Software Project Leadership

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