George Said:

what is difference between product development and project management?

We Answered:

I think it is hard to compare as u didn’t define both in specific manner like regarding which area u r talking about? both are similar under some contexts & sometimes come under two different categories. Product development is developing an existing product which you/your company have according to gain more profit or to increase the productivity of that product. If it is a commercial good, then u have to do a market research, & maybe you want to do a SWOT (Strength/Weaknesses/Opportunities / Threats) analysis or any other thing like that to identify the methods of doing it. Project management is managing a set of individual as well as interconnected multiple tasks to gain a common out put. This involves lots of activities same as product development.

Mary Said:

Project Management certification for new product development engineer?

We Answered:

yes testpassport is a good way and passcert is good suggestion too .more information you can visit http://www.passcert.com/index.html

Rafael Said:

What experience do I need for project development and management work?

We Answered:

Refer to CDM Regulations 2007, revised April this year

Phillip Said:

How does Project Management Costs vary with the size of the whole (software development) project?

We Answered:

In my experience as a software development project manager for a consulting / developing firm we added 25% - 35% of project management cost ON TOP of the actual development cost.

The reasoning for this is that the PM is the link between the customer of the project and the developers. Often they speak two different languages and you need the PM in between in order to "translate".

The range of 25% - 35% depended on the customer. If we knew that the customer was "easy" to deal with, then we could usually get away with only adding 25%. But if the customer required more hand holding and was generally "difficult" then we went as high as 35% because the PM would need to invest a lot more time into the project.

Until next time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
The Project Management PrepCast™ - http://www.pm-prepcast.com
The Project Management Podcast™ - http://www.thepmpodcast.com

Naomi Said:

Is Agile Development a project management methodology or purely a set of software development methodologies ?

We Answered:

As I understand it, agile development is a set of software development methodologies.
But, managing an IT project in which methodologies of agile development are applied follows an "iterative" project management process:
define--->plan--->implement/close ... re-define--->re-plan--->re-implement/clo… ... etc.
(in contrast, a typical construction project follows the waterfall model of project management).
If you are interested in more details, please check out www.project-management-knowhow.com

Lynn Said:

How to go from software development to project management?

We Answered:

These are two diff areas. Development is more to do with machines and individual effort where as Proj mgmt is with people and team effort. For the start you can read the PMP handbook or some of the process stuff like SDLC, Agile etc. After that you can go for PMP certification or Prince cert.

Felicia Said:

Project Management in Software Development?

We Answered:

Most project management principles are not industry-specific - I don't have a specific software PM book, but I do recommend Project Management for Dummies for all novice project managers.