Quick kill project management
Friend and fellow O’Reilly author Andrew Stellman has a new article up on what he calls Quick Kill project…
Category: Software/Web development
Mistakes in technical leadership (Hacknot)
For the last half-hour I’ve been jamming on essays at hacknot, on leadership and management in the tech-sector. The…
Why vision documents stink
At a talk yesterday I asked an audience of program managers how many of them had read a vision…
The best software writing, Volume 2
Last year Joel Spolsky, of www.joelonsoftware.com fame, published a collection of essays titled The best software writing, volume 1.…
The exceptions to Brooks’ Law
In Fred Brooks’ Mythical Man Month, he states: Brooks Law: adding manpower to a late software project makes it…
Interview with Fred Brooks (Fortune magazine)
Fortune magazine has an interview with the legendary Fred Brooks, author of the grand classic The mythical man month.…
Lessons on social bookmarking (Learning from del.ico.us & blink)
Here’s a good short essay about lessons learned from the founder of blink, a 1999 social bookmarking effort. This…
This week in UX-Clinic: The Frankenstein prototype
This week in the UX-clinic discussion forum: Topic #1 – The frankenstein prototype: For 3 weeks I’ve been building…
Pm-clinic: The happy holiday bonus
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #55 – The happy holiday bonus. Dear pm-clinic, I’m a team…
This week: winning at schedule chicken
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #54 – Winning at schedule chicken. Dear pm-clinic, My project team…
This week: the fate of acquired teams
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #53 – The fate of acquired teams. Dear pm-clinic, Your assignment,…
The worst software bugs in history (and how to learn from them)
Wired’s article on History’s worst software bugs is a short and darkly entertaining read that makes us feel better about…
This week: the joy of team rivalry
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #52 – The joy of team rivalry. I’m a team leader…
The data death spiral
Whenever data is misused as the only means for making decisions, a death spiral begins. Blind faith in data…
This week: Making handoffs
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #51 – Making handoffs. Here’s this week’s situation: I’m a lead…
The evil wall of requirements
One of the things stupid people do is this: Person A (aka Mr. stupid) writes a requirements document. He…
This week: How to be the wolf
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #50 – How to be the Wolf. Here’s this week’s situation:…
This week: Death by autonomy
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #49 -Death by autonomy. Here’s this week’s situation: I’m an engineer…
More on why software sucks
There’s a nice thread in response to the essay why software sucks over at artima.com. Artima.com is an interesting…
This week: Figuring out lessons to learn
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #47 – Figuring out lessons to learn. Here’s this week’s situation:…