If this month’s guest column strikes a familiar chord with you, welcome to the club. We have all been there. Caught in the maelstrom of unrealistic requirements and damnable deadlines, we grab for whatever tactic looks like it might keep us afloat. More often than not, we start putting in longer hours and expect everyone […]
© 2000 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published in Software Testing and Quality Engineering, March/April 2000. Many of us have worked in test groups in which we felt as if we didn’t have enough time, hardware, or staff to do the work. In those situations it’s hard to escape the feeling that while somebody might be in
by Johanna Rothman. Originally published in Cutter’s Business-IT Alignment E-Mail Advisor, February 2, 2000. A number of IT alignment issues are related to the difficulties in hiring staff. Let’s assume you’re in “constant hiring” mode — you continually get resumes, interview people, and decide on whether to hire various candidates. But are you asking questions
© 2000 Johanna Rothman. You’re not going to meet schedule. Maybe requirements have taken longer. Perhaps in the middle of implementation, you uncover something requiring redesign. Maybe the developers haven’t met one milestone yet and you’re worried about the test time. What do you do? The first slip is the initial indication that something is
© 2000 Johanna Rothman. The push to web-ify your business can feel overwhelming, especially when senior management is already demanding to know whether it is ready and when it will be released. If your organization is struggling and does not want to review all of the requirements in detail to get a project moving, you
© 2000 Johanna Rothman “We’re repeatable. We consistently and repeatably do the same stupid things over and over again.” – senior test engineer Process improvement experts emphasize the importance of having a repeatable process. I’ve found that the term “repeatable” is often misused to mean “not entirely chaotic.” In process improvement terminology, “repeatable” means that
© 2000 Johanna Rothman A recent client, Bob, asked me to assess their major project. “Johanna, it’s so late, I don’t know what to do. If we don’t get it out on time, we’ll miss the market window. I can’t believe any of the estimates I get anymore, the project manager hasn’t met a single
©2000 Johanna Rothman Many of us are in “constant hiring” mode–continually receiving resumes, interviewing people, and deciding on whether to hire various candidates. Are you asking questions that get you informative answers about your candidates? There are many potential kinds of interview questions and situations: closed, open, hypothetical, meta questions, auditions, and rhetorical questions are
©2000 Johanna Rothman “I can’t make a decision today to save my life.” Susan, VP Engineering “Everything I touch today turns into garbage.” Joe, VP Engineering “I just want to hurt everyone when I can’t get anything done. Why should they have a good day, when I’m having a lousy day?” Cyril, CEO
© 2000 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published in Mass High Tech, 2000. “We’ll sell some consulting along with our product, until we’re making enough revenue. Then we’ll phase out the consulting, and be just a product company.” — senior manager at a Boston-area web-based startup Many startup software/web-based companies decide on a business model