The Berkun Blog
Management, design, and the making of good things.
This week: Assigning programming work
August 22nd, 2005
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #43 - Assigning work to programmers :
I’m a former programmer who now leads a team of programmers and testers. Recently my team has complained about how work gets assigned - right now, I’m air traffic control, directing work at one of the 10 people on my team. I’d like to do something more structured, like what Scott outlines in his book (Chp 13) but my team is split across 5 or 6 different projects: I can’t easily make 2 layers of goals and divide up my team.
My problem is this: I don’t see an easy way to give my team more responsibility for choosing who should work on what without bogging them down in organizational crap. I accept their complaint, but the alternatives seem worse.
So my question is this: What alternatives should I be considering for how to distribute work across my team, given the constraints I’m facing? I’d be happy just to see a list of different approaches people have tried. Bonus for pros/cons.
- The work distributor
Essay: work vs. progress
August 16th, 2005
So much time seems wasted doing work that doesn’t help progress things forward. Why does this happen? What can be done? Here’s some thoughts on the role leaders play in improving the ratio of work to progress.
Essay: How to decide what bugs to fix
August 15th, 2005
There’s another new essay of mine up on one of the O’Reilly websites.
How to decide what bugs to fix
It starts from first aid and guerilla tactics, grows into triage, and part 2 will talk about early planning and exit criteria.
Book Tour: Part 2?
August 11th, 2005
I’m planning part 2 of the book tour for the Art of project management for early this fall - and I need your help. The book has been recieved great reviews and I’m trying to help it along and use its success to meet lots of people. This could be you.
I’m compiling a list of companies/organizations that might have me in to speak - once I have that list I’ll figure out how many cities or venues I can afford to hit: I have a budget, but it ain’t much :)
So if you have an idea for a venue, here’s how you can help:
- Tell me what the venue is, where it is, how many people there might be
- Who to contact there if you know someone
- Leave a comment or contact me directly
And keep in mind:
- Tech companies, businesses, universities, user groups, naked beach parties are all possibilities.
- Bonus points for venues in the NYC/Boston/Pittsburgh area
Much thanks for all your help and support,
-Scott
This week: Managing the 2nd class project
August 8th, 2005
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #42 - Managing the 2nd class project:
I am tasked with the creation of a strategy for a relatively low priority product. We have a small team of programmers (Team B) and everyone understands that what we’re making is built to support what one of the other teams is doing (Team A). My questions:
1) How do I keep my team motivated given that we know we’re 2nd class?
2) How do I protect ourselves, and our work, from changes made by Team A?
3) How does a low priority project (and its team) get its share of the limelight?
Manifestos for your mind
August 5th, 2005
ChangeThis is back - they’ve been publishing short essays meant to inspire change and provoke new thinking. In the past they’ve included work from Guy Kawaski, Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Malcom Gladwell, Craig Newmark and more.
Were betting that a significant portion of the population wants to hear thoughtful, rational, constructive arguments about important issues. We are certain that the best of these manifestos will spread, hand to hand, person to person, until these manifestos have reached a critical mass and actually changed the tone and substance of our debate.
We’ll they’re back - new manifestos were posted today, including one from me: Why smart people defend bad ideas.
These are posted as stylish PDFs: loathe the format, like the style.
More reviews in for the art of PM
August 4th, 2005
Great to see that these are still coming in:
The text is light on theory and full of plain talk guidelines, tips and tricks grounded in and illustrated by Berkun’s years of experience leading product teams at Microsoft… A must-read for anyone officially or unofficially in charge of corralling folks together to meet a common goal
I often tell others that if I go to a meeting or read a book and I learn one thing or get one idea from the experience, then it is worth the money and the time spent. Knowledge is valuable and is our coin of the trade. There is a lot to learn in this book. Berkun brings intelligence, insight, thoughtful commentary and experiences learned from difficult Microsoft projects. It is like learning from and discussing the experiences of a peer or, for new project managers, learning theory and practice from a young master . - Thomas V. Kappel, Kickstart news
I would go so far as to say this. If you are in this role at a software company, and have been doing it for less than 3 years, this book should be your text book. Nothing will matter more in your career than having a good grasp and mastery of many of the skills highlighted in the book. If you are an old timer, then this book will be an interesting read to say the least, if not help you with a situation you might be facing today (or tomorrow).
If you find other reviews let me know. And of course if you’re willing to review the book for a magazine, website or busy blog, contact me. I can get you a reviewer copy of the book.
Thanks to everyone that’s helped get these reviews out there and to everyone that’s actually bought the book :)
The Personal MBA: learn business on your own time
August 4th, 2005
I’ve had a half dozen people point me to the personal mba website in the last week. It’s a group of folks convinced you can educate yourself effectively for less than a quarter of the time and money spent in most MBA programs - great idea.
Well today, there’s a new twist. The art of project management has made their updated list of must read books: The PMBA 40 . (Thanks Keith)
They’re forming web-based reading discussion groups to work together on covering all 40. If you’re interested you can sign up now.
Mark the date: Free webcast on the art of project management
August 3rd, 2005
Dr. Dobbs Journal Magazine will be broadcasting a live netcast by yours truly on the art of project management. Registration is free and you can watch/listen right from your desktop. This is the first netcast of their brand new Great Writer’s series.
Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Time: 11:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM CT / 2:00 PM ET
Duration: 60 minutes
Register here. If you sign up you’ll get reminders before the event. Spread the word!
at OSCON this week
August 2nd, 2005
I’ll be at OSCON tommorow (Wed) - If anyone’s around and want’s to meet up, comment here. I will be at the O’Reilly author event in the evening signing books.
This week: you make the call
August 1st, 2005
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #41 - You make the call :
You’re the project manager. Two technical types have a technical disagreement they can’t resolve. They bring it to you. You don’t know enough about the question to form your own conclusion, and they aren’t the sort of pair where you can easily assume one is right. How do you go about coming to a decision? Who do you consult? How do you go about finding the information you need? When do you escalate? When do you know you have enough information to make a decision?
Middle Manager,
Arlington, VA
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