12 Take-Aways:

Managing the Unmanageable"!"

"Ron Lichty, Ron Lichty Consulting"www.ronlichty.com"

""

Ron Lichty,��� Managing Software People & Teams

SOFTWEST

Why we wrote:

* Addison Wesley published October 2012

*

12 Take-Aways: Managing the Unmanageable"

Take-away #1

•  Isn’t it odd... – how long we expect you to have studied

the art of programming"– how little we expect you to have studied

the art of managing?"

Training Managers

ScrumTeam.jpg (from Exploring Scrum- the Fundamentals, by Dan Rawsthorne & Doug Shimp)

Training Managers: Where’s the Manager?

ScrumTeam.jpg (from Exploring Scrum- the Fundamentals, by Dan Rawsthorne & Doug Shimp)

How we came to write:

* Addison Wesley published October 2012

*

Mentoring

How we came to write:

* Addison Wesley published October 2012

*

Co-mentoring

Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*

* 300 in the book ____________________________________________________________ Managing the Unmanageable http://ronlichty.com

Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*

•  Measure twice, cut once. •  Life is simpler when you plow around the

stump. •  Brooks’s Law: Adding manpower to a late

software project makes it later. – Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

* 300 in the book

Take-away #3

•  The Take-away:Leverage Rules of Thumb in managing!

Take-away #4:���Always Be Recruiting

•  Recruiting: A manager’s most important job •  Always be recruiting

– Be out there •  Know: There’s no perfect record

Take-Away #5���Handle Problem Employees

•  Intervention beats performance plans & firing – Requires preparation, commitment, time – But gets the job done earlier:

•  Marty Brounstein: Handling the Difficult Employee •  One of two results:

– Turns them around – They quit on their own

Take-Away #6���Programmers Aren’t All Alike!

•  Programming disciplines •  Generations of programmers •  Morning people vs night people •  Employees vs Contractors •  Proximity •  Cowboys vs Farmers

Take-away #7: Focus In the beginning, everyone will talk about scope,

and budget, and schedule, but in the end, nobody really cares about any of those things. The only thing they care about is this: ���People will love your software, or they won’t. ���So that’s the only criterion to which you should truly manage.  

—Joseph Kleinschmidt, CTO

Take-away #8

•  Leading by example occurs whether you like it or not.""— Jateen Parekh,

"Founder & CTO of Jelli Crowdsourced Radio"

Leading by Example: Nugget of Wisdom •  Nothing undermines your credibility as a

manager more completely than pounding on your team all year to get their work done on time and then telling them you don’t have their reviews done because you were busy. Whatever you were busy with likely wasn’t managing your people, so you’ve just proven to them that they don’t matter. Good luck motivating them next year. –  Tim Swihart, engineering director, Apple Computer

Take-away #9

Rule of Thumb: ���The very thing that has made you successful in your last role will get in your way in your next role.

Take-away #10

•  These are not the same things –  Be a Motivator –  Don’t Be a De-Motivator

Motivators vs De-Motivators

Take-away #11:���Be Careful What You Reward

•  “Behavior revolves around what you measure.” –  Jim Highsmith

•  “Firefighters who get rewarded carry matches.” –  Kimberly Wiefling

•  Do you define “done” as “coding complete”? – Or as features that delight customers?

Take-away #12���

•  “The single most important leader in an organization is your immediate supervisor.” –  Jim Kouzes

•  “You can safely assume all perceptions are real, at least to those who own them.” –  Joe Folkman

12 Top Take-aways: These, or...

•  Onboarding: your new hire’s first day •  The incredible value of 1on1s •  Fostering and nurturing unique culture •  Managing your people •  Getting programmers to work together well •  Or...

300 Rules of Thumb and Nuggets of Wisdom in one place

Ron Lichty Consulting •  Coaching and Consulting:

–  www.ronlichty.com

•  The book: Managing the Unmanageable: ��� Rules, Tools & Insights ��� for Managing Software People & Teams –  www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net

•  The blog: –  http://ronlichty.blogspot.com/

•  Training: –  “Managing Software People and Teams: the class” –  “Becoming an Agile Manager”