In a few weeks, I'll be starting a new job where for the first time in my career I'll be in charge of a project starting from scratch. This will not only be the first time I'm involved in a project which has literally 0 lines of code written when I show up but also the first time when I'll be responsible for both structuring the whole project and actually telling other developers what to do. Basically, it's up to me to make sure the foundation everything will be built on doesn't suck.
Any advice on things I should think of or obvious mistakes I should avoid would be great!
Risk management should also be a major focus. Always ask what could go wrong. I recently read an interesting proposition - in the project initiation stage outline the goal and state that the project has failed. Then ask for reasons why this could have happened. This will help the team identify assumptions, constraints and risks to be avoided or mitigated. It also focuses the team on risk management from the very start.
Herding Cats has put together a good outline of the subject:
http://herdingcats.typepad.com/my_weblog/2017/08/risk-manage...