I was at the Better Software conference last week, met a bunch of great people (including Jim Shore and Joel Spolsky). Another important person is someone who’s not famous–and important nevertheless. A senior tester explained her situation and asked for some help. “Most of our testers can’t read code. And, we don’t know what […]
A reader was reading Characteristics of Great Project Managers and asked, “Do you feel that to be a great Project Manager one need not know completely about the technology involved?” No. Project managers need to understand enough about the technology so that they can make tradeoff decisions (or help product owners make tradeoff decisions) about
When I teach project management, I ask the participants to create a project charter (See my templates page for one I use to start). I recently encountered a battered project manager who does not have a project charter for a project with 6 or 7 sub-projects. This PM is smart, but has never managed a
Since Esther and I started advertising our One-on-One workshop, I’ve been hearing wonderful stories about how managers and team members have benefited from one-on-one meetings. Here are some: A tester said he’d been ready to give notice when his manager started doing regular one-on-ones. WIth the advent of one-on-ones, his relationship with his manager
I’m the featured speaker at the next SIGIST event June 15. (I’ll be speaking at at a private event at Grove the next day.) Since I’m flying over on Tuesday, June 13, I expect to be awake enough for dinner on June 14. If you’ll be in London, and you want to get together for
Given the thoughtful comments on Architects Must Write Code and Testing Design, I’m wondering if some of the difference in our beliefs stem from our perceptions of the architect’s role. I see the architect as the technical lead who shepherds a product through the overall design, someone who explains enough about the system and
In Architects Must Write Code, several architects responded that I was too prescriptive (I’m summarizing their comments). Maybe. But I don’t think so. I’m in a nice hotel, where things just don’t work completely right. Yes, the hotel is clean (that’s the big thing with me). The hotel upgraded me to a suite with an
In addition to writing this blog, I also write Hiring Technical People. And, I’ve met a bunch of great recruiting-type people through that blog. One of them, Jim Durbin, has written a great review of Behind Closed Doors. He calls it “a reference manual for technical managers.”
At the most recent Boston SPIN meeting, I caught up with a fellow I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. He thanked me for the advice I’d given him on a tough project the last time I’d seen him. I had no idea what he was saying, so I asked him what the
Read this about “Business Improvement” and weep. Mindboggling, just mindboggling. Good thing you won’t have to wait too long for Tuning Up Teams. I’ve been reviewing the book for Esther and Diana, and with this book you won’t have to waste time answer some multiple-choice questionnaire and still not have information. They explain how to