The Berkun Blog
Management, design, and the making of good things.
Tales of Vista development at MSFT
June 18th, 2006
An interesting opinion on Vista’s project management issues from a former development manager on the Vista team (now a manager on the Tablet PC team at Microsoft).
It’s worth a read, is better informed than my outsider opinion, with references to action vs. results management, Too many cooks, Broken windows theory, opnions on Line of code measurements, etc. One favorite quote from his essay:
After months of hearing of how a certain influential team in Windows was going to cause the Vista release to slip, I, full of abstract self-righteous misgivings as a stockholder, had at last the chance to speak with two of the team’s key managers, asking them how they could be so, please excuse the term, I don’t mean its value laden connotation, ignorant as to proper estimation of software schedules.
Turns out they’re actually great project managers. They knew months in advance that the schedule would never work. So they told their VP. And he, possibly influenced by one too many instances where engineering re-routes power to the warp core, thus completing the heretofore impossible six-hour task in a mere three, summarily sent the managers back to “figure out how to make it work.” The managers re-estimated, nipped and tucked, liposuctioned, did everything short of a lobotomy — and still did not have a schedule that fit. The VP was not pleased.
“You’re smart people. Find a way!” This went back and forth for weeks, whereupon the intrepid managers finally understood how to get past the dilemma. They simply stopped telling the truth. “Sure, everything fits. We cut and cut, and here we are. Vista by August or bust. You got it, boss.”
Note: I had to set font size down in Firefox (Ctrl -) to read this without wanting to bash my monitor in.
(From metafilter)
Small tales of technology failure
June 15th, 2006
Every now and then I’ve seen airport arrivals boards showing only the blue screen of death - This time it was somewhere new. I walked past about 10 gates to find the arcade, only to find new evils lurking inside those tall 1980s style video games.
Depressed at my inability to crash up some cars while waiting for a flight (curious how there are never flying games at airports), I wandered into the restroom. After washing up, I found failed technology #2.
There’s nothing sadder than a spring that’s lost its nerve.
Staring at the broken spring, hands wet at my sides, face dripping onto my once pretty shirt, I found a new longing for those tempermental autodetecting hand dryers. And yes, dear friends, at this moment of great moisture reduction need, there were no paper towels to be had.
I guess at least in this case it’s obvious things are broken - with those autodetect things, trying oh so hard to be smart, you never know if you’re doing something wrong, if they’re broken, or just teasing you.
Still wet, I wandered into the nearest Starbucks, ignoring the strange stares of baristas and customers (Is he just sweaty or does he have the plague?), and consumed a half dozen napkins to dry myself off.
This week in ux-clinic: Keep ‘em seperated?
June 12th, 2006
This week in the ux-clinic discussion forum:
I’m a lead designer (manage team of 5 usability and design folks) who was told last week to merge with another UX team. I’ll be the overall manager, but I’ve never managed a group this large. My team services about 10 projects across the company, and we’re a centralized and self-contained org.
I see 3 options:
1) Keep the org flat for awhile. Until I see a path, stay with one manager (me) and 10+ reports.
2) Split into a design team and a usability team. I’d be the uber UX manager, with one design lead and one usability lead.
3) Cross-discipline. I’d mix roles on both teams, with two UX leads, and some designers and usability engineers reporting to each of them.
Opinions?
This week in pm-clinic: A management puzzle
June 12th, 2006
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum:
As a break from situations, for this week here’s a PM puzzle that never fails to surface astonishing pet theories and assumptions:
Since a 100 person-day project cannot be practically completed in 1 day with 100 people, it’s safe to assume it cannot be completed in 2 days with 50 people. But the question is, assuming the total amount of work is known (e.g. 100 person days), how should you estimate how many people you need, or how much calendar time it will take?
Do you need radicals for change?
June 9th, 2006
An interesting post at Anil Dash: A Malcom and a Martin.
He suggests that change happens when there are two distinct forces at work on the same position. One radical (Malcolm X) and one rational (Martin Luther King. Jr). I’m sure there are nuances to the history of the civil rights movement, but there is a familiar pattern. The radical position gets attention and riles up those who disagree, and space is created for a moderate position to gain ground by being more paletable than the radical.
My position is that you need attention to have influence, and radicals can bring attention to an issue that is being ignored. But there are other ways to get attention. You can earn it from people who learn to respect you for intelligent work you do, problems you’ve solved, or smart things you say.
In my experience real change in organizations happens quietly, in small meetings with a handful of people - The drama of movements, big speaches, and flaming e-mails is to get enough influence to earn a seat in those small meetings. Or to have the ear of someone else that’s there to represent you, or give you the scoop on what’s happening next, before the whole organization knows.
So I don’t think you need radicals for change - They can help by adding leverage to a position, surface a point of view that’s gone unheard, or put momentum behind an idea that is being ignored, but often there are other ways to achieve those things without taking radical positions or actions.
Saving the world by laptop
June 8th, 2006
The most challenging design works involve big constraints, noble goals and few rewards - and one candidate for design work of the year is the One laptop per child project. It satisfies most of my philosophical gripes about technology and is directed squarely at the digital divide in the third world.
Worldchanging.org has an update and mini-review of the laptop development in progress.
Any fan of Victor Papanek should be in love with this effort.
Subscribe via RSS 