Managing Projects as a Software Engineer
Software engineers manage many projects while balancing personal and professional commitments. To succeed, they must take on tasks that help them grow their leadership skills and find meaning in their work.
Focus on completing existing projects and on producing high-quality work.
Include roadmap reviews in weekly team meetings and check in with project leads. Regular reviews are necessary to assess progress and ensure goals are met. When planning, aim for a roadmap that allows up to a third of the total work hours to be spent on bugs, fixes, and backlog items.
Project timelines should be estimated and expected to take longer than thought.
It’s better to be ambitious and avoid overloading the roadmap than to add too few tasks. Software engineers should reflect on their goals and ambitions and be specific in their definition of success. This will enable them to create a clear roadmap with smaller achievable steps.
Engineers with a career vision, a development plan, and a balanced work-life are likelier to succeed.
