Developing a Professional Portfolio Posted
My column over at the Fast Company/Inc hiring site is up. See Developing a Professional Portfolio. You can’t leave comments there, so please leave comments here.
career, HTP
December 2005
implement by feature, MPD
Implementation by Feature and Embedded Systems Issues
I’ve been working with some companies who do hardware/software systems. Most often, they have some embedded code too, just to make life interesting. To be honest, I don’t know how to do implementation by feature for a whole brand new system. Here’s what I’ve been suggesting: Prototype the software architecture as early as possible,
HTP, interview
How Would You vs. How Did You
I led a very short interviewing class when I was in Israel, mostly teaching project management. One of my classes wanted a few tips on how to interview more successfully. I asked them what they were doing now, and they claimed to be asking behavior-description questions and using auditions. Those techniques should work, so I
MPD, schedule
Plan to Refactor
One of the scheduling tips I discuss in my project management workshops is “Plan to refactor.” I explain that if you’re using a lifecycle other than Agile, where the integration and testing is built into every iteration, you’re going to have to refactor at the end, when you do integrate and test. At one
MPD
Honest Anger is Fine
I’m in Israel now (for workshops). I was traveling through Newark yesterday, and had to change terminals between the domestic flight that got me to Newark and the international flight that was going to leave from Newark. Turns out, a bunch of other people had to change terminals too. The signs are so bad,
hiring strategy, HTP
Ask for Candidate’s Most Significant Accomplishment
I saw this gem of advice: ask for a candidate to explain his/her most significant accomplishment when sending a resume. (Found on Recruiting.com.) This is a great screening device (better than technical tests, in my opinion). Candidates, this means you need to be thinking about your significant accomplishments (work-related please, unless you can make a
MPD, project management
Lack of Failure is Not Success
When I teach project management, I teach people to know what success means, and to know what done means (release criteria). One of my students recently emailed me: At work recently, we’ve come upon a scenario where we have no success criteria (or more accurately, success criteria that we can measure in any way).
HTP, interview
Assessing “Executive Intelligence”
Take a look at HBS’s Working Knowledge, Hiring for Executive Intelligence. Some quotes that rocked my world: IQ test questions don’t assess the practical, on-your-feet thinking skills needed in business. What’s more, these tests have been repeatedly accused of racial and gender bias. Yet, despite these very real shortcomings, IQ tests are still a better predictor
MPD, project management
Frequency of Iterations is Related to Speed of Release
I’m working with a group of people who are new to iterative development. They’re doing more of a staged delivery lifecycle than an agile lifecycle, but they are releasing about once a month. They don’t like it, because they say they’re releasing too frequently. The problem is that their planning and releasing take too
HTP, job analysis
Upcoming Webinar: Detecting Cultural Fit Issues
I’m doing a webinar for Kennedy Information Systems next Friday, Dec. 9, 2005. The webinar is Detecting Cultural Fit Issues. It’s updated from the webinar I did in February. Please use the Kennedy link to register for the webinar. And for those of you who are wondering, I’m fine, just crazy-busy, which is why I