The context of this question is rather straightforward. A good friend of mine is the sole developer at a small graphics design studio which is increasingly doing web app development. The owner of the company is a traditionally-trained designer, and there are significant communication and management problems.
Examples include the owner giving quotes and timelines to a client for changes that seem simple to someone who considers only the visual aspect of a web app, but that may require a complete technical overhaul of that app's architecture. On the other side, the programmer, being inexperienced in larger projects, often has difficulty with providing estimates which include the omnipresent "unforeseen difficulties".
The situation is that everyone - owner, developer, and client - are frustrated. In particular, my friend has dealt with very high levels of stress out of failing to deliver on unrealistic timelines - which he sometimes does not even recognize as unrealistic.
All of my googling so far has yielded only literature on managing software development companies and similar.
Is there any good literature on managing software development by a non-technical manager at a company that is not a software company? Recommendations would be highly appreciated; thank you in advance.
Examples include the owner giving quotes and timelines to a client for changes that seem simple to someone who considers only the visual aspect of a web app, but that may require a complete technical overhaul of that app's architecture. On the other side, the programmer, being inexperienced in larger projects, often has difficulty with providing estimates which include the omnipresent "unforeseen difficulties".
The situation is that everyone - owner, developer, and client - are frustrated. In particular, my friend has dealt with very high levels of stress out of failing to deliver on unrealistic timelines - which he sometimes does not even recognize as unrealistic.
All of my googling so far has yielded only literature on managing software development companies and similar.
Is there any good literature on managing software development by a non-technical manager at a company that is not a software company? Recommendations would be highly appreciated; thank you in advance.