We are always on the lookout for new talent to join our team. Could this be you? If you’re anything like us you’ll want to ‘try before you buy’ so we asked our Software Project Manager to give us a sneak peek at their day as part of the Shield Safety Team.
Software Project Manager
As a Software Project Manager I am responsible for the management of development projects for new software functionality and gathering of business requirements, meaning that my role is really varied.
The first thing I do this morning is make myself a coffee. After logging in to my laptop, I check any emails that have come in the previous evening, noting any actions and prioritising anything important or stakeholder critical. I also check the status of each current project and its tasks, making sure the development team have logged their time from the previous day.
Each morning I attend the morning stand-up meetings with the development teams, to discuss progress made on yesterday’s tasks and activities, any issues currently being faced and how that may impact any milestones. We run through today’s plan and workload for each team member.
After stand-up I have a ‘project status’ conference call with project stakeholders. This is a weekly call where I update them on progress of current projects, run through any points and actions from the RAID log and discuss any other business or any items we are waiting on the stakeholder for. The call today goes well and we receive excellent feedback from the previous development release.
Today, one of my main tasks is to continue and finish writing a functional specification document for a new project. This document is intended to fully ‘flesh-out’ and detail all requirements of the project, functions of the system and deliverables, so the stakeholders and the project team have a full break-down and understanding of the work involved and exactly what the output will be. I am aiming to have this document complete today, so that it can be reviewed and hopefully signed off by our IT Director, which will then allow me to send across to the stakeholder, for approval, before development commences.
This afternoon I have two internal meetings, the first being a ‘one to one’ catch up with my line manager. This is a weekly meeting I have, where I can update my line manager on the status of each project I’m working on and discuss my current tasks and workload, bring up and discuss any issues I’m facing. This meeting also provides the opportunity to mention if I require any help or support with anything.
This is a productive meeting and, I’m able to re-evaluate my priorities for the coming week.
Following on from this meeting, I go straight into my next one, which is a briefing meeting with a software tester. During this meeting I brief the tester on a new piece of work, using the specification document and going through all requirements with them so they have a good and thorough understanding of the functionality and what we are looking to achieve. This meeting is an important part in the project lifecycle, as it allows the tester to go away and think about each and every possible scenario that could occur with the new project. They can also create a comprehensive testing plan, so that any potential bug or issue is picked up and resolved internally before we release to the stakeholder for User Acceptance Testing.
The remainder of my afternoon is spent continuing work on the functional specification document, and I feel very pleased that I am able to get it complete and sent out for approval before the end of the day.
Does this day sound better than your current working life? We are recruiting for new members of our Software Team, to find out more get in touch on 020 3740 3744 or visit our Careers page.
