Category Archives: Articles

Managing the Group Meeting

©2003 Johanna Rothman, www.jrothman.com Does your staff look forward to flu season so they don’t have to attend your group meetings? Are you looking for ways to escape your manager’s meetings? Boring group meetings tend to be a result of … Continue reading

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Managing in Mayberry: An examination of three distinct leadership styles

2001 Don Gray and Dan Starr Near the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, not far from where you think it should be, there really is a town called Mayberry. Although the main highway bypassed the town years ago, the … Continue reading

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Managing a Struggling Employee

©2003 Esther Derby, www.estherderby.com Sooner or later every manager faces the same dilemma: What do I do when I inherit or hire an employee who turns out to be a poor fit for the job? Tom was the development manager … Continue reading

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Managing the Interview

This article is an excerpt from Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People, (Chapter 9: Planning and Conducting the In-Person Interview, p. 182-184) by Johanna Rothman. Published by Dorset House, 2004. … Continue reading

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Measuring Up

©2003 Esther Derby, www.estherderby.com This column originally appeared on Stickyminds.com It’s 10 a.m. You’re about to ship to five beta sites. You’ve met the date, you’re within budget, and the defect counts have been steadily declining for the last four … Continue reading

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Meeting Customer Requirements, First Time, Every Time

© 2000 James A. Ward, www.jamesaward.com Reprinted from Information Systems Management, Auerbach Publications, Summer 1994. Total quality management is a commitment to the continuous improvement of work processes with the goal of satisfying internal and external customers. It’s the customer … Continue reading Continue reading

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Mistakes and Insights Found at a Sale

© 2001 Becky Winant Recently my partner and I had a garage sale. Well, not a typical garage sale, but an office version. We were moving our office from the first floor of a building, which included a storefront, to … Continue reading

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Multiprojecting: The Illusion of Progress

©2005 Johanna Rothman This article was originally published on Stickyminds.com Your CIO has two projects he wants finished in the next month. “We can share this project manager and that test team on both of these high-priority projects,” he declares … Continue reading

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Multiuse Model

©2007 Donald E. Gray Models are like kitchen utensils. You need a variety of them, and you should know when and how to use them. They should be useful for more than a single task. I recently started exploring the … Continue reading

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My Company Won’t Pay! How To Get Approval To Attend Conferences or Training

© 2002 John Suzuki, www.jksassociates.com Sometimes getting what you want requires a little creativity. While working for a Fortune 50 company several years ago, I desperately wanted to attend a conference in a newly forming discipline. My manager supported my … Continue reading Continue reading

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My Days As a Barber

© 2000 Jim Batterson I shall take advantage of this opportunity to unburden myself on you with a little story. You know, before I was a programmer, I was a barber. One day I was sitting in my shop when … Continue reading

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Not an Estimating Problem

©2007 Dale Emery “Dale, I have an estimating problem,” Paul said. “My product manager, Sandra, wants to know when we’ll be done testing, and I don‘t know how to estimate that.” “What do you mean by ‘done’?” I asked. Paul … Continue reading Continue reading

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What’s On Your Not-to-do List

©2005 Johanna Rothman This article originally appeared on stickyminds.com. I’ll bet you’re one of those people who have too much to do. (I haven’t met anyone in the past few years who didn’t have too much to do, so it’s not … Continue reading

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On Second Thought

© 2003 Dwayne Phillips, home.att.net/~dwayne.phillips I spend most of my professional life attempting to solve problems. I face some of these problems privately, but I face the rest with other people. Sometimes people working a problem will ask me for … Continue reading

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Overcoming Resistance

©2007 George Dinwiddie As a software development consultant and coach, I help software developers become more effective at developing software. Helping a team become more effective takes more than technical expertise. Sometimes helping does involve teaching technical skills. Sometimes, it … Continue reading

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Incorporating Part-time Team Members

©2006, Esther Derby This article originally appeared on stickyminds.com. “Part-timers just don’t seem to fit in with the team,” a manager complained. “I do everything I can to impress on them the importance of team work and team spirit, but … Continue reading

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Peer-to-Peer Feedback

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Pennywise

©2005 Esther Derby This column originally appeared on Stickyminds.com Back in the late 90s, both demand for qualified people and salaries were high. Hiring managers scrambled to make offers within hours of seeing a promising resume and bidding for the … Continue reading

