A One Man Project Methodology?

Question

I'm currently doing a my final year project and have used the methods employed by the Scrum project methodology to break down my requirements into manageable parts.

I have a question as to whether there are methodologies that are used which are catered to a one man team? The way I did my project was by using the structure of scrum in my own situation, i.e. I made the product backlog, ran through what I could accomplish in one sprint, implemented it, assessed it and moved on to the next once the work was acceptable.

But is that how it works if you have to tackle a project on your own? You pick up the structure of a methodology that would suit you and then run with it? Or are there other methodologies out there that are for "freelance developers"?

I can justify for myself that the technique I used was appropriate for me and it worked, but I just want to know if it is acceptable, professionally, to adopt a technique which is built around a team effort and use it individually.

I'd appreciate any feedback

Answer 1

I can justify for myself that the technique I used was appropriate for me and it worked

For me, that's all that matters. I've never once worked in an environment that didn't adapt project management methodologies (PRINCE2, Scrum, Kanban and whatever else) to its own specific needs or organisational limitations.

It's really useful to understand the academic/technical definitions of these different approaches to project management but in a real world situation you will often find yourself having to adapt them. It's when you need to adapt them that you will find your knowledge of their history and their 'pure' implementations most helpful because you will understand (and, most importantly, be able to communicate) the impact of making adaptations to the methodology.

Good luck with the project!

Answer 2

Scrum is by definition addressed to teams of 3 to 9 members. So theoretically it is not a good idea to use scrum for one man projects. And even worse in your case due to the fact that it seems that there is niether PO nor Scrum Master.

You could decide to play all roles but it won't be a good idea since those roles are normally facing eachother.

Said that, you could adapt the scrum methodology for using it in your one man project and it will probably success, that's one of the good things of scrum, that you can adapt it to your own requirements.

In the following link you'll find a discussion about this issue https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/59713/best-development-methodology-for-one-person

Answer 3

I think Scrum can work efficiently on one man projects too. As a development team needs to be self manageable, you can think yourself as a particle of a team. The daily meeting could be a time for collect problems of past days for make decisions and search for help with the PO and other resources that you have access. The sprint retrospective will also exists, when you will collect the lessons for make yourself better in next cycle. Maybe can be a good idea to involve more your PO, if theres one.

But I think the big difference is that the conflicts probably will not exists, but you will have all the other artifacts of a normal Scrum project (backlog, planing, scrum poker alone, scope, sprint, daily retrospective, sprint retrospective..)

Answer 4

Scrum doesn't seem right way to go about. Scrum is more about creating hyper-productive teams. That's the goal behind this framework.

As much as I like @Willl answer I would recommend you to checkout

Personal Kanban

It is Kanban implementation popularized by Jim Benson aimed at personal productivity.

Gains for your project

You could clearly visualize your flow, limit WIP which can have huge productivity boost and when you'll have a board with items flowing through the board you will get this morale boost and sense of moving forward.

Tools

You could use physical whiteboard or one of two that I found cool and useful for Personal Kanban:

• Trello
• Kanbanery

Good luck with your project.

Answer 5

I wouldn't so much as call it a project management 'methodology' as much as personal time and task management. It is whatever system you develop to get things done and accomplish the work of the project.