Current CTO exploring entrepreneurship on the side; coach; mentor; instructor.
Dedicated to promoting digital literacy and ideological diversity in tech.
There's a reason good teams spend so much money on this aspect of their business, and why good project managers can command such a premium price for their skills.
The easiest tip is to take a course. There are dozens available online, such as from Coursera (coursera.org/courses?query=project...) or other similar resources.
In my experience/opinion, visual representation of the problem is key. Having a good top-down view of the entire scope makes it easier to review the entire project in one go, which can help with maintaining perspective.
Once you have the full scope in view, the next step is break up the components into actual work units. Whenever possible, these units should be as small as reasonably possible.
A task such as "set up frontend" is very difficult to scope and track. Instead, break this task up into:
purchase domain
configure web host
add landing page
etc
The above is much easier to track, as each individual component is smaller, and has a clear deliverable.
The Agile development methodology works in this way. It allows you to then work in "Sprints", which your team (or just you!) can use to measure your output, and relate it back to your top-down view.
Gantt Charts and Scrum Boards are also both super helpful in tracking the completion of your work.
At the end of the day, your goals are:
be able to see the project in one place;
break the work into smaller units; and
compile and track the completion of the work units.
Project management is hard.
There's a reason good teams spend so much money on this aspect of their business, and why good project managers can command such a premium price for their skills.
The easiest tip is to take a course. There are dozens available online, such as from Coursera (coursera.org/courses?query=project...) or other similar resources.
In my experience/opinion, visual representation of the problem is key. Having a good top-down view of the entire scope makes it easier to review the entire project in one go, which can help with maintaining perspective.
Once you have the full scope in view, the next step is break up the components into actual work units. Whenever possible, these units should be as small as reasonably possible.
A task such as "set up frontend" is very difficult to scope and track. Instead, break this task up into:
The above is much easier to track, as each individual component is smaller, and has a clear deliverable.
The Agile development methodology works in this way. It allows you to then work in "Sprints", which your team (or just you!) can use to measure your output, and relate it back to your top-down view.
Gantt Charts and Scrum Boards are also both super helpful in tracking the completion of your work.
At the end of the day, your goals are:
Thank you for these helpful tips, Brandon! Yes I’m using a scrum board couldn’t live without it 😄