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Performance Without Appraisal

©2007 Esther Derby The idea of merit rating is alluring. The sound of the words captivates the imagination: pay for what you get; get what you pay for;motivate people to do their best, for their own good. The effect is … Continue reading

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Planning for Delays

©2000 Gerald M. Weinberg, www.geraldmweinberg.com As some of you know, a group of consultants are producing a conference for our colleagues and clients. It’s called AYE, for “Amplifying Your Effectiveness.” One of the main goals of this distributed project is … Continue reading

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Plan to Re-plan

©2003 Johanna Rothman, www.jrothman.com Do you sometimes feel partway through a project, that you now have some key information that would have helped you plan the project’s tasks better? If so, you’re not alone. Software projects typically unfold in unforeseen … Continue reading

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Playing Hooky

© 2005 Robert (Mike) Melendez Software testing provides a wealth of tall tales, some of them true.  If we bury ourselves in our work, we can tell the tales, but not see their significance.  Sometimes we need a break.  Sometimes … Continue reading

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Predictions

©2003 Gerald M. Weinberg, www.geraldmweinberg.com People are always asking me to make predictions, especially predictions about their financial future. Which stocks will grow? Which dot.coms will fold? What jobs will be best? What should they study to prepare for their … Continue reading

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Project Pitfalls

©2000 James A. Ward, www.jamesaward.com Despite the best efforts of the project manager and the project team, organizational forces may work against project success, especially on projects with tight time constraints. This column normally deals with issues of applying Total … Continue reading

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Purrfectly Obvious

© 2003 Naomi Karten, www.nkarten.com This is the story of a runaway cat that helped me make a point during a seminar I was presenting to a client company. We were discussing how easy it is to make false assumptions … Continue reading Continue reading

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Put Confer Back in Conference

© 2001 Pat O’Toole At the end of a marathon, each weary runner is greeted by a sympathetic volunteer who congratulates them on their outstanding accomplishment, hangs a medal around their neck, and hands them the coveted Finisher’s t-shirt. You’re … Continue reading Continue reading

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Quality Interactions

©2005 Esther Derby This article originally appeared in insights Vol. 3 No. 1 Usually, when we think about software quality, we think of good designs, maintainable code, or low defects. In my view, quality starts long before we start writing … Continue reading

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Real-Time Feedback

©2003 Esther Derby, www.estherderby.com Twice a week, I go to the gym and weight train with Brooke Darst, a Certified Personal Trainer. As I perform my exercises, Brooke provides a constant stream of feedback: Minor corrections, “Chin in! Lower your … Continue reading

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Reasons

©2001 Gerald M. Weinberg, www.geraldmweinberg.com [Note: In September, 2000, at the SEI’s Software Engineering Symposium in Washington D. C., Jerry was the recipient of the 2000 Stevens Award. The award recipient is recognized for outstanding contributions to the literature or … Continue reading

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Rethinking Stand-Up Meetings

©2007 Steven M Smith Stand up meetings are popular in software development organizations now. What makes a stand-up meeting more effective than a traditional meeting to socialize status information? Nothing. The effectiveness of a stand-up meeting, like the traditional status … Continue reading

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Rethinking Stand-Up Meetings, Part 2

©2007 Steven M Smith I argued in my first article about stand-up meetings that the right participants were the key to a successful meeting rather than whether the participants were standing up or sitting down. Despite my dislike for forcing … Continue reading

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Rewriting the Story of Resistance

© 2006 Dale Emery "I’m stuck and I need your help," Susan said. Susan was Director of Human Resources at a multinational paper company, and was leading the effort to change the company’s structure from top-down management to self-directed work … Continue reading Continue reading

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Starting With Rolling Wave Planning

©2006 Johanna Rothman Some project managers considering moving to iterative, incremental, or agile lifecycles, stumble when it comes time to move to rolling wave planning. They aren’t sure how to start it, how to continue it, or how to see … Continue reading

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The ROTI Method of Gauging Meeting Effectiveness

©2003 Esther Derby. This column originally appeared on Stickyminds.com If you lead meetings, you can make improvements starting tomorrow. For a small investment of your time, you can return time to your staff by eliminating unnecessary meetings and improving the … Continue reading

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Safety Check

©2005 Steven M Smith He is wearing his traditional garb — dark suit, white button down shirt, red tie, and black tasseled shoes. The glare off his wire rimmed glasses makes it difficult to see those steely blue eyes. Harry … Continue reading

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Schedule Chicken

2005 Johanna Rothman I perform project and process assessments as part of my consulting work. During one assessment, a senior manager took me aside, and said, “I want you to tell me what you think of our testers.” “All of … Continue reading

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Should a ScrumMaster Give Performance Appraisals?

