Don’t depend on a work breakdown structure to keep your project on target: Write it out to help managers, team members and stakeholders find consensus. “I can’t get senior management to agree on what I think the project is supposed to do,” a project manager recently complained. “The developers don’t believe me when I tell […]
In Hiring Tip #5: Ask Behavior-description Interview Questions, I suggested that hiring managers learn how to ask behavioral interviewing questions. Behavioral questions assume that people’s behaviors don’t change; that people reapply those behaviors to new situations. If you’re looking for a job, learn how to answer these questions.Behavioral interviewing questions ask you questions about how
I ended up in the hospital last weekend (facial cellulitis – yuck). On my floor, we had people who were not too sick, who needed a few days to recover from an acute problem. Everyone’s prognosis was good, and the average stay on the floor was 3 days. Recovering from an acute illness takes
I had dinner last night with a CIO who’s working on outsourcing a significant part of his development and testing. He suggested that any senior manager who’s not thinking about outsourcing and how to make it work is missing the boat. “When you’re in a fixed cost development situation, and people are most of
When is a year of experience not a year of experience? When that experience doesn’t match your needs. Take my friend Zack for instance. A VP of Development, he recently came to me with a problem. “We hire the best people money can buy,” he said. “They have degrees and tons of experience. Why can’t
When I teach and discuss project management issues, I talk about project constraints and project requirements. Most people immediately think of the “iron triangle”: cost, schedule, and quality. But I don’t find that the iron triangle is sufficient when trying to discuss project tradeoffs. Project constraints and requirements have more than three sides. Project constraints
If you’re interviewing for a position, you’ve heard the old adage: “Research the company.” Yes, that’s true, and it’s not enough. It’s time to research the hiring manager also. Here’s how you research the company and the hiring manager: Research the company by reading the web site. Read the annual and quarterly reports. Read the
I think of development and test as partners. The developers create product and defects. The testers detect product and defects. They both need to understand what the product is supposed to be and how it’s supposed to work (the requirements). The more the developers explain the architecture and design, the better the testers can
Hal recently said, “Listening is one of the foundational skills of project managers.” I agree, and would add writers, tech support reps, people managers to that list. What about developers and testers? I think they need to listen also. Anyone working in an agile project needs to listen (including customers or product managers). Is there
In a recent blog post and comment, Hal Macomber said, “Listening is one of the foundational skills of project managers. Without a high level of competence at listenting projects are doomed to drift. Given the general characterization by wives that husbands don’t listen, anytime we have project managers who are men we have a potential