Staging The Project For Your Audience
The thrill of having tickets for the opening night for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new play on Broadway is in no comparison to the performance on amateurs night in our local town hall. Both are plays, both have players who conduct a series of lines to an audience. Prices differ, the quality of the players and props should give a serious gap in comparison. However, is there a difference in the appreciation of the audience? Is the night of those who went to Broadway more memorable then those who didn't cross our county line?
Most people would argue, it depends. It depends on the expectations of the audience. If they pay a bundle of money just to see some famous actor, they should be on Broadway. If it's people having fun in acting they want to see, amateurs night is surely the way to go. The staging should fit the expectations of the audience, and all is well.
A project has some aspects common to plays (not just tragedies). Some tricks are performed by members of a project team (the players) which are closely observed by people with stakes in the project, the stakeholders. As long as the players perform as expected by the audience, everybody is happy. The principles presented in this section aim at precisely that.
This guide covers the subject of software projects. Any project which has a larger part concerning software in it, can be categorised as such.
You will be introduced to the central principle of this course: the "flow of the stakes"; a software project manager should know the flow and have it printed in his brain, it should be his mindset. It is a way to catch the expectations, to integrate all expectations of several people, the stakeholders, and to make sure the project stakeholders know that their expectations are taken care of.
The main function of this section is to make you aware of this principle, to let you know there is a flow. It is not intended to provide a full depth analysis of every aspect of it. I try to do that in the other sections, but the true depth you can only view in practice.
"A basic principle of Lao-tse's teaching was that this Way of the Universe could not be adequately described in words, and that it would be insulting both to its unlimited powers and to the intelligent human mind to attempt to do so." (The Tao of Pooh
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It is perhaps a little much, but it gives you a certain idea; well, any way, see the flow as the apotheosis of this chapter, first we build up some context around project stakeholders.
Related links
Why Plan Driven Theories Stink
WTF: Project Management Theories?
CMM Revisited: Oh Yeah, There Is Something Outside The Project
With the aid of a diagram i'd like to know the detailed explanation of the role of those personnel that form the integral part of software development showing the relationship that exist between them (the personnel). Thank you
emi
September 6th, 2007