"Try being a manager yourself before you go too far off into your 'they're all idiots' zone." That was Jim's feedback on an earlier note of mine, and not the first time I've had this sort of feedback. I've had "manager" titles pinned on me, which certainly is different from actually being a manager. I'm also a parent, which is somewhat like being...

I'll take complete responsibility for anyone having missed the point of the previous entry. Stefan thought I was "pushing it" in asserting that a team does not remember. I will stand by that: a team does not have a singular memory. You can't remember what your teammates did yesterday, nor they remember what you did. What a team does have is...

I'll take complete responsibility for anyone having missed the point of the previous entry. Stefan thought I was "pushing it" in asserting that a team does not remember. I will stand by that: a team does not have a singular memory. You can't remember what your teammates did yesterday, nor they remember what you did. What a team does have is...

I like Johanna's take on the principle of least surprise. It could serve as one more item in Esther's list of "etiquette for managers". A courteous manager will not spring surprises on the people she manages. If she has information relevant to these people's jobs, she shares it as it comes by it. I've known managers who hoarded information "in the...

I like Johanna's take on the principle of least surprise. It could serve as one more item in Esther's list of "etiquette for managers". A courteous manager will not spring surprises on the people she manages. If she has information relevant to these people's jobs, she shares it as it comes by it. I've known managers who hoarded information "in the...

In the movie Memento, Leonard Shelby suffers from a total loss of short-term memory. He remembers his previous life up to the accident which caused that condition, but nothing beyond that - and since then he is unable to retain any memory of what happens to him. Shelby has a project: track down and kill his wife's murderer. No brain that...

In the movie Memento, Leonard Shelby suffers from a total loss of short-term memory. He remembers his previous life up to the accident which caused that condition, but nothing beyond that - and since then he is unable to retain any memory of what happens to him. Shelby has a project: track down and kill his wife's murderer. No brain that...

In a newsgroup recently, the question came up: "What to do if my project manager says we're not writing enough documentation ?" As with many such questions, the issue is less one of documentation per se, and more to do with managing your manager. Here are some tips which have been found to work, depending on the situation, but may well be...

In a newsgroup recently, the question came up: "What to do if my project manager says we're not writing enough documentation ?" As with many such questions, the issue is less one of documentation per se, and more to do with managing your manager. Here are some tips which have been found to work, depending on the situation, but may well be...

When I listed my criteria for good teammates, I included "will have lunch with me on a regular basis". That seems to have surprised some of my readers, to say nothing of those that were apparently angered. There must be food - I first came across that bit of advice on Ward's Wiki, and it has helped me in many different situations. Whenever I run a...

When I listed my criteria for good teammates, I included "will have lunch with me on a regular basis". That seems to have surprised some of my readers, to say nothing of those that were apparently angered. There must be food - I first came across that bit of advice on Ward's Wiki, and it has helped me in many different situations. Whenever I run a...

Today marks the beginning of my second year as a blogger. One year ago I wrote: "The idea is to put at least one fresh thought down every day. We'll see how that goes." I don't know about freshness, but this blog has 167 entries. The average therefore comes out to a little under half a thought per day, which isn't so bad.

Today marks the beginning of my second year as a blogger. One year ago I wrote: "The idea is to put at least one fresh thought down every day. We'll see how that goes." I don't know about freshness, but this blog has 167 entries. The average therefore comes out to a little under half a thought per day, which isn't so bad.

The Despair, Inc. poster has it right - I've been on disappointing teams in the past, and the one person they had in common was me. Someone asked recently, Are you the kind of person you'd want to be on a team with ? Yes, I answered tentatively; I don't think of myself as a Lone Ranger. Reality might well not agree with my self-image. There's one...

I had an interesting conversation over a French-language programming newsgroup the other day. This person was inquiring about "Edit and Continue", tool support which would let him do simple, one-line changes to his C/C++ system from within a debugger session, and have the new code execute without needing to exit the program, recompile, rebuild,...