What are the needed skills to succeed in software project management?.

Lately, I have been asked to reflect on the last 2 years and come up with a list of skills and resources that have been the most useful in project manangement. Here is my list (so far) annotated with references. The list is quite different the then same list even 1 years ago. truely, the only constant is change. The list reflects the tools that have helped me personally, and may not be a good fit for everyone, these are skills and techniques I have actually used with some success, so if your favorite is missing... Order is not meaningful.

1. Patience, flexibility, detachment, and a sense of humor. (#1 thing).


2. Software cost estimation (see my blog entry on COCOMO)


3. Project mangement tools: red line reviews, MS Project, ...


4. Software testing using any tool you like + a software test plan against an up to date specification.


5. Correct staffing. IMHO the ratio of Dev/QA = 1:1 PLUS 1 PM per every 4 devs. Really. The projects that came together the best had these ratios.


6. Visio. ERD, DFD, System diagrams. Reverse engineering. It rocks.


7. Powerpoint. Forces crisp clear communications. [See my BLOG]


8. Visual Studio + SQL Server [duh] I wouldn't build solutions in anything else.


9. HTML/CSS (really, if you can't code them in a text editor, you do not know them really)


10. eXtreme programming. It does really make better code. Maybe not for everything, but for critical things.


11. MS Word with outlining turned on. If you do not use the outliner, learn it, it's worth the effort to learn it. Advice: Outline, content, clean up, format, publish is the correct sequence. [In general, let office be office, don't fight the default formatting , learn to love it. Come be assimilated, resistance is futile.]


12. A set of requirements or specification that actually captures the business rules kept up to date by devs/PM. Do just enough documentation to get by; as long as spec matches what got built = captured business rules + requirements + deployment/configutration instructions [do not forget these, they are only right if you can demo them, just like a backup only exists once it's been restored successfully].


13. Tools/toys and gizmos (oh, how did I live without them?): textpad, beyond compare, iconico tools, regulator, WinZip, Snippet compiler, Roxio.


14. Tunes. Music hath charms to relax the brain. They will pry my music match and dell jukebox out of my numb fingers.


15. My laptop + wireless connection. I have written great stuff in lots of weird places.