A large part of the software development is project management. Most developers don’t like the fact. I unquestionably don’t. I want to code. I want to sit at my computer in the morning with an idea valuable to the company. Code it. Test it. Debug it. Profit.
I can’t imagine company ownership wants me to be doing anything that’s not paying my salary either. Project Management does not pay my salary. Why do we do project management?
Project management concerns itself with the idea I start with at the beginning of the day. If I don’t know how customers use the product in its current state, I won’t know how to make it better. If I joined a new startup, I as a developer would talk to the customers myself.
Project management represents the customer, who will be using the software when we deliver, to the developers.
The project manager helps me to finish the task. Continually asking when I will be done gives me an incentive to finish.
When I work on a personal project, it’s hard to finish.
I do have a personal project which I’ve been working on since 2001. It has morphed more times than I can count. I have many potential features I want to add to it. I haven’t ever described it to anyone else and have been keeping it under wraps.
Alternatively, I came to a stopping point with the build system in my recent blog series. Knowing I have a blog to post on Monday forced me to choose a stopping point. Trying to wrap the series help me finish it.
I wonder if blogging can work as project management. Would it give a clear incentive to complete a task if you know you’re going to post a blog on the topic come Monday?