dilbert management tipsathena.ecs.csus.edu/~buckley/csc233/csc233_chapter8.pdf · 2016-10-13 ·...

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Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project

Management. Johanna Rothman

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Dilbert – Management tipsScott Adams

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-08-17/


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Scott Adams, the Manager

“The principles I tried to establish with the staff early on, that

seemed to have stuck, include these:”

• Have fun. Loosen up.

• Try something new. Often. Keep whatever works.

• No penalty for a new idea failing. Trying is the thing.

• Employees are more important than customers.

• Stop asking Scott for approval. Just do it.

• Managers get to see the financials.

• Being a jerk to coworkers is grounds for termination.

• Do whatever seems smart and fair to make customers happy.

• Watch the competition closely and borrow their best ideas.

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Chapter 8 - Steering the Project

How to get “there”:

8.1 Steer with “rhythm”

8.2 Conduct Interim Retrospectives

8.3 Rank Requirements

8.4 Timebox Requirements Work

8.5 Timebox Iterations to 4 or fewer Weeks

8.6 Use Rolling-Wave Planning & Scheduling

8.7 Create a Cross-Functional Project Team

8.8 Select a Life Cycle based on our Project’s Risks

8.9 Keep Reasonable Work Hours

8.10 Use Inch-Pebbles

8.11 Manage Interruptions

8.12 Manage Defects from the beginning

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What’s the rhythm?

• Some projects “churn”, making progress in stops and

starts.

• Some projects “zoom”, accomplishing more than was

expected as they go.

• What’s a reasonable rhythm?

• Serial life cycle projects may have lots of churning at

different phases – and mask the problems.

• Agile life cycle project may churn during iteration

planning, but then establish a consistent rhythm – of

producing “time boxed” work.

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Shorter iterations – the key to establishing rhythm

Why?

• Long iterations make it harder to maintain rhythm

• Shorter iterations:

- Provide more frequent feedback

- Reveal problems

Causes of lost “rhythm”:

• Member estimates are poor

• Members are doing too much

• Members don’t know what to do first

• Waiting for task assignments… and requirements

• Waiting for someone else’s work

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Causes of lost “rhythm” (continued)

• Not knowing the most important requirements.

• Not knowing when the “gathering” should end.

• Allowing GUI changes without knowing the impact.

• Not knowing how “parts” fit into the architecture.

• Not staffing the project with the right people at the right time.

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Introspectives by design!

• Avoid repeating bad experiences!

• At the end of the project – yes!

• Throughout the project – yes!

• Serial, iterative & incremental –

at the completion of each

milestone

• Agile – at the end of every

iteration

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Rank the Requirements

Iteration Planning

Knowing what to implement first, second, third, …



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RANKING THE FEATURES

First, assign weights

Score each alternative against each criterion

(Scale: 0 - 10 with 10 the most favorable)

Weights Weighted Weighted

Criteria (1,2,4,8,…) Score Score Score Score

Impact of feature 1 10 10 3 3

Time to implement 4 3 12 10 40

Importance to customer 8 1 8 10 80

Resource availabiltiy 2 10 20 7 14

50 137

Feature 1 Feature 2

Fig. 8.1

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Rolling-Wave Planning

“A rolling wave plan is a continuous detailed schedule

that's only a few weeks long.

As you complete one week of detailed schedule, you

add another week to the end of the schedule.

With a four- week rolling wave schedule, I never have

less than four weeks of detailed schedule, and I never

have more than four weeks of detailed schedule.”

Rothman:

http://www.ayeconference.com/Articles/RollingWave.html

http://www.ayeconference.com/Articles/RollingWave.html

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Beware of “Technical Debt” Creep

Design and quality flaws in a team's work become a

"debt" that must eventually be paid back.

Part of the cost is obvious: the time & materials to

repair the problem.

The non-obvious and probably non-measurable costs:

• How much effort will it take to get to the root cause of the

defect so that it doesn't occur a second time?

• How much will it affect our "goodwill" and thus reduce

further and repeat sales?

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The non-obvious and probably non-measurable costs

(continued)

• How much will the existence of one defect hide the existence

of other defects (with their own costs)?

• How much will the defect demoralize the team and increase

staff turnover or reduce productivity?

• How much of an opportunity will the defect create for

competitors?

• How much will the defect increase maintenance and support

costs?

• In other words, every time someone asks a team to let quality

slide, they are asking the team (and the organization) to take

on debt with an unknown interest rate.

