|
Monthly Newsletters |
|
|
|
Best Practices for Software Projects - Project Post Mortem |
Very few projects go as planned. Many projects encounter problems that must be corrected and a few lucky projects go smoother than planned. Regardless of how successful or disastrous a project is, it is important to review the project in detail once the project is over. This allows your team to figure out what things were done well and to document the things that need improvement. It also aids in building a knowledge base that teams coming behind you can review to ensure they get the most out of their upcoming projects. The key to a successful projects is to learn from past mistakes. Below is a list of 5 Tips for conducting successful Post Mortem reviews:
- Plan Your Post Mortem Review - Upon completion of a project, the Project Manager should conduct a "Post Mortem" review. This is where the Project Manager invites all the major players of the team (Analysts, Lead Programmers, Quality Assurance Leaders, Production Support Leaders, etc) to a meeting to review the successes and failures of the project.
- Require Team Participation - Ask the attendees to bring a list of 2 items that were done well during the project and 2 things that could be improved upon.
- Hold the Post Mortem Review Meeting - Go around the table and have each person to discuss the 4 items they brought to the meeting. Keep track of how many duplicate items you get from each team member. At the end of the round table discussion of items, you should have a count of the most popular items that were done well and the most agreed upon items that need improvement. Discuss the top 10 success items and the top 10 items that need improvement.
- List Items Done Well and Things Needing Improvement - Upon listing of the 10 success and improvement items, discuss specific things that can be done to avoid the items that need improvement upon the next release. If some items need more investigation, assign specific individuals to finding solutions.
- Create a Post Mortem Report - The best way to keep this information organized is to create a "Post Mortem" report, where you document your findings. Send the Post Mortem report to all team members. Before team members embark on their next project, make sure they review the Post Mortem report from the prior project to gain insight from the prior project. We have created a Post Mortem Report Template that you can download for free and use with your projects.
What's Next?
Upcoming newsletters will discuss the following
topics:
Start improving your software project's efficiency and success by signing up for our monthly newsletters today.
|
|
Helpful Tools and Templates for Software Projects
Below are some helpful tools and templates to aid you in your software development efforts and to deliver software on-time and on-budget:
-
Free Software Project Worksheets and Templates
A comprehensive list of templates that are free to use in your software projects. Daily meeting roadmap, product backlog, post mortem templates and more.
- Software Planner
Software Planner is an award winning application lifecycle management (ALM) tool that helps software companies manage all components of software development including managing customer requirements, project deliverables, test cases, defects, and support tickets. Software Planner is great for Post Mortem reporting and has a free trial.
- Automated Testing Tool
Automated testing is a key component in any software project. TestComplete is an award winning automated testing tool that lets you create, manage and run tests for any Windows, Web or Rich Client software and includes unit testing, funtional testing and a lot more.
- Performance and Memory Profiler
Software performance is key in any software project's longevity. AQtime is the performance and memory profiler for Win32 and .NET applications with over two dozen performance and memory profilers and productivity tools included.
|
About the Author
Steve Miller is the Vice President of ALM Solutions at AutomatedQA.
With over 23 years of experience, Steve has
extensive knowledge in project management, software
architecture and test design. Steve publishes a
monthly newsletter for companies that design and
develop software. You can read other newsletters at
http://www.PragmaticSW.com/Newsletters.asp.
Steve's email is
steve.miller@PragmaticSW.com. |
|
|
