|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Important factors to consider in managing a Visual Basic project successfully are as follows: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Give developers inexperienced with the powerful, overwhelming new features in Visual Basic the right resources to help them succeed, including acquiring an outside mentor if necessary. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Track and maintain domain terminology so that developers are not later sidetracked on ambiguity in users' terms. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Plan for the one- to three-month learning curve when hiring new developers on a fairly large project. (For smaller projects, the learning curve is typically shorter.) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When reengineering an undocumented legacy system into a Visual Basic application, be sure to allow time to help users separate (within reason) the navigation of windows from the actual tasks they are trying to accomplish. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Emphasize the necessity of having clearly defined project team roles. This helps avoid confusion as to which project tasks, component, and subsystem are assigned to which developers. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Avoid scope creep, or the unnoticed increase in the project's requirements. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Select, follow, and when necessary, customize an object-oriented methodology for the Visual Basic project (based on deadline pressures, budgets, and so on). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When developing a large Visual Basic project with more than one team, each tasked with developing a complex component or subsystem, develop a plan for coordinating the delivery of each team's expected product; this includes version control and compilation issues. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Make sure developers are physically seated within a reasonably close proximity to one another; the farther apart developers must sit, the less chance the Visual Basic project has for success. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Acquire Visual Basic and other development tools early enough in the project so that developers have a chance to get acclimated to the environment and toy with prototypes well before crunch time. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When a project grows too large, break it up into smaller projects. Visual Basic offers you the powerful feature of grouping many projects into one project group. You would then control the code through tools such as SourceSafe. The design models would then be broken out into categories in Visual Modeler or Rational Rose. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Build an intranet Web site to make available documentation, code, and executables related to all Visual Basic projects in your domain. |
|
|
|
|
|