©2006 Esther Derby A ScrumMaster recently asked me if he should take over responsibility for year-end performance evaluations since he was closer to the work than the functional manager for the team. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this … Continue reading

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Advice for Software Development Managers

© Gerald M. Weinberg, 2004 www.geraldmweinberg.com Software Development Magazine recently interviewed Jerry. Here are some of his answers. Q: Whats the most important piece of management-related advice anyone has ever given you? GW: If you blame your employees, you’re a … Continue reading

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The Secret of Agile Development

© 2003 C. Keith Ray, homepage.mac.com/keithray What is the secret of agile software development? It is feedback. Where’s the Pain? To begin to be more agile, ask yourself, “What is painful in my process?” You spent six months creating a … Continue reading Continue reading

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The Secret Ingredients of High Morale

©2004 Esther Derby This column originally appeared on Stickyminds.com Jessica and Sean scowled as they headed back to their cubicles after the company spirit meeting. “I can’t believe they wasted two hours of our time with that award ceremony and … Continue reading

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Seeing the Other Person’s Big Picture

©2000 Gerald M. Weinberg, www.geraldmweinberg.com You’re entering a new situation, and you’re ready to gather the Big Picture of the other people involved. Whatever you do, don’t try the following process without first getting a Big Picture of yourself, as … Continue reading

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Seeing Your Own Big Picture

©2000 Gerald M. Weinberg, www.geraldmweinberg.com The editor of Contract Professional chose the name for my column there, “The Big Picture.” He told me he chose the name “because you (Jerry) look at the business of contracting and consulting and the … Continue reading

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Shifting the Burden – Whose Monkey Is It?

©2005 Don Gray “Repeatedly curing a system that can cure itself will eventually create a system that can’t.” – Marvin’s Second Great Secret, Jerry Weinberg “Don, the software’s locked up again! Can you come up here tomorrow and fix it?” … Continue reading

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Software and Society: What it Means to Be Professional

©1998, 2002 Don Gray, www.donaldegray.com Man’s achievements rest upon the use of symbols. – Alfred Korzybski Why is our field struggling in its efforts to become and engineering discipline? The answers lies in our heritage as symbol processors and the … Continue reading

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Some Barriers to Team Coordination and Collaboration

© 2000 John Suzuki, www.jksassociates.com Executing software development activities across geographic and time zone boundaries presents unique challenges to both management and practitioners. These issues apply to any discipline in which close coordination is required between members of a group. … Continue reading Continue reading

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So, Sue Me

©2007, Gerald M. Weinberg This morning’s news brings a story of a small manufacturer of add-on hardware suing large computer manufacturers for alleged illegal price-cutting. I was surprised. I thought the lawyers had finally learned the futility of suing hardware … Continue reading

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Spending As If There’s No Tomorrow

© 2002 Sherry Heinze A few days ago, I was released early from a contract because of capital cost cutbacks.  Then a heat wave hit.  I don’t handle heat well; my salvation in the summer is usually working in an … Continue reading Continue reading

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Staying Sharp

©2003 Gerald M. Weinberg, www.geraldmweinberg.com I’m not the kind of person who hangs out in nightclubs. In fact, the last nightclub I can remember visiting was in Miami Beach in 1957. What I remember about it is what the stand-up … Continue reading

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Humor and Stress, or How the Universe Gave Me an Opportunity to Practice

by Diane L. Gibson, 2004 Recently, I found myself faced with a number of difficult events at work. It seemed things were just crashing around me; the pressure was intense, the stakes were high. I was experiencing major league stress. … Continue reading Continue reading

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Safety Margin

©2005 Steven M Smith Jake tossed and turned. He looked at the bedside clock. 3 AM. “I need sleep,” he thought to himself. But sleep would not come. Only worry about tomorrow’s meeting. Edmund, Jake’s manager’s manager, enjoyed probing managers … Continue reading

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Tao of Communication and the Constancy of Change

by Jean McLendon, www.satir.org originally published in Couples and the Tao of Congruence, edited by Barbara Jo Brothers, 1996 SUMMARY. Lao Tsu and Virginia Satir seemed to have spoken a common language when it came to speaking about the art … Continue reading Continue reading

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Tell Him?

