When I do assessments, I ask for lots of project documents and data. A few years ago, I was working on an assessment for a very large system, so I asked for an architectural picture. I was surprised–this million plus LOC system had no picture at all. No wonder it was so hard for the
I’m in Israel right now, doing an assessment. That means that I’m the one at “another” site for my US projects. Staying in touch is hard. I’m between 7 and 10 hours ahead of everyone I need to work with. Not easy to stay in contact. I do some reasonable things while I’m here: rent
I’d recommended a group consider pair-programming as a technique to help everyone learn more about the system. One of the developers came up to me later and said, “How do I give feedback while pairing?” I said “Nicely,” and promised more specifics. Here are my guidelines for pairing feedback: Explain the effect on me for
I just completed an article for a magazine. The original version was about 1400* words long, so the editors removed the last couple of paragraphs, made other minor modifications, and returned the article to me. I accepted most of their edits, added back the “missing” paragraphs, and sent them a note explaining their version
This is way cool: Roy‘s interview with me, “Hiring Techies and Nerds” is O’Reilly’s Pick of the Week. The first part of the interview is about hiring issues. But the last 20 minutes or so is about management and project management. If you haven’t heard it already, enjoy!
In December, when I was in Israel to teach for Sela, Roy Osherove and I recorded an interview mostly about Behind Closed Doors. We had fun and the recording shows it. Enjoy, and if you have comments, please leave them here or on Roy’s post
At a recent project management workshop, a participant asked was “I have responsibility but not enough authority to do what I need to do as a PM. How do I get things done?” I can’t remember feeling as if I didn’t have the authority to get things done as a PM. I decided long ago,
Just because I’ve been quiet doesn’t mean I haven’t been working. I’ve posted two project management templates, the project charter template and the project plan template at my Templates page. The AYE blog is up and running. I have more work to do on the template, but I hope you check it out. (If
After missing all of last year, I finally started writing my monthly newsletter. See The Pragmatic Manager email newsletter page to see the most recent article: Starting on Strategic Planning. If you like it, there’s a signup box on the top of the page.
A new-to-a-company manager explained this situation to me recently. She’d overheard something like this recently from one of her team members. So you’re working in a place where it seems as if all the managers are Bozos. But you like the work and you like the people, and you know nothing lasts forever. After