Symbian for Software Leaders: Principles of Successful Smartphone Development Projects

Chapter 21. The essential role of the project manager

Focus

I now reach the single most important piece of advice in my book. The one factor which, more than any other, determines the success or failure of a smartphone development project is the caliber of the individual assigned to be the full-time leader of that project.

I'm not saying that all the other pieces of advice are unimportant – far from it. However, if you find the right person to run the project, with proper support and backup from the highest levels of senior management in your company, that person will ensure that the team correctly implements the other pieces of advice.

A high-powered project manager will bring repeated laser-focus to the question of what needs to be done to make your project a success. He or she will regularly survey the entire scope of project activities, looking for risks, and searching out the best responses to these risks. Provided the project manager is properly advised (and that's the subject of the next chapter), this survey will cover all the matters raised within the chapters of this book. So finding the right project manager is the key to solving all these other matters.

Different project managers have different styles. There is no one unique correct style. However, there are some fundamental elements that your project manager needs, regardless of personal style:

• An understanding of smartphones

• An understanding of complex software systems

• An understanding of agility and dynamic planning

• The ability ...