The Best Project Management Methodology for Software Development
Developing software with any team can be a challenge. You have to ensure that everyone on the team knows their tasks and completes them on time.
It’s no secret that efficiency matters in business. Isn’t this something we all strive for: to produce more without increasing the resources driving that outcome? This is the first post in a three-part series in which we will discuss common efficiency pitfalls in companies. Our hope is that you can pause and find one way to increase efficiency in your business today. Are there changes that you can make in your business now that would make you more streamlined, efficient and productive?
Talking to our peers, we agreed (with groans of frustration) that unnecessary all-hands-on-deck weekly meetings are the biggest waste of time. Each of us had the experience of a previous employer who held an all-hands meeting once a week or once a month, or once a quarter. These all-hands meetings don’t ever seem to involve the whole team, the full duration of the meeting. Typically a manager is working with a personal agenda or collecting information from each attendee one at a time. In some cases, information is being shared that doesn’t require any feedback from the attendees (a one-way discourse). We want the unnecessary meetings to stop! The more a manager can fully hand the ownership and execution of a task off to someone on their team, the more they can play a strategic role in growth and success in other areas of the enterprise.
We recently met with a manufacturing company whose warehouse team utilizes post-it notes and paper to transfer inventory lists to the accounting team. The accounting team prints out paper order forms and then an assistant updates a spreadsheet-based off the order forms to keep the overall inventory. This system is wildly inefficient. As an outsider, we were able to immediately see how an inventory software and few pieces of technology would allow us to free up four people to be used toward more productive outcomes.
Sometimes the opposite is true. Companies are so fast to band-aid each problem with a technology solution that they have redundancies and are paying for more than they need. We’ve worked at companies where each person had a Verizon conference call-in number. We also had Skype, which assigns an automatic call-in number. We didn’t need both systems in place. We just needed to assess which is a better use of our resources and choose the best system for our needs.
So far we challenged managers to delegate meaningful work to their subordinates and discussed the some of the reasons inefficient tools and processes exist in the workplace. Today we are going finish up the series with a look at how creating a culture that embraces change will make you more nimble and efficient.
The c-suite leadership within your company will not have the best ideas and innovations to solve the problems for each layer in your company. You need to have a culture where innovation and problem-solving is celebrated and new ideas/solutions are brought to light quickly. We often see that corporate bureaucracy gets in the way of implementing efficient outcomes. You need employees that are willing to problem-solve their day-to-day work and collaborate with peers on finding efficient solutions. Does your culture support free thinkers? Are people not only allowed to speak up and dissent, but are they rewarded for it? If colleagues aren’t just permitted, but encouraged, to speak their minds you’ll stifle new ideas and perspectives that could lead to growth.
An efficiency misnomer is that there has to be a major change to make yourself/your team/your business more efficient. Maybe you imagine it will take a full year of coaching, a round of layoffs and an act of God to create a change in your company. But it starts with the small things. Change one process, build-in a few minutes to take stock of your team on a daily basis, or delegate a small facet of your daily workload. Choose a mantra “busy doesn’t equal efficient” or “efficiency, efficient-me!” “Work smarter, not harder” Making small changes will amplify themselves across your entire team; you’ll feel better, you’ll be better; now go get ‘em!