©2006 Steven M Smith It’s ironic that the Baseball Writers Association of America named Joe Girardi the National League’s 2006 Manager of the Year. Giardi was recently fired by the Florida Marlins despite managing a young, low-rated team into contention. … Continue reading

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Test Trimming: A Fable about Testing

©2007 Gerald M. Weinberg Throughout my career, I’ve watched in dismay as one software manager after another falls into the trap of achieving delivery schedules by trimming tests. Some managers shortcut test work by skipping reviewing and unit testing in … Continue reading

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Thank You Less Thank You’s

© 2001 Naomi Karten, www.nkarten.com When is a thank you not a thank you? Consider these situations: The anonymous thank you While preparing an important presentation, a woman named Ginny requested and received assistance from six people. The presentation was … Continue reading Continue reading

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AYE: There Be Magic [1]

by Dreamas Gentilharte Cheynelokk Translated by Devin G. Kettenschloss The fabulous Wizard of Oz Retired from his racket because, What with up-to-date science, To most of his clients He wasn’t the Wizard he was [2]. I am a retired wizard … Continue reading Continue reading

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The Risk of Embellishment

© Naomi Karten, www.nkarten.com (This article originally appeared in Perceptions & Realities newsletter, www.nkarten.com/newslet.html). A frequently touted claim is that when customers have positive experiences, they tell 3 other people and when they have negative experiences, they tell 11 others. … Continue reading Continue reading

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An e-mail to Jerry Weinberg, Paul Coyle and others who may contemplate systems from time to time

By Dwayne Phillips 14 November 2006 On page 152 of "Rethinking Systems Analysis and Design," Paul Coyle states, "Try telling the fire brigade that your orange is on fire." This statement is part of a passage about trying to find … Continue reading Continue reading

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This Title May Change at Any Time. How Do You Feel About That?

©2005 Don Gray Three of my favorite quotes about change and translations: “The only person who likes change is a wet baby.” This change corrects a problem so I’m OK with it. “Everyone likes change, when someone else is doing … Continue reading

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Trailblazer Programs: A Path for Successful Change

© 2000 Marie Benesh and Shiela Smith, www.mabenesh.com Trailblazer projects provide the critical engine for change in an organization. Through trailblazers, an organization can achieve the structural and behavioral changes that it desires in its IT organizational model. It is … Continue reading Continue reading

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Treaties to Deal with Communication and Conflict

©2002 Gerald M. Weinberg, www.geraldmweinberg.com On a typical day, I get 100-200 email messages, and some of my clients in large projects receive even more. Though emails improve my ability to communicate clearly and quickly, they may also prove a … Continue reading

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Twenty Years Ago

©2000 Steven M. Smith I’m forty-five, with a mainframe background. I often hear complaints from colleagues — associates who are my contemporaries — that younger workers with experience in hot, new technologies are getting paid as much or more then … Continue reading

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Two Left Feet

© Naomi Karten, www.nkarten.com (This article originally appeared in Perceptions and Realities newsletter.) Personalized attention. That’s what this article is about. The two left feet in the title are my own, and personalized attention is something I’ve come to realize … Continue reading Continue reading

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Two Rights Make a Wrong

© 2003 Naomi Karten, www.nkarten.com When I ask people how to get somewhere, I hate it when they rattle off a bunch of directions followed by, “It’s easy, you can’t miss it.” When they say, “You can’t miss it,” I … Continue reading Continue reading

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The Big Picture: Four Different Ways of Participating

©1999 Gerald M. Weinberg External consultants are seldom sent to classes by their customers, but often pay for their own professional development. As such, they’re eager to get full value for their time and tuition. Moreover, external consultants often find … Continue reading

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Use All Four Parts of Project Estimation

©2004 Johanna Rothman. Project work estimation has three components: the initial first cut, commonly known as a SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess), tracking the estimate against the actuals, and using the schedule to see what’s happening in your project. If … Continue reading

