Keith Ray posts this snippet of conversation: Ron Jeffries posted his email conversation with Jon Eaves on XP mailing list in “Bug tracking vs user stories” [ jon ] “Projects that have developers working on multiple simultaneous projects have a 30%...
Bob Lee & Keith Ray both commented on my post comments on my post Unskilled and Unaware of It. Bob says: The other interesting point in the article is that competent people *assume* that others are as competent. “It’s easy (for me) so it must be easy...
Stephen Norrie (an avid and well-organized collector of articles related to software development, technology, business and humans) pointed me to this study: Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated...
Alan Francis writes about programmer productivity in a piece titled you know who you are:More from Steve McConnell’s After The Gold Rush 2nd Ed – http://www.stevemcconnell.com/SoftFactors.pdfThe range in productivity says that some programmers are much...
Dale Emery makes a thoughtful response to my post Projects that will not die on his weblog : Success, Belief and Identity . Our mental models, beliefs, and sense of self do play a big part in how we see the world. what we see in the world, and how we respond when...
I came across this article on Stephen Norrie’s blog: HBS Working Knowledge: Leadership: When Bad Ideas Won’t Die Why do smart companies put so much energy into doomed products? University of Paris-based Isabelle Royer tackles this thorny issue in this...
Frank Patrick responded to my post on phoney actuals with a couple of pithy quotes about the perils of one-dimensional measures (for lots more on this read Robert Austin’s MMPO): “Tell me how you’ll measure me, and I’ll tell you how I...
I’m back from speaking at SD West, where I met several project managers who were promoted on the “Coder on Tuesday, Project Manager on Wednesday” program (similar to the “Coder on Monday, Manager on Tuesday” program). Expect to hear more...
Two recent posts (Focus, Focus, Focus and Breakthrough Thinking on Worker Productivity) talk about the effects of multitasking and interruptions. Spread a person across 4-5 tasks and interrupt her with phone calls, drop-ins, emails, beeps, and meetings and pretty soon...
Bouncing off the evils of multitasking, C. Keith Ray (who just started his own blog) has this to say about how pair programming can counter some workplace interruptions: Two effects pair programming has on tasking… in my experience… It keeps the people...
Yesterday after work, my spousal unit and I started our usual how-was-your-day ritual. He reported on a project he’s just started and a meeting with a colleague from a previous job. I told him about the article I’m editing and a conversation I had with a...
Tim Van Tongeren gives an example of how posting project information publicly can open up communicaiton on the project team This just won’t happen if the plan is sitting in a scheduling tool (MS Project or your favorite flavor) on the project manager’s...
I found this on Joe Ely’s weblog Learning About Lean: Central to any Lean system is Management by Sight. An effective system is very visual. In less than two minutes, any associate must be able to assess if the system is in or out of compliance. He tells a...
Yesterday I was re-reading The Myth of Fungible Resources in Slack by Tom DeMarco. Here’s the definition of fungible that appears in the book (p.13): Fun.gi.ble ….(especially of goods) being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or...
I some times suggest journaling as a useful tool for people who want to become more effective leaders. I know journals are a useful tool because I have friends and colleagues who have journaled for years and swear by it.But the truth is, I haven’t used a journal...
Do you notice and appreciate the people you work with? I’m guessing you do notice the small kindnesses, problem-solving, and mutual helpful that support camaraderie and collaboration. But when you do notice, do you tell them? I worked with a team this summer who...
A road trip provided an example of the importance of qualifying adjectives. It might not matter much in casual conversation. However, if you’re making decisions, you’d best have an objective comparison point to calibrate meaning. I just returned from my...
