Last week, when I was at the Much Ado about Agile 2 conference in Vancouver, I had a conversation with Dan Rawsthorne. He said he wants to make sure his teams have demo-able software, not necessarily release-able. Interesting. So what would have to be true for an agile team to have “just” demo-able software, not […]
Imagine you’re working on or managing a project. You’re dealing with risks and making technical decisions–pretty much humming along. The project isn’t easy, but you’re making progress. One day, you arrive at work and your boss says, “Stop working on that project. Work on this one instead.” You do. A week later, the same thing
At SD earlier this week, I led a tutorial about coaching. Imagine my surprise when I asked people why they were there, and some of them said, “I have a person who’s not doing so well. I need to coach them.” Uh, no. You need to give that person feedback. Feedback is information about the
In his comment, Gregbo asks what I mean by “bad” judgment. Here’s an incomplete list: Frequent job changes, at least one job a year for several years Months of no discernible work or lag times between jobs. Titles that appear to move up and down the ladder. There are more, but those are the
In Integrity is the Most Important Requirement in a Manager, I talked about integrity as a requirement for a manager. With the current Patriots scandal, I’m wondering what Belichick was thinking. I don’t claim to know everything about football. I enjoy watching the games. I enjoy seeing a team come together, which is what the
I had the pleasure of speaking with two different colleagues today, both with the same dilemma. They are near the end of their projects. They don’t quite have enough time for one round of final testing–but if they’re lucky and the stars align, and they don’t find too many problems, they can still (maybe)
In his comment, Justice points to the other side of when to ask salary questions. Too early, and you have the problem outlined in When to Ask About Salary. Too late, and you have Justice’s problem. The way you manage the salary question–which is admittedly the start of the salary negotiation–is in the phone
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been updating my web pages, which includes (finally) updating my workshops. One of the workshop you might be interested in is Hiring for an Agile Team. Hiring for an agile team can be a bit trickier than for more traditional project teams. The issues of culture, and personal
See my article on Recruitingtrends.com, Recruiting “Failed” Candidates. You can’t leave comments there so leave them here. (Link updated to point to this site.)
Greg Wilson posted a lovely review, Managing, Reviewing, and RESTing. I particularly like this part: Her new book is her best yet: personal without being chatty, and informative without being dry, it covers everything a technical manager needs to know about running a development project. Thanks Greg, and I’ll make sure my editor sees