- Every Software Project needs to be delivered on time and according to the client’s requirements
- 1. Project Scope
- 2. Quantify the Project Scope/ Requirements
- 3. Set the Development Deliverables
- 4. Start the Development
- 5. More Feedback and Quality Assurance
- 6. Test the User Acceptance
- 7. Project Delivery
- 8. Revisions
- Final Thoughts
Software project management, like any other project management, is not everyone’s cup of tea. It means that only some people like to engage in a process where they must constantly stay vigilant, collaborate, collect feedback, and keep correcting the measures.
According to Project Management Institute (PMI), “44% of projects fail due to a lack of alignment between business and project objective.”
This means that the person responsible for making major business decisions should actively participate in project management.
Every Software Project needs to be delivered on time and according to the client’s requirements
1. Project Scope
It has been observed that this is one of the steps that can either take months or be done within a week, depending on the software type and end goals. In any case, it is essential to have all the requirements from the software in a well-organized manner, whether in a simple Word document or received by the customer in a voice note.
The important thing is to extract only the most important details from the client’s requirements in this step and move forward to step 2.
2. Quantify the Project Scope/ Requirements
In general, quantifying means calculating or measuring something in numbers. But when we talk about project scope, it is abstract, and no numbers can quantify it. However, quantifying a project scope here means verifying and validating the requirements. Or to find out if the required software needs to be more generic to be misinterpreted.
You need to have specific details for the end goal of the custom software that you need to build. For example, a client asks you to develop custom software for financial modeling. Now, financial modeling is way too generic to be put into a scope unless the following elements are defined:
- The user of the financial model,
- Elements that need to be calculated,
- Design and structure details, etc.
3. Set the Development Deliverables
Any custom development company must set the development deliverables right after their project scope is quantified. This also means that the final requirements and tentative deadlines may be decided here.
Without having the deliverables ready, you will not be able to move any further in project management.



4. Start the Development
Without any further ado, software development should start at this stage. Therefore, all the planned requirements, quantified ideas, set deliverables, and end goals must be considered continuously during this phase.
This phase also requires constant monitoring and feedback to ensure that the development progress aligns well with the project scope.
5. More Feedback and Quality Assurance
Once the development process reaches the end, more and more feedback will be needed. This is also the phase where the quality assurance team will also be interfering. Although quality assurance is not to be done only at the last stages, it usually works best after collecting substantial feedback for the developers and other collaborators.
6. Test the User Acceptance
This is the phase where the project manager will ensure that the developed custom software is viable and user-acceptable. User acceptance testing involves several aspects, such as running the software and testing it for the tasks it has to perform.
In simple words, the custom software needs to be thoroughly checked for its performance from the customer’s point of view.
7. Project Delivery
There is always room for improvement in any project development. And in the case of custom software, this room can be pretty significant. That’s why it is important to include the revisions phase post-development stage.
The reason?
Additional revisions will not bother you and your development team!
8. Revisions
As already discussed above, this is the phase where you don’t need to be overwhelmed by the number of revisions required by the client.
All you need to do is take every aspect one at a time.
The best way to deal with the client’s requested changes is to make one change and then get it verified. Thinking about making and delivering all the changes simultaneously can cause further problems. It can consume more time before the final delivery of the project.

Final Thoughts
Although we have focused on custom development, we have tried our best to keep the article as generic as possible. This means you can consider these checkpoints applicable for any project development. But, of course, every project is unique in its nature and final goals. And that’s the reason you need to amend these checkpoints per your unique requirements.