Have one or two open reqs? Want to make the most of them? Follow these steps: Define the job. Don’t create a laundry list of tools and technology. Create a set of requirements for the position: Who will the person interact with, and how What the person needs to know about the product domain
How much time should your project spend on development vs. time on quality? I’ve received a bunch of email over the past year asking me how much time a project should allocate to development and how much to quality. To me, that’s a funny question, because I think of quality as integrated with development. So,
If you’re like me, you work with people all over the world, never mind all over the country. I generally ask, “When is a good time to call?” before I call someone. However, some people don’t remember to ask. Or, they may remember to ask, but then forget to think about the time when
Many companies have automated spam filters. This is a Good Thing. However, they look for certain words that have been co-opted by the pornography industry, such as Xtreme Programming (XP) and a cum laude notation on a degree. It’s not a bad thing to look for spam and remove it. It is a bad
Many of the project schedules I review contain milestone completions on Fridays and new task or phase beginnings on Mondays. With a Friday or Monday milestone, what you’re really saying is that people can work overtime all week and all weekend to make the Friday milestone, so they won’t be late for the Monday start.
by Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published in Software Development, January 2003. When the avalanche of work piles up past your eyebrows, sending for a St. Bernard won’t help. Ask yourself six crucial questions—and use the answers to dig out of trouble. Part 1 of 2. Raul, a CIO, arrives at work at 7:45. Between
by Johanna Rothman. Part 2 from Shaking off the Shoulds. Don’t take on work just because someone else thinks you should. Answer these sanity-saving questions to trim your workload, be tactical and optimize productivity. Part 2 of 2. Remember Sisyphus? That unfortunate who angered Zeus was cursed with a job that may feel all too
The Pragmatic Manager, Volume 1 #2 Contents: This month’s Feature Article: Appreciations, Personalized Thank You’s Telelclass Announcement On the Bookshelf Want to hear more from Johanna? Want to read more of Johanna’s writing? =-=-=-=-=- Feature Article: Using Appreciations, Personalized Thank You’s The project retrospective was proceeding nicely. We’d had lunch, and we entered the mid-afternoon
“I’m so busy, I barely have time to think. I don’t have enough money to hire on someone full time, but I’d like to get off the merry go-round.” “I wish I had more business.” “How can I take on jobs with more challenge?” “I’m lonely. I don’t want to keep working alone.” Consultants have
Most of us track faults (also called defects, problems, issues, bugs) during the system test part of the project. However, many project managers don’t track how many of our fixes are successful and how many fixes are bad — either introducing a new defect or not completely fixing the original defect. If you’re looking for