Effective Software Project Management

Team Leadership Model

In terms of leadership models, the Hierarchical Leadership or Team Leader models are the preferred choice. Small projects that are following the Linear SDPM strategy and have unusually low levels of uncertainty and complexity lend themselves to the Hierarchical Leadership model. Communications between the project manager and individual team members will be very common with little need for cross–team member communications. As complexity and uncertainty increase, the better choice becomes the Team Leader Model. Complexity and uncertainty introduce the need for more decision making and problem solving, which requires interaction among the team members.

The choice as to which leadership model makes the most sense is often a personal one rather than one based on project characteristics.

Hierarchical Leadership Model

While this model might seem somewhat dated and not at all in keeping with worker empowerment and self-determination, it does have an application in the simpler Linear SDPM strategy projects. However, I believe in minimalist overhead, especially when it comes to management. In the simpler cases it tends to be the micromanagement and non-value-added work time that plagues many projects. This happens often as a result of the direct communications between project manager and team member. The team member receives all her assignments directly from the project manager and reports all results back to the project manager. Micromanagement is a temptation that ...