Not every product has smoke tests (a series of tests you can run after each build to make sure the product works well enough to continue development and testing). Smoke tests provide early feedback to developers about their work. So, for the last several years, I’ve been suggesting to my clients that as they
We’re in the last stretch of finishing Behind Closed Doors, and now we’re fixing/regenerating pictures. When Esther and I made the pictures originally, we wrote them on flip charts and took pictures of them. (We were talking about information on flip charts — made sense to us.) Well, it turns out the pictures are
I have an article on Computerworld.com, Three Tips to Managing Across the Globe. Please leave comments here (because you can’t leave comments there.)
In the past few months, I’ve been teaching a variety of project management and hiring workshops. And (surprisingly to me), we’ve had discussions about whether someone is a manager or a lead. Some organizations have an aversion to calling people “managers.” Instead, they call them “leads.” One organization called their project managers “people lead.”
I don’t know how many managers tend to be extraverts (in the Meyers-Briggs sense of the word), but I suspect more managers tend to be more extraverted than introverted. If you’re not sure which one you are, ask yourself this question: Do you need to speak in order to think (extravert) or to think before
Technical people and their managers get caught in this myth all the time. And there’s a good reason for it. For the first few years of a technical person’s career — in fact until the person moves into management — each technical person is evaluated on their technical skills. When a star technical person moves
The full title of this management myth is: “If I just do a great job, the organization will run like a well-oiled machine.” Nothing like setting yourself up for failure, eh? Let’s unpack this myth. First, organizations are made up of people. And, let’s assume that they all come to work wanting to do a
I remember when I became a manager, I wished that I could be injected with everything I needed to know. For the first few years, when I thought I should be omnipotent, I’d come home and whine (sorry, but that’s what I was doing) to Mark. I finally realized that I needed training — even
Too many technical managers think that if they assign people to good work and leave them alone, people will be happy. It’s true that people need challenging and interesting work. And it’s true that micromanagement or other interference is not helpful. But people, even the most introverted people, need a relationship with their manager
This one hooks me all the time. I certainly try to be my best at all times. And, when I’ve worked for companies, I want to make them the best, too. But here’s the sad truth: you don’t have to be the best. You just need to be better than your competition. That said,