One of the tasks recently added to my plate is managing a J2EE development project. Ever since I joined back at offshore, I have been managing production support projects. In a typical production support project, the team’s main task is to adhere to the agreed SLA (service level agreement) in keeping the system alive and well for the end-users. Normally there is no project plan. The team works on an ad-hoc basis. If the system is a new one, there will be more number of tickets to work on and if it is a stable system then the tickets are distributed over the available time. The life time of a production support team is normally a longer one.

Whereas it is an entirely different scenario in a development project. The project starts with a document of understanding and then it goes into project plan, requirements gathering, design and the rest of software development process. If the pressure of production support is one, that of development project is another. In a development project, one is running against a deadline. One has to track the hours/progress of oneself and the resources effectively. There is always a delivery to be made. It is challenging to keep the users satisfied, team members motivated and the management at a distance. So far, so good – we are on track. Hopefully it will be so till the end.