Posted by Robert Merrill on March 2, 2010 under Estimation, Project Set-Up, Software-Intensive Businesses | 
Q: Why were they late for the meeting?
A: They didn’t leave soon enough.
But…they got stopped by a train, and they remembered that they needed to pick up a loaf of bread, and…they have a slow car!
Details like speed limits and the police aside, what do the car, and the bread, and the train have to do with it? The trip took 25 minutes, five of it spent waiting for the train, and five of it in the convenience store, and fifteen of it driving. They left 20 minutes before the meeting, and they were five minutes late.
Well, they didn’t plan on the train or the bread.
Do they ever plan on the train or the bread? Read more of this article »
Posted by Robert Merrill on October 8, 2009 under Agile Methods, Software-Intensive Businesses |
If your firm hires or contracts programmers, and your business results depend on their work (and if your business results don’t, why did you hire or contract programmers?), this question is for you. Read more of this article »
Posted by Robert Merrill on September 21, 2009 under Software teams, Software-Intensive Businesses |
Think that your software team performs best under pressure?
Not if what a Harvard Business School professor learned about other knowledge workers—auditors and consultants—applies to programmers, too.
In Feeling the Heat: The Effects of Performance Pressure on Teams’ Knowledge Use and Performance, Heidi Gardner explains that the pressure triggers “threat rigidity,” and causes “reduced cognitive processing.” Teams under pressure are also more likely to defer to “high-status” team members, rather than make full use of those with the most relevant, specific expertise.
Prof. Gardner’s research involved 72 teams of management consultants and auditors across twenty regional offices of a Big Four firm.
Leading a software-intensive business means overseeing some high-stakes projects–there’s no way around it. But don’t assume that the people doing the work will respond to the pressure the way you do.