Software Project Leadership: Recent Episodes
Dr Will
Software Project Leadership is intended for SaaS founders, managers, and owner/operators who do not have a technical background but who are in a position that includes leading one or more technical projects. Starting a software development project is easy … but finishing it - successfully - is a different story.
If you thought “synergy” was yet another buzzword from the 80s (or 90s … ), like synchronicity, then you would be mistaken … unless you meant, like, 80 BC (or earlier).
If you have been following along the current best practices you know that the answer is not … “multitask.” But is that advice even possible to follow?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1632838223/tech-team-building-buzz-word-bingo
This is all about empathic listening … listening to understand … not just waiting for the other guy to finish so that you can say what is on your mind
Would it be outrageous for me to suggest that the primary function of leadership is to teach? Because the primary function of teaching is to lead …
You can’t turn around without stubbing your toe on win/win solutions … everybody talks that talk.
We hear about win/win quite a bit. It is a buzzword mercilessly deployed by salespeople who at least pay it lip service. Reality may not be so kind, though.
Have you ever worked in - or with - an organization that really has taken the Quality message to heart?
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
Jon is looking for a software solution for a specific problem - business model, actually. Seems he’s outgrown his spreadsheet.
Jon “… suppl[ies] furniture to clients on an 'as and when' basis - i.e. we don't hold stock but order individual pieces for each client …” so he needs a solution that will “keep track on deliveries arriving to our office for purchases we've made on clients behalf.”
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is organized into two sections - Private Victory and Public Victory. “Paradigms of Interdependence” is the bridge between them.
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
Psychologists will tell you that what you aim at determines what you see rather than what you see determines what you aim at … see the difference? I guess you would need to aim at the difference to see it.
Spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
So, I had a question from Tony V: “You gave three problems that non-technical technology project leaders have to figure out. I am a non-technical project lead on a software project … what do I need to know about these things?“
You might be wondering … errr … where else would you put first things? I guess you’d be surprised where people put them … my Mom always said “a place for everything and everything in its place” … she’d want first things … right, you know, there … first.
https://fs.blog/great-talks/common-denominator-success-albert-gray/
Management is management, right? I recently polled a population of project managers asking the musical question - how much (or little) domain knowledge is needed to be an effective project manager?
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
I keep my finger on the pulse of various groups online looking for people to help. Sometimes you find people for whom the best advice is that you gotta “know when to run!”
https://spl.drwill.co/costrisk
https://spl.drwill.co/risk
https://spl.drwill.co/asses_schedule_risk
One of the key concepts in stoicism is that of “memento mori” Latin for “remember you will die.” I guess that works for everybody but Keith Richards …
https://spl.drwill.co/costrisk
https://spl.drwill.co/risk
https://spl.drwill.co/asses_schedule_risk
https://www.selfauthoring.com/
What do you think is the least secure part of your computer system?
If you answered “the wetware,” you win a prize. Wetware is people, of course
https://spl.drwill.co/costrisk
https://spl.drwill.co/risk
https://spl.drwill.co/asses_schedule_risk
If you build it they will … err … buy it, right? I mean … the engineering speaks for itself, right? Actually, no. But isn’t persuasion just marketing … or sales? Well, broadly speaking, yes. In the sense that you have to sell your ideas.
https://spl.drwill.co/teams
“Dr. Will, we are preparing to migrate from the server version of Atlassian tools to the Atlassian Cloud … what advice do you have as we get under way?"
