Page 284 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes to bottlenecks in development where things get backed up because everything falls onto that
one overwhelmed person.
The Solution: Know what your and your teammates’ limitations are, and don’t jump into a
game project without knowing how to do anything. Learn development skills before joining a
project and you can spend more time making the game work instead of learning how to make
a game work. Don’t take on tasks you can’t deal with, especially if you don’t actually have the
skills involved. Putting on too many hats can be a common mistake, but it’s important to divide
work up so one person doesn’t become bogged down or overwhelmed. Know what your limits
are and abide by them to use these projects to fine tune and show off your skills.

Insufficient or Lack of Leadership

The Problem: Because most of the team members become friends through the process of
development, leadership can often suffer, especially if there isn’t a professor looking over their
shoulders. Since the students become good friends, they don’t want to tell their buddy that he
needs to step up his game. Insufficient leadership on the students’ part can really destroy the
game from the inside out. On the other hand, it could be that there is no student leadership, and
everything is run by a professor. This situation is okay for a class project, but for a student
project, which takes place outside of the classroom, it really is best to have students at least
partially leading each other.
The Solution: First off, let the students lead if they aren’t already. That’s not to say that professors
can’t help at times, but this is a learning experience for students to prepare them for the industry.
If the friend issue is a problem with the leadership on the team, the leads need to realize that
they have to put their foot down sometimes, for the good of the game. Good team leaders
should be able to communicate effectively, in a friendly but professional manner. Since leads
should be the ones the rest of the team goes to if they have any problems, it’s also important for
them to listen to and deal with the problems accordingly. For any leads on game projects, we’d
definitely recommend reading the book below.

Task In a group of four analyze the solution for lack of leadership in small projects.
Not Enough Playtesting

The Problem: Sometimes the game is not playtested during development, or very rarely is. You
have to playtest your game to ensure that everything is working as it should, to make sure that
it is fun and playable, to discover and fix any bugs, and much more. If the team doesn’t play their
own game, how will they know if everything is working properly, or if it even works? It’s also
imperative to have other people play your game, and provide feedback. When the only people
playing the game are the developers, it can be difficult to tell if the game is fun or not, and
developers will often see what they want to see rather than what’s really going on, especially
towards the middle and end of development.
The Solution: If the team isn’t play testing the game regularly, try setting up designated playtest
times. If a particular team member isn’t play testing, and their work is being affected by it,
someone should talk to them and explain, in a friendly but professional manner, why they need
to test their work. You should also get other people to play your game and give you some
feedback. This should be fairly easy, especially if you are an on-campus student. So long as those
who play provide honest feedback, almost anyone can playtest for you, even if they aren’t a
gamer.

278 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY