Last week, one of the mailing lists I’m on discussed the glass ceiling. Some participants doubted the glass ceiling exists — that it may be more of a reaction on the part of the person perceiving the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is real. Sometimes, it’s discrimination against people who aren’t developers (which is […]
Hal posted his take on creating faster cheaper projects. (See Creating Faster Cheaper Projects.) I see that I did not make my assumptions clear in my original post. Hal had three problems (at least!) with my post: Fewer people increase the length of the project. The longer the project, the more the requirements will change
Performing projects faster and cheaper seems to be the holy grail for most organizations. Here’s the secret: If you really want to perform projects faster and/or cheaper, start them earlier. When you start projects early, you can assign fewer people, so the costs start off lower. When you start the project early, you can
So you’ve developed a phone screen of 10-12 questions, with your elimination factor questions at the top. You’ve hit a snag with a candidate and you’re sure the candidate will not fit your position. What do you do? Stop the phone screen. Right now. Say, “You’re not a good fit for this position. Thank you
If you need a chuckle, read John Kador’s parody of a rejection letter. I laughed out loud. John is writing a book about the brainteaser interview, available in 2004. Since I’m sure not all hiring managers will heed my advice about not using puzzles in an interview, you candidates may want to read John’s book.
Since there’s a (temporary in my mind) glut of candidates, some hiring managers are asking for specific industry expertise, such as: consumer product, enterprise-wide application, or web-content expertise. Unfortunately, that’s shorthand for what I believe people are really looking for: a specific mindset that meets the cultural requirements of the product development process. Here’s an
I spoke at a graduate class last week, presenting my “Interview with Ease” (candidate version, not the hiring version) workshop to the class. One of the questions that arose was: What do I do when I’m faced with a puzzle? In Down with Games and Puzzles, I suggested using an audition instead of a game
In the last few weeks, I’ve received several questions about how to assess the productivity and effectiveness of testers. I’m concerned about this, because a tester’s effectiveness doesn’t just depend on the quality of the tester’s work, it depends on the quality of the work product the tester tests (as well as the schedule
A Project Manager Described his Recent Agile Project in this Way: Agile practices helped us know where we were the whole way through the project, but we had a side benefit I hadn’t anticipated. The testers drove the project. In every other project I’ve managed, the testers were downtrodden, always complaining about the time they
In a comment on my last post, Roy asked if I could elaborate on what I mean when a candidate runs the interview. Here’s what happened to me at one interview years ago: I arrive on time for the interview, wearing a suit (hey, it was the early 80’s, that’s what we wore). The interviewer