing an app. A PM has to make sure all the functions are tested, and the final products meet the requirements from the client. 

In conclusion, the role of a PM is like a bridge to connect all the important points and finalize the result, who will help you organize your whole projects and put everything on the right place and always make sure all members are on the same page.