Project management skills are depended on by teams more and more everyday. It’s a skill that is so important yet so overlooked in the field of software development. But what exactly is this buzzword, why is it important, and how can you actually use it to your advantage? Well, for starters project management is a fundamental part of the software development life cycle. It is a process of planning, managing, coordinating and controlling a project from inception to completion.

It involves the work and effort that goes into accomplishing specific project goals as well as breaking down the teams communication throughout the scope. While some people may know about the importance of project management, they often don’t know how it’s implemented. Here I am going to give you a glimpse into how to actually use these 3 essential project management skills to skyrocket your next project.

Estimation and Planning

What usually happens is that people miss the necessary minimal steps to get from concept idea to the actual functional model. If you do not create your process properly, it’s the equivalent of not having a process at all. We’re thinking in terms of the ability to plan the correct size of the project, execute it properly, and of course control it and bring it to a successful conclusion, along with your ability to guide the project team to achieve project objectives and balance project constraints. So you might have not heard this fun buzzword, but micro productivity is too valuable to not understand especially for this common problem. Simply put, micro productivity is the act of curating a system or process so that you can break down big tasks into smaller more attainable steps. Some of the most well known tech companies use this strategy very consistently to develop their smallest and biggest projects.

Here’s 4 Steps On How To Get Started Using Micro productivity

1. Set a major goal

What are the biggest goals you want to achieve with your project? Write anything that comes to mind and slowly limit yourself down to 2–3 to start.

2. Break down those goals into micro-tasks

From start to completion, go through the entire roadmap of what you would need, how you would go about doing it, and the amount of time it would potentially take to get done.

3. Set a schedule

Now that you have your micro-tasks, you will be able to form a calendar or schedule according to the time constraints you have projected. Through this you will be able to see the full step-by-step process of what it takes to complete your project.

4. Get ahead of schedule

This will give you the ability to focus on the most important things based on timing and objectives to hit. You will be able to get ahead of your schedule by following the plan appropriately. The following information was stripped from our exclusive 45 min long webinar, if you’d like to get all the insight, tips, and resources around project management and startup advice, visit: https://www.patreon.com/creator-home

Research Skills

Having the proper research skills is vital to any developer looking to build a successful project. The ability to conduct research is a key skill, without it you’re throwing your #1 resource right out the window; Google.

Technology has made practically every aspect of life easier. We have access to information and tools that make our lives more comfortable and convenient than ever before. But, when it comes to finding solutions to problems or problems solving solutions, there is no magic bullet or guaranteed solution for every case. But with such an open source of communication where literally anyone can post, this leaves lots of room for unreliable information to be published.

Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of informative, well-written, and evidence-based articles out there. But not everything on the internet is a reliable resource. Hackers, scammers, publishers, other SEO specialists, and robot software produce tons of content that visitors have no use for.

Bots are used to create vast amounts of content for Web 2.0 sites and articles that are based on 0% genuine information. A developer should learn to show skepticism toward information found online since many websites are composed of content published by unreliable authors for money-making purposes. By no means are we full blown professionals at what we do, we’re college students after-all. But the incentive is different, we want you to succeed as much as we want ourselves to.

That’s why we spend countless of hours doing our own research and really identifying what questions our community has and following it up with a well defined resource.

Anyway, did you also know google has an advanced google search feature? It’s called “Google Advanced Search”, if you didn’t now is your time to utilize this fantastic tool.

Search up specific keywords and sites last updated, this allows you to reach the exact websites you’re looking for on your particular research. This can range from a programming language keyword such as “Javascript” or maybe even you want websites updated in the last week, whatever it is Google advanced search can help you limit your options down to your exact interest or question.

Technical Writing

Writing seems pretty easy right? Yeah, well no. Describing the ideas or thoughts in your head into words or actual print can be very tough. If you can’t describe what you’re thinking or trying to do, the others around you can’t read your brain and figure out what you want to do either. Unless they have some sort of superhero mind-reading talent, then you should maybe give them a raise. Or a virtual hug. Technical writing is a form of writing that project managers use in drafting potential deliverables, circulating memos, targeting product releases or sending news updates.

It also involves the documentation of a project’s inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes.

Proper technical writing reduces any miscommunications between teams and ensures that everyone is on the same page. It can appear as the art of creating content that can read like a novel but which actually assists users in achieving their goals.

Although, it is challenging because it requires you to write content that is concise, objective and friendly all at the same time. The key requirements are to provide the necessary information without inserting your own opinions or offering suggestions for alternative methods of accomplishing the task.

Writing for the web needs to be optimized for search engines with keywords that users are searching for used throughout the copy. You also want to supply charts, diagrams, lists, pictures and active tasks that will help readers accomplish what they need to do.

Overall technical writing involves just this process and truly understanding why your business exists in this day and age.

Conclusion

All three of these topics have been curated into this list because we personally believe that the core to project management is clear communication.

These skills all have communication implemented into them one way or another, it’s really just about finding your rhythm, balance, and style when it comes to your specific team. As always we hope you learned a few new things and can use them to your advantage to change the world. We’re rooting for you!

If you have any fun blog ideas for us to do research on and write about, or maybe even want to write an interesting post for us, don’t feel afraid to shoot us a message! We’ll get back to you as quick as possible! You can contact us here at: support@prajix.com

What is Prajix?

Prajix is a startup project my team and I have been working on for almost a year. Our mission is to empower developers from around the world to revolutionize the future we wish to have through online collaboration.

What we do is allow developers to create or join project ideas on our platform, where they can find like-minded individuals to team up and collaborate with in our collaboration rooms.

We are striving to build the most valuable network of programmers, coders, and developers from around the world into one place, creating a technological powerhouse that will help individuals and communities all over the globe.

If this sounds interesting to you or you just want to learn more, visit our website at: www.prajix.com