One of the ways I organize and plan for interviews is to use an interview matrix. I take the essential skills from the job analysis and use them in the interview matrix to decide who will ask which questions. No, I don’t make those decisions—I ask the interviewers who wants to ask which questions. Now
In But I Need to Know When the Project Will Be Done, I talked about what you can do for estimating an agile project (do a gross estimate of the backlog, estimate your velocity, better your estimate every iteration and keep talking to your management). What if you have a contract? What if your managers
In yesterday’s Globe, there was a question about How to cut ties when the old boss won’t let go. Oh my. If you weren’t sure you’d made a good decision, you know now you have. I actually think there is a better way to leave a job. Assuming you give two weeks notice, here’s what
Ian Dees and Miles Forrest interviewed me about Manage Your Project Portfolio. We had a great time in the interview, and it shows. Enjoy!
I was talking with a new-to-agile project manager, who said he needed take the first iteration to do design and estimation. I asked why. “Because our management needs to know exactly when the project will be done.” “Do you think your iteration of design and estimation will provide you a perfect estimate?” “Uh.” He paused.
I spoke recently with a senior project manager who is looking for a new job. I offered to review her resume, and she told me she didn’t think she needed it. She had the “secret sauce” to a great resume: every single line on the resume answered the “so what” question. If she has some
I had a great time in Japan last week with Esther. On the flight home, we started plotting our next book! @kaztak_en, Thank you for your invitation to see your team. It looks and sounds as if you are on your agile way. @kdmsnr, Thank you for your gracious hosting on Tuesday. You were even
Calvin is a technical lead, the team’s “go-to” guy. Now in his late thirties, he’s been developing since he graduated and has been a tech lead for the past five years. When anyone has a technical question, Calvin finds the answer. In the past, he’s been available to help others with their design, and he’s
I was talking with a project manager the other day. He said, “I don’t have enough developers, testers, or UI people. What am I going to do?” I said, “Well, you have enough people if you have more time. Do you have more time?” He rolled his eyes, and said, “What do you think?” “Then,
I’ve been working with program teams lately, and some of them have issues when they talk about different teams on their programs when they use words such as “headquarters” and “remote” locations. The headquarters teams tell me the remote teams don’t listen to them and the remote teams tell me the headquarters teams don’t hear