How to Streamline Your Product Development Approach

In today's world, we are increasingly seeing a range of ‘modern’ factors that are influencing project development. One example is remote workers from all types of cultural backgrounds being asked to work together to achieve a common goal as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Naturally, this comes with its problems.?

In order to overcome the problems raised by fast-changing work environments including worker diversity and remote work, etc., companies need to ensure that they have a streamlined project development approach.?

While most managers still do learn from their mistakes, during my many years running a software company, I have found that most managers don't place enough value on streamlining their project development methodology, but instead, simply try to prevent any past mistake from arising again through implementing superficial remedies. This can be very costly.

In my experience, I have found that many companies are using an overly complex development approach, without even realizing it. This causes unnecessary problems and can even result in companies doing things the long way around.

So why continue to do things the hard way?

Why Continue Using Outdated Development Methodologies?

Well, the simple truth is that managers are usually too overworked to get the time to reassess their methodologies and work practices. Add to this is the very human condition of only being able to see as far as our eyes will let us and not wanting to rock the boat and you can fully understand the 'why'.

Starting out as a software developer myself, I quickly learned the enormous value of the manager within the project development process and of the development approach that they decided to use.?

Indeed, it was, in part at least, my frustration at my past managers for not doing things in an efficient and effective way that drove me to set up my own software development company. When I did, I ensured that it had at its very heart a uniquely tailored agile-derived software development approach that would guarantee efficiency and an effective project development process.

Since I developed and refined this approach (in truth this process is always ongoing if you want to ensure you stay on the top of your game) my company has used it to successfully develop a huge number of software products for everyone from Airbus to startups such as CashUp.?

While for competitive reasons I can’t outline our exact process here, I will give you a few key areas on which to focus your efforts to streamline your development process.?

1. You are there for your employees and not the other way around.?

The biggest beef I have with poor-performing managers is that they have a poor approach to how their organization functions. To put it simply, a manager is there for and because of their employees, and not the other way around.

When creating and refining my development approach I reached out to a number of key managers and developers to get their opinions and input. I usually started the feedback session with the question, “how can I make this better for you, and what more do you need from me?”

If you have ever tried asking this question you will already know how effective it is, not just in ensuring that you get all the right information (people are much more inclined to complain than they are to praise) but also in building inter-team communication, trust, and feelings of value to the company (just remember the Japanese management model from the introduction).

With this approach, you will get the right information that you need to refine your process so it is chili hot and gets the job done right.

2. Keep it simple from the start

If you are reading this and are about to develop your first development approach then I cannot state strongly enough the value of keeping it as simple as possible. The more complicated channels or procedures become the more chance of mistakes and frustrations such as misunderstandings and inefficiencies become.

An easy example is duplicate processes such as data entry requirements. Unless data security is an issue, why on earth would anyone want duplicate data sheets??

In today's world, software management tools are sophisticated enough to not only allow any time, anywhere access, but they also save draft versions of all data in case of data loss or corruption, etc. Many applications even offer a range of access controls that limits what users can do to the data. Having your workers replicating data not only wastes their valuable time but also causes frustration, as well as increases the chance of mistakes.

In short, identify inefficiencies and get rid of them.

3. Build-in flexibility

When picking your approach methodology you should always try to find one that builds in as much flexibility as possible. This is why I chose to base my project development approach on Agile, which allows the project development to be broken down into smaller pieces or sprints, allowing much more flexibility than, for example, the Waterfall methodology.

Flexibility is a tough thing to manage, perhaps is the most difficult thing. You will want your workers fully committed to the tasks at hand, so trying to build in some measure of flexibility is a difficult task.

How do I manage these situations? Well, I gather as much information as possible and find the best possible solution. This usually involved managing the client's expectations and then shifting jobs/priorities in order to ensure that the vital work was being done.

Since I have access to all development channels, it is very easy to review conversations and progress reports to get up to speed very quickly.

4. Use the right tools

This one I won't go into in much detail, only to say, good tools help to build great products.?

Don't forget to find or develop a performance tool that will allow you, your sub-managers, and the client to get instant oversight into where the project stands at any given time and where it is heading. This has been invaluable to our clients over the years and has helped us avoid many pitfalls.?

5. Where possible, empower your workers

I make it a point to train all of our dev teams and developers in the Scrum approach. The Scrum approach empowers individual members of teams and their managers to make decisions that will ultimately make the whole process more efficient and successful.

As a manager, you must have the best project oversight, however, it is the workers that get the best possible view of different pieces of the puzzle. This means they are best positioned to respond to issues and deal with them.?

I won't lie to you, empowering freelancers or untrained developers can be a nightmare, if you wish to go this route get yourself workers who have the training or character to not only grasp but excel from the empowerment you have given them.

6. Start small then scale

You should create a scalable model that you will first test and refine on a small scale. This will help limit any damage from any mistakes. I was lucky that I was starting a new company and so had the luxury of having a year or so to perfect it.

If you are already in a company that has a fair few employees then try your new approach out on a subgroup of workers on the project (be sure they represent a nonvital or time-constrained portion of the project) or even better, try to gradually phase in all the different changes of approach bit by bit. Remember that people are more often than not resistant to change. This will help you overcome this.

7. A good wine ages slowly

As a final point, you should approach refining your development approach as a long-term project. You should always be looking for ways to refine your methodology just as you are your product line.

Ok, so that's the main points covered. Can you think of any I have missed? If so, which ones? Please let us know your feedback below and tell us of any stories you have had trying to streamline your project management approach. All the best.