How to Manage Your Software Development Without A Project Manager

It might sound like a fantasy, but in-house project managers are no longer essential for IT development.

Consider the problem: You own a small-to-medium sized business, and are looking for a way to build an integrated front and back end IT system to keep track of your stock, systematize your accounts, and provide an online web platform for your potential customers.

Running your business is already a complicated operation, and at this stage of your development, your resources are already stretched thin.

Most business owners you talk to are likely to suggest that you have two options:

1. Create your IT infrastructure in-house, using a project manager and a team of developers,

or

2. Hire or appoint a project manager in your team, who can then manage a freelance team of developers for the task at hand.

The common element in both these solutions is the need for a project manager that is closely – if not permanently – attached to your team, the idea being that such a person is essential if you want the true vision of your goals to be effectively integrated into the project outcome.

However, this is simply not the case anymore.

Project Management: Is it really over?

Before getting to the point of how a dedicated, in-house Project Manager is no longer necessary for realizing an IT development project, it is only fair to mention that Project Managers still have very important roles to play in a whole range of projects and industries, including IT development.

What will be outlined here is how, with the right training and organizational infrastructure, project management can be effectively outsourced to an IT service provider.

Let’s explain further.

The role of a project manager is pretty self-explanatory. They are tasked with identifying a project’s goals, organizing a timeline of deliverables, delegating tasks to the relevant project members, and ensuring they have the resources and information necessary to realize the objectives.

A project manager therefore needs to have a keen understanding of what the project is seeking to achieve, and to inject this understanding into the entire process.

When a business chooses to outsource an IT project, it might become even more important to have a highly-competent project manager that truly understands the essence of the project, as freelancers cannot be expected to be able to onboard more nuanced concepts such as a company’s ethos and identity, which will need to be effectively transmitted to the project’s essence and outcome.

A New Model

There is a third way to approach IT development projects, which takes a lot of the weight off the company that needs an IT product, but does not necessarily have the people required to realize it.

This third way is outsourcing to a team that has already been trained in the concept of onboarding a client company’s nuanced requirements, such as brand identity and corporate ethos. It is made possible through the position of a Product Owner, who acts like a project manager, but essentially belongs to the development team.

The Product Owner is the point of contact between the client company and the development company.

The Product Owner is also an individual that has a demonstrated ability to understand a client company’s vision, and to onboard all the different objectives and quirks about a project before it has even started. A product Owner is able to discuss a project with a client in very human, non-technical terms, and then be able to translate these project concepts to their development team, which then goes on to realize it.

A Product Owner therefore can take the role of a project manager with an IT development team that they already have plenty of experience working with, thus cutting down both the time and costs associated with hiring a project manager tied specifically with the client company.

At Bocasay, we us these types of innovative models to streamline project realization and efficacy. We want to make it as easy and stress-free as possible for our clients to realize their IT development objectives, regardless of their level of technological knowledge or capacity.

If you want to find out how we can turn your IT idea into a reality, don’t hesitate to get in touch.