Category Archives: teams

P-Camp – Agile 101

Agile 101

I spent yesterday at p-camp, an unconference for agile product managers. The event was hosted at Yahoo! and put on by the folks at Enthiosys. I led two sessions: Agile 101, and Why do Agile Projects Succeed (or Fail)? This post is about the Agile 101 session. Watch for future posts about my other session, and some more pictures.

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IEEE Silicon Valley Technology Management Council – February Notes

At the February IEEE Silicon Valley Technology Management Council meeting the group did an exercise to generated practical suggestions for implementing four management ideals. The group broke up into 4 teams; each considered one management ideal, and then reported their suggestions for implementing the ideal back to the whole group. The whole exercise took 30 minutes and included networking as well as idea generation.

Here are my notes on the ideas that each team generated. Clarifications and additions are welcome!

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IEEE Offshore Panel Discussion

Today’s engineering managers need to be able to manage projects where some, or even all, of the engineers are located offshore. While the situation is becoming more common, the challenges and opportunities are still not widely understood. On the evening of March 6, the Silicon Valley IEEE Technology Management Council is bringing together 4 panelists, with diverse backgrounds and experience, to answer your questions about managing with offshore engineers.

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Engineering Managers Support Group – Tonight

The October 2007 Engineering Managers Support Group meeting is just a few hours away!

Where:
Round Table Pizza (event room)
61 43rd Ave
San Mateo, CA

Schedule:
7:00 PM Socializing and free pizza
7:30 PM Getting a New Hire Up and Running

You have found an ideal candidate; made them an offer, and they start in two weeks. Now what? I will share an approach that has worked for me, and some lessons learned as well. Please bring your experiences to share, and together we will unearth best practices for integrating new hires into the team.

After that, we will have a facilitated discussion where participants can share challenges that they are facing and get feedback, ideas, and support from the group. The event is free and so it the pizza! Come out, join the discussion, and become a better manager.

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Agile Open CA – Retrospective

Agile Open California 2007 has come to an end. I am sitting on a pier here at the Fort Mason Center, enjoying a muffin from Greens, watching sailboats, and collecting my thoughts.

I met some truly interesting people, heard some amazing stories, and learned much. I am exhausted and energized at the same time. I am so inspired, that I have volunteered to be a part of the conference team for next year! This was the most amazing conference experience that I’ve ever had.

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Getting a New Hire Up and Running – October Engineering Managers Support Group

You have found an ideal candidate, made him an offer, and he starts in two weeks. Now what? At this month’s Engineering Managers Support Group meeting I will share an approach that worked well for me, and some lessons learned as well. Please bring your experiences to share, and together we will unearth best practices for integrating new hires into the team.

After that, we will have a facilitated discussion where participants can share challenges that they are facing and get feedback, ideas, and support from the group. The event is free and so it the pizza! Come out, join the discussion, and become a better manager.

We are meeting on Wednesday, October 24th, in San Mateo.
RSVP now

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Lunch With Joel Spolsky

I’m sitting in a Starbucks in the ‘Multimedia Gulch’ area of San Francisco, having just shared some fine San Francisco Burritos with Joel Spolsky. It’s been a few years since we last chatted, and much has changed. Joel’s company, Fog Creek Software, has more than doubled in size. They have mostly filled their recently expanded office space and Joel is busy figuring out how much space they should get to accommodate future growth. A new version of FogBugz has just been released and Joel is doing a demo tour. I think he still has space available in a few of his Bay Area demos. If you get a chance, check it out. I’ll be there tomorrow morning in Mountain View.

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A Different Kind of Tolerance in the Workplace

Dannyman pointed out this quote from William L. McKnight, past Chairman of the Board at 3M.

As our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate responsibility and to encourage men and women to exercise their initiative. This requires considerable tolerance. Those men and women, to whom we delegate authority and responsibility, if they are good people, are going to want to do their jobs in their own way. Mistakes will be made. But if a person is essentially right, the mistakes he or she makes are not as serious in the long run as the mistakes management will make if it undertakes to tell those in authority exactly how they must do their jobs. Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills initiative. And it’s essential that we have many people with initiative if we are to continue to grow.

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