“Just go network. You’ll find the people (or the job) you’re looking for.” Yeah. Right. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that easy? If you’re like most technical managers (or technical people looking for a job), networking is not one of your innate skills. Here are some suggestions to help you network: Attend local […]
You know you’re supposed to keep your resume to two pages. But you’ve been working for 20+ years, and you have lots of great experience. Instead of pages and pages of the chronological resume, think about the kinds of things you’ve done in your work. Have you rescued projects? Have you facilitated strategic planning? Have
I’m facilitating a roundtable, Test Management 101, on Stickyminds, and someone just posted a question about how to measure testers to show return on investment: measuring the number of defects they find. Ouch. When you measure developers on the number of lines of code, or testers on the number of defects, or carpenters on
Fred Brooks, in his classic, “The Mythical Man-Month,” talks about a chief programmer team (chief programmer, and programmers of lesser hierarchy until you get to the peon). The chief programmer team works when one person can keep all the details about the product in their head. If you use several hierarchical teams of chief
If you’re a hiring manager, you’re probably faced with a gazillion resumes. You’ve taken the first step and screened the resumes (more on that in a future tip). Now you’re thinking about bringing candidates in for an interview.Stop. Don’t just bring people in for an interview. Phone screen candidates first. Ask questions to verify the
Sometimes on a project, we focus on an intermediate milestone in the project, such as Beta, or first performance test, or early ship. The project team works like dogs to make that intermediate milestone. Then, there’s still the rest of the project. Uh oh. Now you’re starting to cross the desert. (Thanks to Jack
The good news is the economy’s coming back slowly. The bad news is that it is *slow*. In a slow economy, companies fund line positions – positions that directly affect how well the company can complete its projects. The company may need staff positions, such as process improvement or administrators, but they won’t fund those
If you’re a project manager, a functional manager, a technical lead, or someone who wants to improve their work, start a journal or a log. When I was an engineer, I kept an engineering notebook. I discovered a bunch of ways I created the same defects. (Yes, developers create defects as they create products,
The Pragmatic Manager, Volume 1 #1 Feature Article: Three Parts of Estimation Project work estimation has three components: the initial first cut, commonly known as a SWAG (Scientific Wild Tush Guess), tracking the estimate against the actuals, and using the schedule to see what’s happening in your project. Part 1: Initial Estimate If you’re a
I use the CMM in my work. The CMM/CMMI is a wonderful collection of key process areas. Every product development environment can use many of the key process areas to improve their work. The keyword in that sentence is *many*, not all. When companies aim for a particular level of the CMM/CMMI, they do