Last week, one of the mailing lists I’m on discussed the glass ceiling. Some participants doubted the glass ceiling exists — that it may be more of a reaction on the part of the person perceiving the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is real. Sometimes, it’s discrimination against people who aren’t developers (which is […]
In the last few weeks, I’ve received several questions about how to assess the productivity and effectiveness of testers. I’m concerned about this, because a tester’s effectiveness doesn’t just depend on the quality of the tester’s work, it depends on the quality of the work product the tester tests (as well as the schedule
When we talk to new managers, we ask them, “How many of you received management training?” Fewer than 50% raise their hands. As an industry, we don’t do a great job of grooming managers. Sure there are exceptions—bosses who mentor and develop the people in their groups to move into management and companies with strong
The Boston area still isn’t over the Red Sox loss last week, and one good thing to arise from their loss is a discussion of management decisions. In A cautionary tale: management counts, Douglas Eisenhart says “If you think management doesn’t have an impact on a team’s performance, think again.” Eisenhart then discusses Grady
On the face of it, higher productivity looks like a Good Thing. More products for less time. Who wouldn’t want this? But I wonder about this search for higher productivity. What do managers really want? If you want to understand about productivity for software organizations, read Putnam and Myers’ new book, Five Core Metrics:
Last week at the Software Development conference, I met a software director. His group, a total of about 30-40 people (I’ve forgotten the exact number) is responsible for all the software his company produces. He has two managers managing those folks. He’s busy, so although he requests that his managers have one-on-ones with their staff,
First read Esther’s entry about the Secrets of Motivation for some great pointers on not demotivating people. If you’re having a cynical day or need a chuckle go to Despair.com. At dinner last night, some friends were talking about motivational posters — and we all laughed. One colleague told me about these sarcastic motivational
Hal asks a fascinating question in Variation is an Enemy Enabler of Project Success: How can we take advantage of serendipity rather than forcing an outcome in our projects? (paraphrased) One technique is to observe and listen to the project. When PMs observe their projects, they look at and listen to: How people work together.
I was reading David Anderson’s Working Smarter Not Harder and thought about managers. David’s right, a few small improvements can dramatically increase a team’s productivity and therefore lower the cost of development. But I contend that most of the productivity costs in software is the way we mismanage software projects. If managers worked smarter, they
Earlier this week, I was at the Rational User Conference. I was part of a dynamic panel, “The People Factor: Experts Weigh In On The Soft Side of Software.” One question was about how technical managers or project managers have to be. Murray Cantor, one of the other panelists, summed it up this way: