7  Technical Projects

Author
Affiliation

Dr Randy Johnson

Hood College

Published

August 19, 2025

Acknowledgements

Creation of these notes included brainstorming and proof reading with Gemini.

What Makes Technical Projects “Special”?

  • How is building a bridge different from building a new mobile app?

Some possible answers include:

  • A bridge has

    • known physics
    • predictable materials
    • a fixed blueprint

  • The goal is to execute the plan perfectly

  • An app has

    • changing user needs
    • evolving technology
    • intangible materials (code)

  • The blueprint is a hypothesis that will change

  • The goal is to discover the right solution.

Key Characteristics of Technical Projects

  • High Uncertainty: You often don’t know the final solution when you start

  • Rapidly Changing Technology: The tools and platforms you build on can change mid-project

  • Intangible Deliverables: You can’t “see” code in the same way you can see a physical product, making progress harder to measure.

  • Complex Interdependencies: A small change in one part of the system can have unexpected consequences elsewhere

Discussion

Think of a technical project you’ve been a part of, even a small one. Which of these characteristics was the most challenging to deal with?

The Leadership Trio: Product vs Engineering vs Project Manager

Here we will discuss the often-blurry lines between key leadership roles in a modern technical team.

The Product Manager: The “Why” & “What”

  • Focus:
    • Product vision
    • Strategy
    • Feature prioritization - they are the voice of the customer
  • Asks:
    • Why are we building this?
    • What problem does this solve for our users?
  • Analogy:
    • The architect who designs the building based on the owner’s needs

The Engineering Manager: The “Who” & “How” (Technical)

  • Focus:
    • The people and the technical quality
    • They manage the engineering team, focusing on career growth, team health, and architectural integrity
  • Asks:
    • Who is best to build this?
    • How can we build this in a scalable and maintainable way?
  • Analogy:
    • The construction foreman who manages the skilled tradespeople and ensures the building is structurally sound

The Project Manager: The “When” & “How” (Process)

  • Focus:
    • Process
    • Execution
    • Communication
    • Manage the timeline & budget
    • Remove obstacles
    • In agile teams, this individual is often the Scrum Master
  • Asks:
    • When will this be done?
    • How can we streamline our process to get it done faster?
  • Analogy:
    • The general contractor who
      • coordinates all the moving parts,
      • manages the schedule,
      • ensures everyone has what they need to do their job

Discussion

In your experience, have you seen one person trying to wear all three of these hats? What was the result?

The SDLC: from Waterfall to Agile

Next we will discuss the evolution of software development life cycle (SDLC) methodologies as a response to the special characteristics of technical projects.

The classic waterfall model

Code 
graph TD
  A[Requirements] --> B[Design]
  B --> C[Implementation]
  C --> D[Verification]
  D --> E[Maintenance]

graph TD
  A[Requirements] --> B[Design]
  B --> C[Implementation]
  C --> D[Verification]
  D --> E[Maintenance]

  • Pros:
    • Simple
    • Disciplined
    • Works well when requirements are fixed and well-understood (like building that bridge).
  • Cons:
    • Extremely rigid - a change in requirements late in the process is catastrophic
    • You don’t get a working product until the very end

The agile revolution

Agile is a philosophy based on four key values from the Agile Manifesto

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan

Core ideas:

  • Instead of one giant waterfall, you have many small, iterative cycles
  • You build, test, and learn in small increments

Modern agile tools

  • Scrum:
    • An iterative framework for getting work done in fixed-length cycles called sprints
    • Provides:
      • A structured set of roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master)
      • Events (Daily Stand-up, Sprint Review)
      • Artifacts (Product Backlog)
  • Kanban:
    • A flow-based method focused on
      • Visualizing work
      • Limiting work in progress (WIP)
      • Maximizing efficiency
    • Think of a restaurant kitchen’s order board — it’s all about smooth, continuous delivery.

Reality: hybrid models

Most modern teams use a hybrid approach, borrowing principles from different frameworks to create a process that works for their specific context.