Spl.drwill.co/webinar
https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Dont-Know-Successfully/dp/B0BKJL9N
As promised, this is the first habit of the 8 habits of highly effective people applied to software development teams. Reminder: instead of crafting 7 (or 8 ) habits out of whole cloth for software teams, we are applying Stephen Covey’s habits and seeing where that takes us
spl.drwill.co/risk
spl.drwill.co/costrisk
spl.drwill.co/asses_schedule_risk
Got a question from Chris W of Sioux City (Wait! Isn’t that where the Litigation Hall of Fame is?) … he is having some customer challenges … this may belong in the Q&A playlist, but it is germane to software projects, so here we are …
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
It is usually after the fact - after you have traversed new terrain. Done something you’ve never done before. You look back – figuratively, maybe literally – and wonder at what just happened
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
spl.drwill.co/webinar
A lot of people know the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. I had heard of it years ago, but had never taken the time to read it … until recently. How many people know that the subtitle of the book is “Restoring the Character Ethic?”
https://www.experis.com/en/insights/articles/2022/06/22/7-habits-of-effective-software-development-teams
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-habits-highly-effective-software-development-teams-rubicotech?trk=organization-update-content_share-article
https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Dont-Know-Successfully/dp/B0BKJL9NR1
https://spl.drwill.co/webinar
It is reported that Microsoft is investing $1 billion (that’s billion, with a “b”) in OpenAI the parent of ChatGPT. We should be thankful that there are companies that are so generous and self-sacrificing and willing to help the open source community like that...
Webinar: spl.drwill.co/webinar
Book: https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Dont-Know-Successfully/dp/B0BKJL9NR1
The “imposter syndrome” affects many (sub-)creators of training/coaching content – but they are reassured that they only have to be slightly more knowledgable than their audience. Maybe that is why there is so much fluffy training cluttering up the internet.
What You Don't Know: https://a.co/d/fEPkAWD
https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/dunning-kruger-effect?utm_source=newsletter-email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=work-life-blog-jan-18-2023_EML-14800&jobid=105889853&subid=1622020377
spl.drwill.co/risk
ChatGPT – a free online advanced AI chatbot that produces human-like responses to user prompts – is being used to generate college essays … among other things. (Doesn’t that make it CheatGPT?) So … what are the limitations of AI … or the dangers of it … or the opportunities …
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
When people ask me what I did in the Air Force, I usually tell them that I “flew computers.” Looks like aviation doesn’t aviate without computers.
If you have been setting goals and rewarding yourself for achieving them - if you achieve them - then you may be sabotaging yourself with your own dopamine.
https://youtu.be/1TSTnDRnIAs
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
This will be our last recording in this location … we are moving our place of business … and reflecting on what that means
spl.drwill.co/costrisk
A cost driver is the direct cause of a cost and its effect is on the total cost incurred. What are the direct causes of the cost of software development?
Steve Jobs once said: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people are not used to an environment where excellence is expected.” Some people? Only some?
Software Quality Playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx2U7H9VtJ4CiuT49YNO-XnZk-R0CsGEc
Self Authoring
https://www.selfauthoring.com
Always plan ahead … remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. Also … according to Peter Drucker, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
We are looking at another vertex of the iron triangle … cost … can we predict how much something will cost? If we cannot then how do we make a rational argument to build it?
spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
When one of my team members brought a new product idea to me, I had two questions. The first was: who (precisely) is the customer? Please note that shrugging your shoulders conveys exactly what your expect … that you don’t know. In this case it means that you haven’t thought the thing through …
I have always worked a lot. I mean, a lot. I guess I am an “ergophile” which is a nice way of saying “workaholic.” But like any good workaholic, I have never felt I needed an intervention … well, maybe once …
Spl.drwill.co/freeconsult
Awhile back I noticed my team was stuck and not making much progress on some issues that had been plaguing us for awhile. I asked for a synopsis of what was going on and discovered that they were trying to resolve 3 issues all at once … they were combining installing a new CI/CD system with deploying to a new hosting platform and adding a brand new process on top of that … to fix pipeline automation, excess platform costs and process deficiencies … all at once!
https://spl.drwill.co/teams
Smarty-pants philosopher Aristotle once said: “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
Are they a biohazard? What should be done about “social loafers” or “toxic team members?” This is “toxicity’s” very own episode … one might not be enough!
If you poke around on the internet looking for information about “toxic” team members … employees … co-workers … supervisors … whatever, you will discover an entire zoo of toxic species. It is a wonder any work gets done. Ever.
