ROLES IN PRODUCTION
Producers drive the schedule and keep the entire development process on track. They are often responsible for the project budget and for moving resources (people and/or computers) around to help address the various challenges that a team might encounter.
Business projects are created to achieve specific goals (usually to make money). Producers are responsible for driving the process to hit those goals, and they only succeed when they achieve the results that the company is looking for.
Imagine a company wants a cheaply made app to feature a movie tie-in toy. It’s critical that the software be available for download when the associated toy is available around the world. If the assigned producer is late on delivering that app so that the software isn’t available to coincide with the toy, that producer is doomed. It wouldn’t matter if the game was terrific when it finally came out, or if the team that made the game was happy and healthy. In the business world, if the project fails to meet the needs of the company, it’s a fail.
Hardy Says: I often hear developers lament that producers don’t seem to understand the challenges of the development process. They cry that producers don’t seem sympathetic to weaknesses of the flesh, or failures of the spirit. To the uninitiated, producers can seem like heartless monsters. Remember, the producers’ parameters for success are sometimes at odds with the goals of the other roles. And that’s not a bad thing, it’s just reality.
Also included in this discussion of production roles are testers and quality assurance analysts, those people who help ensure that the product works as designed. These entry-level, but vital, roles are often the beginning of the path toward a job in production.
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