Want to make sure you complete your project as early as possible? Define release criteria. Release criteria are the few critically important objective criteria that define what “done” means for your project. Sometimes, it’s a combination of date, defects, and feature completion. Sometimes it’s just the date. The formula for defining release criteria is: Define […]
In response to my most recent Pragmatic Manager (about shortening project startup times), a colleague wrote: “I am working on a lifecycle definition team in my department and finally convinced the team that Agile Development was a Methodology using an Iterative Model lifecycle.” My colleague has neatly described the methdology (the practices) and the
I’ve been thinking about Martha Stewart and her felony conviction this past weekend. I use this quote in the hiring book: “Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don?t have the first, the other two will kill you.” — Warren
A colleague emailed me a few days ago, and asked “for a code base with a [given size], what can we expect to see for numbers of defects per KLOC (given the actual industry average or given what the industry believes we should expect). We need some way of gauging whether or not our
Joel’s discussion of project managers (MS calls them program managers) and developers got me to thinking about the differences between project managers and developers. The difference between project managers and developers is where they deal with complexity and decision-making. PMs deal with complexity and decision-making between people. Developers deal with complexity and decision-making in
I’m editing a chapter in my hiring book, and the original sentence reads: …managers amplify the work of other people … The editors have suggested that amplify is the wrong word, and suggested “facilitate.” I’m still thinking about this. Managers do facilitate the work of other people. They also make their staff more effective.
We were on vacation last week in Breckenridge, CO. I enjoyed it, although it did take me a few days to acclimate to the 9600 feet altitude. Returning on I-70 East, we saw some great road signs: Truckers don’t be fooled – 4 miles steep grade Truckers you are not done yet – 1.
Just in case you hadn’t heard enough from me about inch-pebbles, here’s an article I wrote for Computerworld.com. Bloglet readers, it’s possible I have finally convinced Bloglet there’s nothing wrong with my blog. You’ve missed a couple of weeks worth of postings. Sorry about that.
I’ve been at this now for a year, and here’s my mini-retrospective on my blogging: What did I do well that I don’t want to forget? I learned that even a small entry that helps me to think more is useful. I don’t have to wait until I have completely well-formed thoughts. Pointing you to
I’m on vacation, so I’ll be blogging very little this week. In my last Pragmatic Manager email newsletter, I wrote about killing canceled projects. Here’s the summary: Explain why you’re canceling the project. Give people time to clean up their work before starting on their new work. Cancel all meetings associated with this project.