If you think building a team when everybody works in the same building is difficult … wait until you try it with people scattered across the globe … in different time zones, from different cultures, different native languages …
How does a group develop integrity - wholeness, cohesion, unity? How does it become a team?
A team is not a collection of individuals. If it devolves into that then you can stand back and watch it disintegrate … notice that word … dis - integrate … to lose cohesion or unity. The loss of integrity.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com
https://hbr.org/2009/06/rethinking-trust
What does a productive, gelled development team look like? What does any productive, gelled team look like?
They say you don’t know what you don’t know. It is true; not only don’t you know it, but you can’t know it. It is that ontological risk quadrant we discussed last time.
Find it here
https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Dont-Know-Successfully-ebook/dp/B0B7C4L2Y2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TLAIXYTU58JC&
Whether something exists and whether something is known are two different questions.
Formally, ontology is the study of existence … and epistemology is the study of knowledge. You are probably wondering why software leaders would possibly need to know those terms … or even care whether they exist at all? (See what I did there?)
So, what would you do – or how would you feel – if you realized that the software you had helped develop was responsible – at least in part – for the loss of 346 lives?
The latest security problem reported on the Apple M1 chip – PACMAN – is buried deep within the hardware. And, no, it cannot be fixed in software.
If you have ever had to maintain somebody else’s code … without documentation … especially code that is idiosyncratic and poorly designed – or not designed at all – well, you probably ended up rewriting most of it.
The three areas of concern when it comes to maintainable software: the documentation, the code, and the implementation. First, the documentation.
Successful software gets changed. It also tends to hang around for a very long time. But crafting software that will be easy to maintain is usually not considered very much by the development team.
Every software system that is remotely successful will have to be “maintained.” Why is that such an expensive proposition? What can be done about it?
The five degrees of initiative a manager or leader exercises relative to the “boss” and the “system” and that subordinates exercise relative to you. Also, the rules of monkey management.
Monkey management is a way of thinking about delegation and initiative. And how roles … and tasks … shift around between leaders and subordinates.
How to tell if you are not hearing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. How to find out what you need to know.
An engineer’s ability to communicate is at least as important as their ability to engineer. Don’t let yourself be intimidated by jargon-infested blitherings.
There are times when you think you are being … BS’d … then there are other times that you know it … go with your gut.
Testing is an important step in assuring the quality of a software product, but it isn’t the only step … and not even the most important step. Reviews and inspections are more fundamental and important in the production of high quality software.
Phil Crosby - author of “Quality is Free” - said: “Quality is the result of a carefully constructed cultural environment. It has to be the fabric of the organization, not part of the fabric of the organization.”
Why do people accept shoddy goods? Clothing/fabric, for example, are notorious these days for low quality. And low prices. Why do better quality products cost more, if quality is, you know, free?
How do you know your project is in trouble? Does it have a software component? Yes. Then it is in trouble. Is it a software project … well, then it is certainly in trouble.
Hofstadter’s Law: “It always takes you longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” I have always added “and costs more” to Hofstadter’s Law … I guess that is Dr. Will’s corollary
"A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind." – Joseph Weizembaum
Imagine waking up one day, checking your mailbox and receiving a letter from your hospital saying you died. 8500 people who received treatment between Oct 25 and Dec 11 at St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital enjoyed that experience.
So, after my developers and I had discussed – at a rather detailed level – a new feature requested by one of our customers, I said: “So, I am going to need to know about how much effort it is going to take to get that done.”
Steve McConnell: “The primary purpose of software estimation is not to predict a project’s outcome; it is to determine whether a project’s targets are realistic enough to allow the project to be controlled to meet them.”
“There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
― John F. Kennedy.
Risk is defined as “the possibility of suffering harm or loss; danger.” The harm or loss associated with software development is usually cost and schedule risk for the developers and their customers, but sometimes life, health, and safety are at stake as well
“Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is working with objectives.” – Russell Honore
Leadership concerns the future - vision - and management focuses on the here and now - mission
A recent question on Quora: “With no techie co-founder and barely any experience in coding how do you start a start-up?”