A few weeks ago, I made this post about some of the difficulties I’ve had with working on my personal software projects.  In short, the difficulties stem from the fact that I’m trying to take on too much at once, trying to make everything perfect, and not doing enough project planning ahead of time.  I’ve made the decision to do something about this, and will start a new adventure in learning: project planning and management.

I would like to emphasize that the only management experience I’ve had is two years at a fast-food place when I was in college, therefore, I’m pretty much starting from scratch on this.  I’ve done a lot of self-learning over the past five years, learning new programming languages, patterns, practices, etc., but I neglected project management.  I see this as a mistake for a variety of reasons, the most important being that if I don’t plan my project out, how am I going to know what direction to take it or what features to implement?  I’m sure some people can do a “fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants” style of development, but I prefer to outline what has been done and what’s yet to come, even if it takes a few revisions along the way.

Where to begin?

I have a strong interest in Agile software development processes, such as XP or Scrum.  Since I’m looking for a solo development process, and thus having to take on multiple roles at different points in the project lifecycle, taking one of these approaches to its full extent is probably not a good idea, since they are more team-oriented.  Finding the right subset of practices that would fit nicely with my individual development style, while allowing me to better manage my personal projects, is part of the challenge here.

I will probably start my search by looking for some blogs or online articles on the subject, then branch out into books.  If anyone has any suggestions to make, please do so.

Am I over thinking this?

I’ve asked myself this question a few times before I made this post.  I would think that any project, team or solo, would need some kind of feature list at the very least, and some kind of system to keep things running smoothly.  The difference is that in a team environment, there is usually a person designated as a project manager who does a lot of what I’m missing.  Am I overcomplicating the issue?

Thanks in advance for any input I may get from this.  I’m always encouraged when I find something new to learn about, and this is no different.  I see lots of potential improvements for myself as a developer through this adventure, regardless of the environment, and that makes it worthwhile.