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TIP (page 154)

Build Replanning into the Project Schedule

Unless you are using an agile life cycle, make your

replanning activities explicit.

And make them often enough that the schedule doesn’t

fly away from you without you realizing it.



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A Cross Functional Team

• Finishes work faster

… maybe unless members collaborate across functions

Each Single Function team member finishes their parts faster, but

with no review or verification by the other function teams.

Once their work is complete they return to their “silo”.

Single functional team members wait for work to be assigned.

• Provides for a diverse project team – with collaboration

occurring throughout the project.

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What Life-cycle?

8.8 page 156

“Select a Life Cycle Based on Your Project’s Risks”

But there must be evidence that the Life Cycle selected

has resulted in deliveries that “are on time, within

budget and provide all of what was expected”



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Agile Life Cycle

http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/agileLifecycle.html




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Agile Life Cycle





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Agile Life Cycle







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Agile Life Cycle





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Getting more done with overtime

“Industrial accidents increase disproportionately as hours

increase above forty per week, or above 8 hours per day.

More than half of all industrial accidents occur in jobs with

extended working hours.

The generally-accepted hypothesis is that the accidents

result from tiredness.

… Does programming require that we be mentally alert?

The risk of an accident is essentially doubled at 12 hours

compared to 8… what about the risk of inserting bugs?”

… and the ability to find and remove them?

http://xprogramming.com/articles/jatsustainablepace/



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http://xprogramming.com/articles/jatsustainablepace/

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The more overtime…

… the less work accomplished!

• Figure on roughly 6 hours of technical work per day

• 7 or 8 hours a day can be maintained for 1 or 2 weeks

• Sustained overtime has diminishing returns

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There has also been recent news about the impact of

long hours on medical interns, reporting that after long

sessions they are twice as likely to have an auto accident

while driving, and five times more likely to have a near

miss.

After a month of overtime, they drive, literally, as if

they had had three or four stiff drinks.”

http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/jatSustainablePace.htm

http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/jatSustainablePace.htm

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Manage Interruptions

Two types:

1. Project interruptions

Protect the iteration’s work

Handle the interruptions between iterations

Keep track of all interruptions

2. People interruptions

Asking a question is an interrupt

Have interrupt places – to minimize those interrupted



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Manage Defects – throughout!

• Minimize the build-up of technical debt

• Have developers developing and testers testing simultaneously

• Maintain a Defect Tracking System

Defect

Number Description Priority Severity Exposure When to fix!

17 Name is address High Low High This iteration!

Address is name (Our customers

will be (Our customers

will be confused!)

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Prepare for Influence (page 162)

• Make sure the team owns the problem & the solution.

• Collaborate… give and receive help.

• Understand team member’s motivation (WIIFM 1

).

• Listen to the team.

• Buy-in means the team has a say – and maybe the

right ideas.

• Don’t let your ideas get in the team’s way

• Other?

• Remove Yak-shaving impediments

1 What’s In It For Me

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Software Development & Software Operations

Cause of “interrupts” and delay in project development

• Operations: the folks that are responsible for

monitoring and operating the production

applications…

The product that is the revenue generator

• Development: the future product… in development

The interrupts and delays in development…

Transfer resources as needed…



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Operations (example)

Software Operations Manager:

• Leads the operations behind the release and on-going success of

GBS's innovative O+M Track software product.

• Works closely with other GBS managers as well as senior

consulting staff to define, implement and assess operational

enhancements that benefit our clients and our business.

• Critical areas of responsibility include:

- developing short and long-term operations plans

- developing and customer support

- developing online demonstration and sales processes

- working closely with key clients to scope, sell and deliver

customized support programs.



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Development and Operations

• Interaction of development and operations … with operational needs interrupting the development work.

• Difficult if not impossible to plan and estimate work needed for the development.

• Advice:

Assign some folks to operations full-time (and rotate) – for a week or two

Assume full-time development can occur 2 to 3 days a week, the rest of the time folks multi-task

Add more people… with secondary responsibility to the project

Treat the operational task as “product backlog” work

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Looking for defects… from day 1!

Categorize by severity and priority!

Severity

Technical impact

High severity: system cannot run or delivers incorrect results

Priority

Business impact

The customer will be adversely affected by the problem

Defect When to

Number Short Description Priority Severity Exposure Fix

17 Name is address;

address is name

(reversed)

High Low High (our

customers will be

confused)

This

iteration

Figure 8.2

dilbert management tipsathena.ecs.csus.edu/~buckley/csc233/csc233_chapter8.pdf · 2016-10-13 ·...

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