Software project management: working with a freelance software developer vs. technical co-founder

July 6, 2015

In this video tutorial I talk about how to manage a software project, and how to manage a software engineer, or a development agency.

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It is the dream of many non technical software start-up entrepreneurs to work with a software engineer, but it is actually a difficult and tricky project to see a project through from concept to success. In this tutorial I explain some of the common nuances and pitfalls of working with engineers or software development agencies.

When you work with a freelance software developer, you should agree beforehand on whether you will be doing an extreme programming style of project management or agile style software project management. The extreme programming style requires a much closer working relationship.

Once you agree on your project management methodologies, it will be time to create documentation and begin coding. Once you begin the coding, you may want to bother your software engineer and ask to see how they are doing at every juncture of the project, or maybe every few hours, but don’t be one of those non technical co-founders. Generally, as a good software project management tactic, try to give your software developer(s) a good amount of breathing space to use their creativity, and not have to feel like they are being watched or monitored.

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