When entrusting any project to a third party for development, many people have the question, “Why can’t we do it ourselves?” Probably we can, but how effective will it be?
By outsourcing the work to a team of professionals headed by a project manager who will take some of the risks, the business not only saves money, but also gets the expertise and experience of the company. Let’s look at the benefits of such a solution and why a project needs a project manager.
Who is an IT project manager?
A project manager is a person who organizes the smooth operation of all development processes. He ensures communication between the client and the team, translates technical requirements into comprehensive language, plans the development and ensures the timely release of the product to the market.
What tasks a manager performs in Fora Soft
At Fora Soft, a manager is just like a member of a team. Our PM is not really a manager per se, he is a person who deals with processes and communications. Without him as well as without any other team member, it is impossible to imagine delivering a quality product on time.
In our company, the manager takes care of all phases of project life, from initiation to closing and handing over the result to the customer. PM:
- assembles the team
- prepares the infrastructure for the start-up
- checks the requirements and thinks over the sequence of tasks to be convenient for the client and the team
- prepares an IT project plan and schedule, so the team and the client always know the demo dates and the end date of the project in advance
After the implementation of projects, there usually comes a stage that can be called support. Even after the main work is complete, the project manager stays in touch with the client, quickly answering questions and engaging developers to solve problems if something goes wrong. We care about our customers, so even if a project is already in the live version and the contract is closed, the PM is always happy to help. For example, after finishing one of the projects, a client came to us with a problem that the cost of maintaining the server had increased significantly. The PM assembled a team, the client calculated the cost of moving to other servers and the cost of using them, and then moved the project to the right server for the client.
Why hire a team led by a PM?
- PM has a technical background and experience in handling projects of various complexity
The managers at Fora Soft understand the technical background of certain systems and have experience in bringing products to the market.
Some IT project managers are descendants of developers and analysts with tech-leadership experience. This makes it possible to correctly estimate labor costs for technical tasks and distribute priorities to achieve the goal.
In addition, our managers are constantly improving their skills in our company: they know how to lead projects according to flexible methodologies Scrum and Kanban, they pump up their knowledge of English, technical skills, analytics and sales. Each manager has their own personal development plan, which includes a set of tools that need to be learned. Once a month, managers invite their colleagues from design, testing, or development to stay up-to-date on current technology and trends.
The output of a project manager at Fora Soft is a versatile professional, who will explain technical points and intelligently communicate with stakeholders to achieve the best result.
– The PM is trained to work with the team and will always resolve any problems that arise within the development team
Globally, the business has two options – to find artists “from the outside” on the freelance markets / through friends, or hire a professional team.
In the first case, the risks for the business will be significantly higher. Freelancers can not give any guarantees of quality work on time, they are their own, and most often do not work in teams, so you need to hire each specialist separately. The designer will create product layouts, the developer will bring ideas to life, and the tester will not miss bugs in the release. You will also have to monitor the quality of their performance, which will require additional time. Such fragmentation can cost a business dearly.
In the second case, the manager takes care of all team processes. Every project is handled by a full-fledged team which specializes not in a wide range of technologies but in a particular multimedia field where each team member has relevant experience.
The project manager at Fora Soft manages the resources, intelligently redistributing them when necessary. There is no downtime, every developer works on the project for at least 2 months in advance. The business owner does not have to bear the risks.
In addition, the manager builds relationships within the team, motivates each member to contribute to the success of the product and suggest improvements. The business owner does not have to micromanage-they just bought time to focus on more important things-for example, the global vision for the extension
– PM will help save money and nerves
Any development, especially large and complex projects, involves budgeting and risk. We understand this, so we structure our work in such a way as to make the maximum number of useful features for a minimum cost and meet the customer’s deadlines. Moreover, our certified IT Project managers are always in touch with the client and can promptly answer any questions about the current status of the project.
In order to understand how a PM can help you save money, let’s do the opposite of what is written above. Let’s stop describing what the project manager does, and tell what can happen if he is not there.
So let’s imagine a team without a manager.
In our hypothetical project, creating an online cinema, let’s assume there is a team of the following IT project roles: three developers, a designer, a tester and an analyst. Each of them does their job.
After a while it turns out that the developer has done the task before his estimates, and not to sit idly by, took in the development of creating a user profile. And we have a team of three developers… All of them decide to do exactly the same thing, forgetting to warn each other. It comes out too late, when QA starts testing the task. QA realizes that testing the task will be difficult, postpones it, and proceeds to what is already ready at the moment. Development has just gone up in price, and the deadline has shifted by a month.
Out comes the need for someone who will maintain a level of transparency in the team so this doesn’t happen again, and everyone is on the same page, following the plan and knowing what “plan B” is at the slightest change.
In order to do this, you need to understand how long a particular task will take. Someone needs to take charge of the planning and accounting for the risks. That’s why you need a project manager for an IT project delivery: to keep the budget from going to waste and lead the product to a successful release.
Conclusion
So, here is why a business needs a professional team headed by a project manager:
- IT project manager has specialized knowledge and experience, combining technical and management skills.
- he’s a single point of contact for all. All information passes through the manager, he is always aware of the project progress and assumes all the IT project risks and resource allocation.
- the manager helps to save money. This is not only a financial benefit as a result of competent planning and mitigation of risks, but also saves unnecessary worries that something can go wrong. By the way, without specialized knowledge in management and technology, all this is quite difficult to do. Our managers have already had prior professional training and “got all the bumps” so that the business does not have to do this. Wanna find out more? Visit our contact page, so our Sales managers can talk to you and explain everything.