The latest articles on DEV Community by Josh Hornby (@joshhornby). https://dev.to/joshhornby https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F2062%2Feb3464b3-5918-4ffa-a24f-5d0da21237e5.jpg https://dev.to/joshhornby en Josh Hornby Sun, 03 Jan 2021 14:56:34 +0000 https://dev.to/joshhornby/how-to-quickly-plan-and-estimate-an-mvp-57ia https://dev.to/joshhornby/how-to-quickly-plan-and-estimate-an-mvp-57ia <p>This post outlines my tried &amp; tested strategy for quickly planning and estimating MVP projects.<br> This process departs a little from Agile/Scrum best practices. There are no guarantees on estimation quality which I believe is impossible to do for software projects, but it helps to provide a rough guide for new projects.</p> <h2> Gather Requirements </h2> <p>In order to plan you need to know what you should be building.<br> The more questions you can ask in this step the easier you will find future steps. </p> <p>Some questions to ask are:</p> <ul> <li>Why are we building this?</li> <li>Who is the target audience?</li> <li>How many people do we expect to use this?</li> <li>What does "Complete" look like to you? </li> </ul> <h2> Break down the work </h2> <p>Now you have gathered some requirements and have a better understanding of what needs<br> to be build it's time to start breaking down the work.</p> <p>I like to split the work into <strong>Epics</strong> &amp; <strong>User Stories</strong>.</p> <p><strong>Epics</strong> = A group of related user stories</p> <p><strong>User Stories</strong> = Short requirements or requests written from the perspective of an end user</p> <p>Normally I start with the CRUD <em>(Create, Read, Update, Delete)</em> stories, for example: Create User, View User, Update User Marketing Preferences. </p> <p>To continue reading visit <a href="https://joshhornby.com/blog/how-to-quickly-plan-and-estimate-an-mvp">https://joshhornby.com/blog/how-to-quickly-plan-and-estimate-an-mvp</a></p> software softwaredevelopment Josh Hornby Sat, 02 Jan 2021 21:04:46 +0000 https://dev.to/joshhornby/managing-software-projects-k3f https://dev.to/joshhornby/managing-software-projects-k3f <p>During my time working on software projects, I’ve began to spot trends in what makes a successful project. The most common trait I've observed in successful projects is great communication between teams, seemingly the software methodology used has little to do with if a project is a success.<br> This post outlines some methods I've used in the past to successfully manage projects.</p> <h2> Kick off meeting </h2> <p>In order for a successful project all stakeholders need to be aligned on the expected outcomes. I find the easiest way to achieve this is by bringing everyone involved on the project together for a kick off meeting. </p> <p>The purpose of this meeting is to ensure everyone understands <strong>why</strong> this project is being worked on, the <strong>goals</strong> (eg. what does success look like?) and <strong>how</strong> it’ll be approached. If during this meeting you have to field lots of questions, I find it’s worth cycling back round and not starting the project until the team are all in agreement.</p> <p>Continue to read on <a href="https://joshhornby.com/blog/managing-software-projects">https://joshhornby.com/blog/managing-software-projects</a></p> projectmanagement management