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How many developers are you managing, exactly? Are you a developer yourself? Some random advice: On timelines: -> An old guideline is to try breaking each deli

How many developers are you managing, exactly? Are you a developer yourself? Some random advice: On timelines: -> An old guideline is to try breaking each deliverable into individual, atomized tasks. Put an estimate on each task. Add it all up and double the final amount. -> Use something like pivotal tracker, or redmine, or Jira. On getting reliable estimates from developers: -> Each dev is different in their estimations. Get to know their quirks. Some feel that everything is easy and tend to say "two days" for everything. Others will try to buy as much time as possible and will tell you "a week" for something that will normally only take them a day. Knowing their tendency will let you make adjustments. On getting to know the devs: -> Start by getting to know the difference between estimated and actual time on smaller issues. Quick Daily Meeting: -> Spend 10 minutes at the start of each day to get a status update - what is each member working on? Are they facing any problems? Is anything taking more time than it should? -> Make adjustments to your timelines accordingly if you have to. Try not to micromanage. They should let you know when they face problems. That said, radio silence is bad... thats what the daily should help alleviate.

iworkforthem 15y ago
To add to @vishaldpatel's list. Complexity of a task: -> If a task takes > 3 days to complete, time to review the complexity of task. I.E. What's the other alternatives or approach to complete the task? Are we doing it right? How are others doing it? etc... Assumptions & risks: -> Not too much assumptions, if your assumption turn out wrong, it instantly become a risk and that takes much effort to resolve. If unsure, back to the drawing board, analyse, plan again. Limit communication channels: -> I have this feeling that there exist some form of communication gap. Limit the communications channels you have with the team, keep all the project communications in a Prologue WP blog or a project management tool like Basecamp. This is important to keep communication transparent and clear.

iworkforthem 15y ago

To add to @vishaldpatel's list. Complexity of a task: -> If a task takes > 3 days to complete, time to review the complexity of task. I.E. What's the other alternatives or approach to complete the task? Are we doing it right? How are others doing it? etc... Assumptions & risks: -> Not too much assumptions, if your assumption turn out wrong, it instantly become a risk and that takes much effort to resolve. If unsure, back to the drawing board, analyse, plan again. Limit communication channels: -> I have this feeling that there exist some form of communication gap. Limit the communications channels you have with the team, keep all the project communications in a Prologue WP blog or a project management tool like Basecamp. This is important to keep communication transparent and clear.