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Entrepreneurship Software

Project Management Checklist: Before You Start

Managing a project is no easy task. What makes it even harder is that if you omit or downplay an important step early on, the hurdles start mounting later. Our ‘starter’ checklist is designed to help you avoid such pitfalls and tricky situations. We’ve also made a checklist for ongoing projects to help you get organized.

Project management checklist: or the Project Starter

We’ll be honest: this project management checklist was first created for our internal use. However, we’ve decided there’s too much solid advice for it to stay on Google Drive. Because we know this works. It’s based on years of our PM experience. After all, there’s more to a real software house than just code! Great project managers deserve ‘ninja’ and ‘rockstar’ titles of their own.

The “project starter” is our guarantee that the project will be kicked off in the best way possible, and no important issue will be omitted. The list has been divided into several fields, though there is a chronological feel to it as well, the sequence is not necessarily set in stone.

We’ll be returning to this topic with another checklist! Next time, we’ll talk about what boxes you need to tick off with an ongoing project. Meanwhile, don’t forget to check our other agile and management resources.

What tips do you have for project management, especially at early stages? Let us know in the comments!

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Entrepreneurship Software

Project management tips for ongoing projects

We’ve already covered project management tips for starting off, or how to best prepare for project kick-off. Once all the items have been checked off the list, you can get the ball rolling. However, the project manager’s work will continue for weeks — even months. Here’s what a good PM should keep an eye on.

Our second project management tips checklist should help you deal with the regular issues you’ll face as a PM. Alternatively, if you’re viewing this from the other side — this is what you should expect as a client. We’ve actually touched upon some of these issues in our previous checklist. For instance, we suggested that you establish reporting rules early on. Reporting remains an important matter in your weekly and monthly checklist. If reporting is handled well, both parties will be prepared for meetings, and will know what information is needed at a particular moment. Smooth communication and great contact with the client and transparency are very important. We’re fully agile, so transparency is a natural piece in the PM puzzle for us.

With 14 years on the market, we have gained valuable expertise in various areas. Read more about what we excel at.

Don’t forget about your team! They might have holiday plans, and these should be accounted for in advance. Remember to ask about team morale. Is there anything in the project that’s causing the team members to be unhappy and frustrated? What is it? It’s also good form to know.

If there’s anything you’d like to read about, let us know in the comments!

Project management tips for ongoing projects

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Entrepreneurship Newsroom Software Technology

Espeo Software Proud to be Named a Top Development Partner in Poland by Clutch!

Here at Espeo Software, we know it can seem tricky, especially in these unprecedented times, to attract new customers while creating cutting edge solutions. We can help you do both! We’re a digital consultancy with a strong international presence. Our seasoned team builds and designs one of a kind custom web and mobile applications to keep our clients ahead of the game. We have the industry know-how and strong technical experience to help you deliver! 

Espeo Software Proud to be Named a Top Development Partner in Poland by Clutch!

In recognition of our success and prowess, we’ve been named a top Polish development partner by Clutch, a data-driven B2B platform. They use a unique reviews based formula to compare and contrast leaders across a number of sectors. Their findings help clients around the globe find a good fit for their latest service projects.

See also: Espeo Software Wins Clutch Award for Poland’s Finest Developers

We’d like to raise a special toast to our wonderful clients who helped us get this far. They took the time to engage with Clutch representatives to evaluate our impact. We were graded along the lines of timeliness, customer service, and overall project management skill. We’re thrilled to say we’ve been able to maintain a 4.7 out of five stars rating on Clutch, based on that customer feedback. Take a look at just one of our several reviews below:

Espeo Software Proud to be Named a Top Development Partner in Poland by Clutch!

“We’re honored to receive this recognition again. Client’s feedback is one of our most important metrics to ensure that what we do is outstanding and helpful.” – Head of Marketing, Espeo Software 

We’re dedicated to keeping our clients at the top of their game, and we’ll use this award to fuel our efforts even further!  Drop us a line if you’re interested in learning about how we can help your business soar today.

