2.5. Managing your project

Remember to regularly pause from your team’s mad programming frenzy to put your heads up and think about the lifecycle and the schedule of your project. What build are you on, is it an alpha or a beta, when’s your next demo, how much time is left, who’s doing what now, and what are the major risks to finishing your project on time?

At the beginning of the project your team (possibly a team of one, if you’re working alone!) is in the prototype phase; this is the phase when you barely know what you’re doing and are still trying things out. Later on you’re in the alpha phase where you’re got a basic handle on things and you’re adding neat features to the program as fast as you can. And then the team has something you ...

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