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New Year, New CEO for GitHub

github.com

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Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#11

Post by phillmv »

bfe wrote: post #7

I don't understand how a company could operate for a few months without publicly acknowledging who is really the CEO. I hope they use a "fork the CEO role" button.

I'm curious: to whom does this matter?

The title is a formality, their organization is notoriously flat and being co-founders they probably don't make major initiatives without the other's approval anyways. If anything they're probably just swapping "who sits in the spotlight for this year".

And when you head a tech-oriented company, the difference between CTO and CEO is probably negligible anyways.

Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#12

Post by iambateman »

stonemetal wrote: post #10

For those of us who are business ignorant, what is the difference between President and CEO? What are the typical responsibilities of each and such?

It's different for every business but typically a CEO is the visionary, strategic leader of the company while the president leads the day-to-day operations.

If Github started selling insurance, there's a good chance they would have a president for Github Code and a president for Github Insurance. They wouldn't have two CEO's, though.

Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#13

Post by nairteashop »

stonemetal wrote: post #10

For those of us who are business ignorant, what is the difference between President and CEO? What are the typical responsibilities of each and such?

It's a good question, as it's a very vaguely defined job title, but generally the CEO sets overall vision, and managing the board, investors, etc (i.e. external facing) - and the President focuses on execution of that vision (i.e. internal facing). President/COO are interchangeable in this case.

Think about Facebook: Zuckerberg sets direction/vision, and Sandberg executes against that. (I'm sure it's not as clear-cut in reality, but you get the idea.)

In some larger companies, there are multiple presidents with responsibility for their own divisions, who all report up to the CEO.

Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#14

Post by bhouston »

I love Github, but they need to build out more serious features into their issue tracker for it to be useful as a software estimation tool. Specifically I need:

* Time estimation.

* GRANTT charts.

Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#15

Post by unfunco »

bfe wrote: post #7

I don't understand how a company could operate for a few months without publicly acknowledging who is really the CEO. I hope they use a "fork the CEO role" button.

GitHub is not a company floating on some publicly-traded market yet. How they operate internally is of very little business to those on the outside. GitHub can operate anyway they like.

Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#17

Post by raganwald »

bhouston wrote: post #14

I love Github, but they need to build out more serious features into their issue tracker for it to be useful as a software estimation tool. Specifically I need: * Time estimation. * GRANTT charts.

GRANNT Chart: A Grantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Grantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project, such that completion of the project qualifies the team for a research and development grant.

Serious answer: Issues are not--to my knowledge--a software estimation tool. I have worked for decades in estimation-oriented development environments, and in my (anecdotal) experience, it is a mistake to use the same tool for both estimation and delivery.

It is seductive for them to be the same thing, as you can feed actual times back into your project, but the conclusion I've drawn is that the estimate reflects a kind of "interface" visible to the outside world, while the issues reflect an "implementation" visible to the team.

When they are the same thing, you end up doing a lot of work fiddling with the estimate to keep it congruent with the internal tasks, even when that congruence is not relevant to the delivery date(s).

I realize that this is heterodoxy.

Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#18

Post by krig »

bhouston wrote: post #14

I love Github, but they need to build out more serious features into their issue tracker for it to be useful as a software estimation tool. Specifically I need: * Time estimation. * GRANTT charts.

Personally, I disagree. Sure, first you get time estimation. Then you get task-based time tracking, then you get average resolution time per committer, then you get weekly spreadsheet generation and analysis meetings on thursday afternoons and there you go, now you're getting memos about adding coversheets to your TPS reports.

I hope they are very careful about adding features and would rather see them focus on trimming less useful features.

Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#19

Post by heartbreak »

raganwald wrote: post #17
bhouston wrote: post #14

I love Github, but they need to build out more serious features into their issue tracker for it to be useful as a software estimation tool. Specifically I need: * Time estimation. * GRANTT charts.

GRANNT Chart: A Grantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Grantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project, such that completion of the project qualifies the team for a research and development grant. Serious answer: Issues are not--to my knowledge--a software estimation tool. I have worked for decades in estimation-oriented…

Isn't this type of chart a GANTT chart without the "R" character?

Re: New Year, New CEO for GitHub

#20

Post by spikels »

nulagrithom wrote: post #8
spikels wrote: post #6

As soon as Tom becomes President he gets a Secret Service detail with dark sunglasses! That animated gif is hilarious.

As someone who wasn't following GitHub as a company, I have to say I quite appreciated the gif. Sums it up in all of 2 seconds. Bravo.

You're absolutely right. They say a picture is worth a thousand words - animated gifs even more so. I could almost imagine a world where animated gifs replace all kinds of communication. Press releases seem particularly ripe for change as they are usually wordsmithed to the point that any impression given is likely false.
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