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Entrepreneurship Software Technology

5 vital traits of a great product owner (from the dev team perspective)

Ask ten project managers what the ideal product owner looks like, and you’ll get ten different answers. This vital role in any software development project or team leasing job helps guide development and serves as the go-between among developers and project sponsors. This person needs to be available to the team, know the backlog very well, and has decision-making power. 

Below is a list of the most valuable features from the point of view of the development team. While working in a software house, you can meet many product owners from various organizations. We at Espeo usually work in agile, we often use scrum, but cooperation with the product owner looks different due to different rules in the organizations we work with. Agile methodologies give businesses the flexibility to adapt products to the ever-changing needs of the market. 

Time and time again companies have trusted us as a software development provider. Read more about some of our projects and find out why.

5 Most important product owner traits

Extensive knowledge about the product and the product vision

Product owners should be people who answer the team’s questions during development. They’re also the people who know the vision and purpose and are able to present it to others. They’re a hub collecting requirements from stakeholders and manages requirements accordingly. Being able to distinguish must-haves from nice-to-haves is essential. For this, they should have a lot of domain knowledge in the field. 
 
I can’t imagine a product owner who doesn’t know what we’re doing. Of course, this does not mean that he must immediately know the answer to each question asked, but he will know where to go to receive this information. One of the worst things that can happen in a project is the team’s question: why are we doing this? This is one of the biggest reasons for falling motivation.

Availability to the team

A product owner should be available to the team on a daily basis. He cannot be the person who answers after two days. Usually, we work in two-week sprints. If he is a person who is difficult to contact, he will definitely have an impact on the result of the sprint, and may even lead to its failure and some stories/tasks will not be delivered.

If a question arises from the developer and he doesn’t receive a response in time, he may either proceed with his own ideas, or wait for the answer — both situations are not ideal, and in the long run they will cause low team velocity/performance or will miss business assumptions.

If you need a better team or just a good product owner – let us know!

Final decision making power

Remember that the product owner is always a final decision-maker! We have many stakeholders and project sponsors in the project —  they can all propose new tasks to the backlog. However, it’s always up to the product owner to decide what scope the team should address. For the development team, his words are more important than other stakeholders’ ideas. 

That implies that there should always be one product owner! There’s one product backlog, one review session after the sprint, and one person who’s responsible for it. I heard a sentence paraphrasing The Lord of the Rings: “One Product Owner to rule them all” —  it’s so true. 

Prioritizes the product backlog 

Prioritizing the product backlog is one of the key responsibilities of the product owner. Sometimes he has to make more ad-hoc decisions, for example when prioritizing print items. Members of the development team very often ask the question of which task is more important and need a specific answer.

Communicativeness 

There is a need for effective communication. And by being communicative I don’t mean that he’s talking all the time. So not only speaking but also listening, watching, and writing precise reports.

Empathy with both the business and tech team is important because the product owner is a bridge between business and tech. 
Also, face-to-face contact happens when he or she has a conversation with a developer about the details of the user story.

The communication aspect is also important during the sprint when providing early constructive feedback related to the work done. A good product owner always knows the current state of the implementation and isn’t waiting till the end of the sprint. 

With 14 years on the market, we have gained valuable expertise in various areas. Read more about what we excel at.

And a few other appreciated by the team

  • Understands the domain
  • Knows business model and can sell it to the team
  • Understands tech issues — for sure it’s not a must, but in general, it helps when communicating with developers
  • Understands agile

Conclusion

Software development is a near-constant work in progress. There is always more to do and tinker with. But to set clear goals and set a team up for success is perhaps one of the most important things to do to ensure a good product comes out of it and on-budget.

Appointing a product owner who can serve as the person between the development team and the client and who can help keep a team on track can mean the difference between a project that lags and one that succeeds.

Product owners are a vital part of any agile development project. Good communication, the power to make decisions, and prioritizing tasks are some essential traits every product owner needs.
 
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