I just read this rambling interview with Joel Spolsky, over at ACM Queue.
He mentions the early days of Joel on Software, even before he started Fog Creek Software. Back then he had a bit more time for writing, and created some essays that I still consider required reading. Examples include: Read the full article…
You are invited. The Technical Management Institute (Now Agile Learning Labs) is buying the pizza. Tonight we will learn SWOT, and then move on to talking about your engineering management issues. Details here.
Tonight I participated in an open space event put on by the Bay Area Agile Project Leadership Network. I did a short workshop on how to make the business case for agile. Though the presentation used no slides, I made use of some of the concepts and diagrams from this PowerPoint deck, which is in turn a subset of what I present in the Agile Overview workshops.
The event was well organized and the participants were a smart and enthusiastic bunch. I look forward to the next get together, on Tuesday September 11th.
This month’s session will start with a short workshop on SWOT analysis, a tool commonly taught in business school to examine internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. It was originally conceived to help corporations formulate high-level business strategy, but it has proven useful in a broad range of situations. SWOT is an excellent tool for evaluating business opportunities such as starting a new business, entering a new market, pursuing a new development project, or allocating resources in areas such as recruiting or training.
Checkout the new look over at the Technical Management Institute. Many thanks to Hillary for the new look.
I spent the evening at the SDForum Software Engineering Management Special Interest Group (SEM Sig) meeting. The room was filled with engineering managers of almost every type and experience level. The presenter tonight was Narinder Sandhu, who worked at HP and Intuit before founding T-Rex Global. He managed to get everyone in the room to do a basic skills-assessment and career action plan, as part of his presentation comparing large companies to small startups.
After the formal presentation, the informal discussions were amazing. I talked with people about things as diverse as: finance, feedback, agile development, a mathematical model for organizational structures, and C vs. Lisp vs. Verilog! Oh yes, I’ll be back.
Last night, 8 folks gathered in the event room at a Round Table Pizza in San Mateo to learn about giving feedback and discuss the issues they face managing engineers. I was especially gratified that two of my past coworkers dropped by and participated.
The new venue seems to be better located and has the capacity to support the group as it grows. Pizza worked well as workshop food. We will return to this same location next month, on Wednesday August 22nd.
To keep informed about the Bay Area Engineering Managers Support Group, join us on meetup.com.
Now with free pizza!
Share the adventures and challenges of managing engineers. This month’s session will start with a short workshop on giving feedback. After that comes a facilitated discussion where participants share challenges that they are facing and get feedback, ideas, and support from the group. The event is free and pizza will be provided. Come out, join the discussion, and become a better manager.
We will be in the event room at:
Round Table Pizza
61 43rd Ave
San Mateo, CA
Arrivals and free pizza 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Program starts at 7:30 PM
It’s free, RSVP at meetup.com.
Tonight I’m a guest lecturer at USF Cupertino, thanks to Juan Montermoso. Juan is an instructor as well as being president of Montermoso Associates, a marketing and training consultancy based in Silicon Valley.
This morning I went down to Santa Clara to enjoy some fine IHOP breakfast and the company of a dozen other consultants. I was pleasantly overwhelmed with the responses I got when I asked the group for advice on marketing my training services. Most everyone was aghast when I told them that I’m currently giving some classes away free.