project management

Delegation is Teaching

November 23, 2009

Jurgen Appelo publishes a list of delegation checklist items from Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby Is the risk factor of delegating this work adequately addressed? […] Do the people have the skills to do this particular kind of work? Do the people have the right format for the work products to use? Do the people […]

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Avoiding Software Car Wrecks

September 15, 2009

I.M. Wright’s post on risk management is worth reading: Software engineers do this all the time. They come up with a development schedule, unexpected issues come up, and they end up being late. Instead of informing their managers of the delay, they avoid facing conflict, rush the work, sacrifice quality, and slip the schedule, all […]

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Time, Budget, Scope

September 14, 2009

I understand what Glen Alleman is trying to do here when he insists that you can pick all three of time, budget and scope, but he totally misses the point: Put these estimates into a schedule, sequence the work. See what you get. Don’t like the outcome? Adjust One, Two, or Three of the variables and […]

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Serialize Your Projects

September 13, 2009

Stephan Schmidt explains how doing several projects in parallel is counter-productive because of the high overhead costs involved. Projects must be tracked much longer, more documents are produced and must be tracked. All those status messages aggregate, flow upwards toward upper management, clog thinking and time. All those status messages flow to all stakeholders. Each […]

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Managing Perceptions

September 2, 2009

Suppose you are about to sign a contract with a company and you send the contract to your lawyer to see if everything is okay with it. You get a reply back saying that the contract is perfect and you don’t need to make any changes. You later get a bill for the time spent […]

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The Manager’s Manager

August 30, 2009

The most important person in your professional life is the person who your manager is beholden to. In a large organization, it is simple to identify this person: it is your manager’s manager. In a smaller company, it could be a C-level person or a customer. You see, the thing is that your manager is […]

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The Non-Delegation Trap

July 9, 2009

A project operates most efficiently when the division of labor within the project is done effectively. In simple terms, this means Every person works on tasks that will maximize the benefit to the team. Even if they are good at other tasks, they focus on tasks that bring the greatest value. They delegate those other tasks to […]

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Quality and Deadlines

July 7, 2009

In my previous post on software quality, I said that it was wrong to argue that quality lowers cost without talking about transition costs. There is also another dimension that we must consider, which is the calendar time taken for deliverables. In the long run, higher quality results in more deliverables or less development time […]

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Ask the Right Questions At the Right Time

July 1, 2009

If you want to get something done by someone, there are two basic basic rules to follow, otherwise you will end up getting frustrated: Don’t ask them a question when they are unprepared or under-prepared to deal with your request. Don’t ask them a question when they don’t understand your expectations of a reply. Other people […]

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How to Handle Extraordinarily Productive Employees

May 11, 2009

Johanna Rothman considers a management problem where a team has an extraordinarily productive employee in a team of average employees and suggests that the person may be more harmful than helpful: Another manager has the problem of one person bringing down the expertise of the entire group by being an indispensable employee. Indispensable employees prevent […]

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