In For a more productive team, put the pressure on (within reason), Chris Hoover recommends a little pressure to help the procrastinators un-procrastinate, and help people get their work done on time. I only sort-of agree. Everyone has their own amount of pressure, and what’s good for you is not good for me. But working
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
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 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)
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
I just finished updating all my email newsletter (Pragmatic Manager) pages. I hadn’t announced my most recent newsletter, Making Waterfall (a Serial Lifecycle) Work For You, Part 1 (Vol 4, #1). I’ve reorganized the pages, so go here to read all the previous articles.
The Projects@Work folks have posted another excerpt from Manage It! See Roll With It to read a bit about rolling wave scheduling.
I reported on my progress cleaning up my office Cleaning Up the Office, Round 2. I hadn’t let it get that bad since that round of organizing, but I did ask for help from Daughter #2 in May, to buy some bins and drawers to continue my never-ending attempts to stay organized. The past 8
Tech Republic has the estimation chapter from Manage It!. There’s a great Manage It! review at Book Review: Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Michael Fransen enjoyed Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management. He posted a review. The session he took at Agile 2007 was “Hiring for an Agile Team,” based