I recently spoke with a manager who’d just added another group of four people to his original group of three. “I was doing fine with my three people before I took over this group. I had time to manage and I was able to contribute to the application. Now, with seven people, I seem to […]
Contents: This month’s Feature Article: Starting on Strategic Planning Announcements =-=-=-=-= Feature Article: Starting on Strategic Planning Since Esther and I published Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (see below for the official announcement), I’ve received several emails asking how to do strategic planning for small groups. Here’s an outline of a technique I’ve
I’ll bet you’re one of those people who have too much to do. (I haven’t met anyone in the past few years who didn’t have too much to do, so it’s not much of a bet.) And, I suspect that you’re so busy with what you’re doing, that you haven’t yet thought of what you
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. Your staff holds the key to some of the best hires you’ll make. Learn how to extract value from their connections. Employee referrals are an excellent source of hiring leads. And if you’ve been hiring for any length of time you already know that. Almost every organization has some employee referral
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. You don’t have to be an artist to put together a presentation that wows them. Normally, I speak to hiring managers, but this column is for candidates. If you’ve been working for more than a few years, or have moved, it’s easy to lose track of previous managers or peers. And
I meet many managers in the course of my work, and they all share a common complaint: They have too much work to do. I ask how they know there’s too much work to do, and they look at me as if I’ve sprouted another head or two. “My staff and I are spread too
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. This column was originally pubished on Stickyminds.com Summary: Resumes only tell a portion of a candidate’s story just like caller ID doesn’t always reveal the caller’s complete identity. Screening candidates over the phone can help extract more of the person’s story if you ask the right questions. In this week’s column,
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. This column was originally published on Stickyminds.com Partway through an assessment, the senior manager asked me, “How long should the testing take?” The answer to the senior manager’s question is, “It depends.” If you do test-driven development, there is rarely more than an iteration’s worth of at-the-end testing. When I coach
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published on Computerworld.com There’s some good news in this year’s salary survey. Salaries are up (a little), bonuses are up (a little) and the effects of layoffs, hiring freezes and outsourcing are all down — a little. And training budgets look as if they may be coming
I perform project and process assessments as part of my consulting work. During one assessment, a senior manager took me aside, and said, “I want you to tell me what you think of our testers.” “All of them?” “Yup.” “Ok, why?” “Well, the developers meet all their milestones, but the testers don’t meet any.” Hmm.