What Does a Progress Developer Do?

The progress monitoring process, also known as project progress management, refers to the management of the progress of each stage and the deadline for the final completion of the project during the implementation of the project. It is to formulate a reasonable and economic schedule (including multi-level management sub-plans) within the prescribed time. During the implementation of the plan, it is often necessary to check whether the actual progress is in accordance with the plan requirements. If deviations occur, it is necessary to Find out the cause in time, take necessary remedial measures or adjust and modify the original plan until the project is completed. Its purpose is to ensure that the project can achieve its overall goals while meeting its time constraints.

The progress monitoring process refers to scientifically determining progress goals, formulating schedules and resource supply plans, and performing schedule control according to the formulated plans, comprehensively considering quality, cost, and efficiency to achieve engineering goals. The prepared schedule is usually clear in purpose and clear in terms of constraints, but at the same time there are large uncertainties. There are various subjective and objective interference factors. The internal and external environment of the project will also change over time. Therefore, the plan must adapt to these changes. Make changes. During the implementation of the project, you must continuously feedback the implementation of the plan, compare and analyze the implementation with the plan, and develop measures to ensure that the project progress is carried out according to the predetermined plan and the ultimate goal of the project. The progress monitoring process is as follows:

• The project team members report the progress of the completion of the operation to their superiors in accordance with the communication mechanism planned in the "Project Plan".

• The project leader regularly communicates with the project team members on the progress of the project and updates it in the "Project Schedule".

• After the "Project Schedule" is updated, the project leader needs to pay attention to whether the critical path of the project has changed. Focus on mission-critical tasks to prevent project delays.

In the process of software project development, when the actual research and development progress deviates from the planned progress, if effective progress management cannot be performed, and countermeasures are not taken to remedy and adjust, the subsequent work will be chaotic and cannot be continued. The project will go into an uncontrollable state and eventually cause the project to fail. On the contrary, a good schedule manager can ensure the normal development of R & D activities from multiple aspects, ensure that the team completes the development of the project according to the development plan, and bring tangible benefits to the enterprise. The importance of schedule management is as follows:

Guaranteed timely delivery

The most direct goal of schedule management is to ensure that the software R & D products required by users can be submitted to users in a timely manner. If effective progress management is not performed, the consequences of uncontrolled project schedules are project delays and the products cannot be delivered to users at the agreed time. For users who want the product to be put into operation as soon as possible, the consequences of the project extension will disappoint the users, which will have a negative impact on users and cause serious damage to the developer's reputation. It will also increase users' investment in time, manpower and material resources.

Controllable cost

In addition to project delays, out-of-control software projects can cause project costs to exceed budgets. The competition in the software industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and profits in the software industry are getting lower and lower. Reducing costs and saving costs is almost the way to increase profits. Therefore, almost all software companies attach great importance to controlling project costs. Without effective progress management, the actual progress often lags behind the project plan, and software companies have to increase investment in human, material, and financial resources to get the project back on track or to extend the development time. Regardless of the processing method chosen, software companies will increase their investment in projects, increasing project costs and budget overruns.

Excellent schedule management mechanism can effectively control the deviation of actual work and plan, can timely detect deviations and analyze the causes of deviations in detail, and take appropriate adjustments to ensure the progress of the project, correcting deviations will save costs and reduce waste, such as developers The user's requirements are misunderstood, and the functions that are ultimately implemented are not required by the user. The entire function module needs to be adjusted considerably, which is equivalent to re-implementing a requirement, which greatly increases the research and development costs. However, if the implementation ideas of the outline design and detailed design are fully reviewed and checked before the code is written, and the deviations in requirements are found and adjusted in a timely manner, rework will not be performed at a later stage, saving manpower and labor required for later rework. Time while saving costs ^[1]

Generally, progress is controlled based on the following principles:

Dynamic control principle

To control the progress dynamically according to the progress of the project, the project manager needs to arrange the schedule for different levels at each stage, and monitor the implementation of the schedule, and modify and adjust the plan according to the actual and planned deviations.

System principle

The project planning system is composed of the project's implementation subjects, project phases, modules, and levels, and the parts are interconnected and affected. The formulation and implementation of a single plan is also complete and systematic, so it can be solved using system theory knowledge Issues related to schedule control.

Closed loop principle

Software project progress control is carried out cyclically throughout the project. The activities include formulating and implementing plans, checking plan implementation status, comparing and analyzing, determining modification strategies, and revising plans. This continuous process constitutes a closed and complete cycle. Progress control management is the process of continuous operation in this closed loop system.

Information principle

An information system needs to be established in a timely manner to collect, analyze, and feedback various types of information of the project parties as soon as possible. These information data are an important basis for project progress control.

Elastic principle

The preparation of the plan needs to retain a certain degree of flexibility, leaving some room for possible changes, especially the long duration of the software project and the influencing factors, and the need to retain flexibility.

Project management is the use of management methods, tools, and techniques for project activities to solve problems in the project or achieve project goals, and to use specialized knowledge, tools, skills, and methods in project activities to enable the project to achieve or exceed the project Stakeholder needs and expectations. Project stakeholders refer to those involved in the project and those affected by the project activities, including project initiators, assistants, project team members, users, customers, and even project opponents. The project manager must have some relevant knowledge areas. The five cores of project management Knowledge areas include time, scope, cost, resources, and quality. Project management has the following advantages: controlling finances and resources; improving customer relationships; shortening development time; reducing costs; improving profits, productivity, product quality and reliability; and improving the company's internal coordination.