131–140 of 171 posts
The due date rolled around, and half the class turned in their papers late, and got docked grades accordingly.
The next semester, there was only one paper late one day.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How, exactly, is embracing and responding to change going to happen if there's not frequent communication? What form of agile methodologies have the developers going off on their own for weeks without oversight? How do they 'respond to change'? A strict literal reading of the agile manifesto doesn't include daily standups, yes, but if you read it at anything other than the most superficial level, frequent communicati…
> How, exactly, is embracing and responding to change going to happen if there's not frequent communication? Frequent communication doesn't have to be synchronous, prescheduled, or in-person, though, and it doesn't have to be through a heirarchy (team lead). Also, the phrase "Agile methodology" is almost an oxymoron (and absolutely incorrect in terms of most of the methodologies it is applied to); a development metho…
Besides, the Agile Manifesto explicitly states at least one form of daily interaction: Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Having this in the list and then pretending that having standups are the functional opposite of "what Agile really means" is just nonsense.
Every time I see one of these "Ah, but Agile doesn't have to be that way", it makes me think of lynx and w3m. There's the way the majority of browsers work, and then there's ones like these. Yes, you can make the correct technical argument about what a web browser is, and then there's the way that almost everyone thinks of when the word 'browser' is used. File a bunch of bugs about how your front-end is failing in w3m, and then sit back and watch the WONTFIXs roll in.
My father was a professor teaching business at a small college. On his first semester teaching, he assigned an essay due in a couple months. He said any papers turned in a day late got docked one grade, two days two grades, etc. He said no excuses would be accepted, because they had two months to do the work. The due date rolled around, and half the class turned in their papers late, and got docked grades accordingly…
* There are 60 students, all taking 5 classes, with multiple assignments due at random time points in each class.
* To finish any assignment, the student needs several tasks to be performed by other students in different disciplines.
* The exact amount of effort required for any of those tasks is unknown.
* The college has ordered the professors to assign just a bit more work than can possibly be completed, or equivalently, has under-estimated the number of students needed to complete all of the assigned tasks.
My father was a professor teaching business at a small college. On his first semester teaching, he assigned an essay due in a couple months. He said any papers turned in a day late got docked one grade, two days two grades, etc. He said no excuses would be accepted, because they had two months to do the work. The due date rolled around, and half the class turned in their papers late, and got docked grades accordingly…
business
entrepreneuer
its it's
there they're their
He was sick of business majors misspelling business, and said after the new policy he didn't have to give anyone an F for that. Nobody complained about it, either.
Give people reasonable standards to live up to, and they will. In fact, they'll thrive on it.
My father was a professor teaching business at a small college. On his first semester teaching, he assigned an essay due in a couple months. He said any papers turned in a day late got docked one grade, two days two grades, etc. He said no excuses would be accepted, because they had two months to do the work. The due date rolled around, and half the class turned in their papers late, and got docked grades accordingly…
Now try a new experiment: * There are 60 students, all taking 5 classes, with multiple assignments due at random time points in each class. * To finish any assignment, the student needs several tasks to be performed by other students in different disciplines. * The exact amount of effort required for any of those tasks is unknown. * The college has ordered the professors to assign just a bit more work than can possib…
This was a good post and an interesting idea with some nice conclusions. One of the commenters, however, nailed it and got to the heart of the difficulty: getting people to do what they say they will do . Period. Full stop. You can wrap excuses, or culture, or other corporate vocabulary around the matter, but it boils down to that fundamental thing of people doing what they are asked and delivering what they say they…
It's true they do have ways to get people do do what is directed but they aren't very efficient and organization at the micro level might be good but not at the macro.
There is a reason the military is so absurdly costly and apparently has trouble decisively ending conflicts. Because all the parts are in place doesn't necessarily mean organization at a higher level.
I also offer as evidence the growth of the use of contractors. Because we apparently can't put three guys in a rowboat for less than a million bucks. That's not organization, even if all uniforms are pressed to specification.
The successes the military does enjoy are more a matter of literal brute force and a big budget rather than organized long term planning IMOP.
This was a good post and an interesting idea with some nice conclusions. One of the commenters, however, nailed it and got to the heart of the difficulty: getting people to do what they say they will do . Period. Full stop. You can wrap excuses, or culture, or other corporate vocabulary around the matter, but it boils down to that fundamental thing of people doing what they are asked and delivering what they say they…
I find it an odd idea that the military (at least the US military) is the paradigm of efficiency or organization. It's true they do have ways to get people do do what is directed but they aren't very efficient and organization at the micro level might be good but not at the macro. There is a reason the military is so absurdly costly and apparently has trouble decisively ending conflicts. Because all the parts are in…
People in the military usually talk about it being a clusterfuck on the macro level. I think most of the people with this mental model of the military are just office middle managers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You missed Steve Blank's point. My interpretation is he's simply advocating that if someone is aware of an issue that will set a project deadline back, don't keep it a secret and surprise everyone when the deadline isn't met. Instead of "management by fear", build a culture where missing meeting deadlines is OK as long as a valid reason was communicated to the stake holders BEFORE the due date (no surprises). If a so…
My interpretation is he's simply advocating that if someone is aware of an issue that will set a project deadline back, don't keep it a secret and surprise everyone when the deadline isn't met. If this is his point, he's a lousy writer.
Blank is talking about acknowledging and dealing with risks early.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My interpretation is he's simply advocating that if someone is aware of an issue that will set a project deadline back, don't keep it a secret and surprise everyone when the deadline isn't met. If this is his point, he's a lousy writer.
In reading the article I also had the same interpretation as cj. Blank is talking about acknowledging and dealing with risks early.
True that. He also mentioned firing people for not complying with his new rules several times. And also that he did. Those seem like the more substantive acts of his reign, as communicated in this post.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heh, I think it made sense upto the point where he threatened firing people. I agree that is too extreme: you're gonna quickly lose a lot of people who perform best when they're not under constant pressure.
I disagree. Strongly. A common attitude of effective managers as documented by First, Break All The Rules can be summed up by, "I never waited too long to make the right hire. I never fired the wrong one quickly enough." Having the wrong employee is very toxic for your organization and culture. The rules that Steve laid out do not actually put pressure on people. They amount to, "Be accountable for what you say, try…
To paraphrase what someone else said, "If a person is saying you're pressuring them, it's not your place to say you aren't"