Section 1 · Project Management Overview
On this page 4 headings
Six responsibilities of the software project manager
Responsibility
Main point of contact between clients and dev team
Form and manage the dev team
Project scheduling
Project estimation
Risk management
Configuration management
The project manager ensures timely delivery within cost.
Client communication, team formation and technical decisions
The project manager acts as the product owner — the point of interface between customers/stakeholders and the development team, ensuring the customer's requirements are addressed. She creates the team, finding the right people and putting them on the right tasks, then manages the team so the project moves towards timely completion. For a technology decision with multiple options, she consults team members and experts outside the team.
Risk and configuration management
Some people may leave the team, so backup plans are needed — anticipate risks early and have a mitigation plan: plan A, plan B, plan C — so the impact on deliverables is minimised.
Configuration management: which tools, documentation etc. are required to combine all the modules so the customer can use the system; also accounting for changes — e.g. a developer creating a new version of the code — and managing different versions of the system.
Plan and Document and Agile perspectives
Plan and Document aims to make software engineering predictable in budget and schedule. Agile does not try to predict cost and schedule at the start; it works with customers in frequent iterations and agrees on a range of time for best effort. User stories are rated by difficulty and assigned points, and points completed per iteration are recorded — a more realistic estimate of time and effort.