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Using Appreciations, Personalized Thank-You’s

©2003 Johanna Rothman, www.jrothman.com The project retrospective was proceeding nicely. We’d had lunch, and we entered the mid-afternoon low-energy lull. I decided it was time to change gears for a few minutes, to move the energy back up a couple … Continue reading

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Waiting For People Who Arrive Late

©2007 Steven M Smith What does it say about the participants of a weekly meeting when the meeting consistently starts 5-10 minutes behind schedule? Answer, the participants are cooperating with each other to start late. Starting late is the status … Continue reading

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Watch for Falling Rocks: Unpredictable Risks

©2000 Johanna Rothman, www.jrothman.com I was recently driving on some back roads in New Mexico, and saw the sign “Watch for Falling Rocks.” I turned to my husband, Mark, and said “Now, why do they tell us to watch for … Continue reading

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Welcoming New Hires

©2000 Johanna Rothman, www.jrothman.com You’ve hired a candidate. She starts on Monday. What will she think at the end of her first day? Will she be in the “honeymoon” phase, or will she be disappointed with your organization? Being a … Continue reading

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What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

©2002 Esther Derby, www.estherderby.com A software project is a complex thing. It involves many players, many tasks, and lots of things that could go wrong (and often do). If not for dogged optimism, some projects might not be tackled at … Continue reading

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What Is It You Want from Management?

© 2001 Eileen Strider, www.striderandcline.com This article originally appeared on Stickyminds.com. It’s easy to be frustrated by lack of executive management support for QA. Often it’s difficult to get the backing we need to really operate effectively. But somewhere beyond … Continue reading Continue reading

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What’s on Your Not-To-Do List?

©2005 Johanna Rothman If you’re like most of my clients, you have too much to do. Recently, an Engineering Director, Stephanie, explained all the things she “had” to do: monitor the projects, participate in the requirements sessions, draw up a … Continue reading

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What’s So Special About Software?

© 1998 Dan Starr We all know that software’s special. It’s a magical discipline that creates wonderful special effects, makes machines talk, controls both the motors in our cars and the robots that build those cars, and brings unlimited information … Continue reading Continue reading

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What’s Wrong With Wednesday?

2005 Johanna Rothman Many of the project schedules I review contain milestone completions on Fridays and new task or phase beginnings on Mondays. With a Friday or Monday milestone, what you’re really saying is that people can work overtime all … Continue reading

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What’s Your IQ?

©2002-2003 Esther Derby, www.estherderby.com People who work in software are smart people. We take pride in our ability to understand complex information and solve difficult problems. What about that other IQ, our Influence Quotient? To some of us, influence is … Continue reading

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What to Do When Your Project Slips

©2001 Johanna Rothman, www.jrothman.com You’re not going to meet schedule. Maybe requirements have taken longer. Perhaps in the middle of implementation, you uncover something requiring redesign. Maybe developers haven’t met one milestone yet and you’re worried about the test time. … Continue reading

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Where Does Your Time Go?

©2003 Esther Derby, www.estherderby.com Last week I visited a development team working on the company’s next big product. As I talked to one of the team, I could hear phones ringing, pagers beeping, and see people popping up to talk … Continue reading

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You Can’t Test the Wings Back on an Airplane

© 2001 Elisabeth Hendrickson, www.qualitytree.com A former Boeing aircraft engineer and I were discussing software testing one afternoon. I expressed a certain amount of frustration about how test groups are called upon to ensure quality in the software industry. In … Continue reading Continue reading

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Yielding to Pressure

©2005 Gerald M. Weinberg In a previous article, I wrote about the usefulness of treaties between technical teams, but I didn’t give much detail about the actual negotiation process that goes into making a successful treaty. To learn about such … Continue reading

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Amy the Architect

© 2002 Bob King, www.rc-king.com Can you get more than three people to agree on the definition of project architect? How does someone called architect figure out how to add value – or even what to do? Come along as … Continue reading

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Amplifying a Book’s Effectiveness

© 2000 Naomi Karten, www.nkarten.com Good Editing is far more than adjusting the punctuation. Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to experience expert editing, as I’ve worked closely with a Dorset House editor to finalize a book … Continue reading

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