Project Management
The art of good project management is a skill that should never be underestimated. The sheer number of books and university courses that are available on the subject are testament to this. So many projects, from small-scale student projects to major engineering works, fail to meet deadlines, quality standards or cost predictions.
Software development projects are notoriously difficult to manage, being significantly more complex than many other technical or business assignments. Progress is often hard to gauge also, particularly when critical pathways are not adequately factored in during the planning process.
An understanding of every stage of a software project is crucial, whether in terms of planning, or problem solving and the implementation of solutions. Over optimism has been the downfall of many a project, as people often plan on the basis that all will go well. Whereas, in reality, the vast majority of projects will go averagely well!
My very wide experience of solving problems and implementing the solutions in different programming languages together with my involvement in every stage of a project has enabled me to understand the work involved in every aspect of the production of a piece of software.
The Management of Software Projects
There are issues with IT projects that make them significantly different from many other business and technical projects.
The internal workings of software are invisible to the non-specialist and even quite hard to read by the programmers not directly involved in their writing. Not only must the code be understood but also its adherence to what it is supposed to do according to the specification and design.
Measurement of progress by computer programmers does not follow the same pattern as for many other tasks involved in a project. Many indicators used by programmers to measure progress are hidden in the code.
I have a great deal of experience in teaching and tutoring non-specialist computer users and those completely new to computing so they can improve the computing project management, problem solving and programming skills that are most relevant to their current needs.
Issues with Collaborative Working on a Project
Collaborative working is particularly difficult when the part of the project that you are responsible for runs in parallel with other development especially where it is subject to continual changes to specification or user requirements.
I can provide help to deal with the challenges of collaborative working while maintaining control of the part of the project that you are responsible for.
My experience of supervision, monitoring, assessing and marking of group work and individual contributions gives me an understanding how to optimise your effort to maximise the reward for your work and mitigate the events that are beyond your control.
My Experience
I have very wide-ranging experience of supervising, assessing and marking projects, coursework and exams from various exam boards. My lecturing, teaching and tutoring has included experienced programmers, complete beginners, wide ranging age groups, and others in Adult Education, Universities, Further Education, Sixth Form Colleges, State and Independent Schools.