Plan Your Project with Your Software

As a software developer, I know how important, and difficult, properly planning a software development project can be. However, when it comes to software development, if you fail to plan, you certainly plan to fail - or at least drag out the timing, drive up the cost, and frustrate the team for your project. Here are the essential steps to planning a software development project.

What Are the 5 Phases of a Project?

Any project, whether big or small, has the potential to be very complex. It’s much easier to break down all the necessary inclusions for a project plan by viewing your project in terms of phases. The Project Management Institute, within the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), have identified the following 5 phases of a project:

1. Initiation: The start of a project, in which goals and objectives are defined through a business case and the practicality of the project is determined by a feasibility study.
2. Planning: During this stage, the scope of the project is defined by a work breakdown structure (WBS) and the project methodology to manage the project is decided on. Costs, quality and resources are estimated, and a schedule with milestones and task dependencies is identified. The main deliverable of this phase is your project plan.
3. Execution: The project deliverables are completed during this phase. Usually, this phase begins with a kick-off meeting and is followed by regular team meetings and status reports while the project is being worked on.
4. Monitoring & Controlling: This phase is performed in tandem with the project execution phase. Progress and performance metrics are measured to keep progress on the project aligned with the project plan.
5. Closure: The project is completed when the stakeholder receives the final deliverable. Resources are released, contracts are signed off on and, ideally, there will be an evaluation of the successes and failures.

Benefits of Online Project Planning Software

Online project planning software is highly flexible and adaptable to your team’s style of work. It has features that are designed to assist you throughout your project planning process.

• Organize, prioritize and assign tasks
• Plan and schedule milestones and task dependencies
• Monitor progress, costs and resources
• Collaborate with team
• Share project plans with team and stakeholders
• Generate reports on plans