Minimum Project Management Practices for One-Man Software Projects

Question

I've worked a lot on projects by myself -- "one man" projects. These are typically small projects in the software domain. Many of them have no customers other than myself (who actually use the end product); some have other users.

The question that keeps recurring to me is what kind of project management practices should I apply, at a minimum, in these projects? Having no other developers or staff, things can move and change quickly.

At a minimum, I always have:

• A vision of what I'm going to accomplish
• A scope statement describing much of the work
• A risk register with my top 5-10 risks to monitor
• A place to list procurement items (graphics/sound)

Without getting too cumbersome, what are the other aspects that I should include in my projects?

Edit: On the technical side, I usually use a variant of agile/Scrum -- a product backlog and estimates per story in points, with no sprints, just releases.

Answer 1

For software projects, even when you're the only developer and end user, I find it extremely important to have some kind of issue tracking. It might as simple as a spreadsheet, or something more sophisticated as dedicated software hooked into your version control repository.

You will forget things. The list is there to save you the time.

Answer 2

Track your time on each task.

This will give you visibility into which parts take the longest so you can concentrate on improving those specific areas.

Use big buckets to start with, like planning, development, testing, bug fixes, deployment, etc. Each bucket should be something that will hold at least 20 hours.

Answer 3

I think your list is good. I will suggest you at a minimum do the following things, even for small one-man projects:

• Plan (make sure you have a good list of activities that explain how to get to your vision)
• Track your plan, make sure you go back to your list at least weekly and see where you are in terms of your original estimates.
• close the books at the end, by archiving your project documents in a central place. This will help you in the future.

Answer 4

As we are talking on software domain, don't start the development only with:

A vision of what I'm going to accomplish

Design a fast flowchart of your project functionality.

There are a lot of free flowchart software on the web like, gliffy or SlickPlan.

It saves you, time and problems even if it is a small project.

Answer 5

• Source control
• Unit tests
• Automated builds
• Spec
• Schedule
• Bug tracking

Answer 6

I always start with creating a WBS, also for home or private projects. I believe it is the single most important technique or tool a PM can use. All other stuff starts from the WBS.

Answer 7

One of the most important things when managing yourself, is to maintain focus.

Do enough planning to know what and why you're doing this, but not so much that it becomes unwieldy or an opportunity to procrastinate.

Not only in the sense of perseverance, but also in the sense of not taking on too much at once. For a single person, I think that a kanban board, and strictly limited WIP is the ideal for managing a single project.

The rest of my framework:

Limit the number of tasks that you have in progress, even if it's something you're waiting for.

Actually track your time. It'll give you a sense of your ROI.

Use Git.

Talk to other people when you're stuck.

Answer 8

Good list. One thing I would add is Change Management. You have to evaluate every change to your original concept. Every change introduces additional risk. You have to evaluate the change in terms of risk, budget, schedule, and scope. Once you have made an objective evaluation you can determine whether to implement the change.

Answer 9

Good Approach of your starting.

One thing I have to add is that daily backup and version control is important.

My experience is that I saved the project after modifying the source code from the workable version , it sometimes displays logical errors in the another day. It takes me a day to retrieve the original workable version. A week later, my computer is attacked by a trojan and I have to ask the technician to get back the file.

Always do backup and version control . The path of storage should be web server like dropbox , google Drive and your USB drivers if necessary.

Answer 10

A simple project plan that puts an ETA on milestones to make sure you stay on track would be my addition. It's too easy to overwork when on your own thereby decreasing your return on investment, e.g., your time. Is your project earning you $100 per hour or $10 per hour - something tech heads tend to forget.