For Dummies

I've always despised the "For Dummies" book series. It's not the idea... the few I've browsed in the bookstore (with suitable disguise in place) seem to be well-written and humorous. It's the damn title. If I buy the "Sewing for Dummies" book, and interpret language literally, the purchase has nothing to do with my novice status as a seamstress (seamster?) but conveys that I'm actually a dummy.

I must admit I bought one once - but it was appropriate: "Golf for Dummies". My golf game is worthy of the term (nothwithstanding my strict grammatical interpretation argument above).

Saw an interesting title on the shelf at the library today: "Beginning Java for Dummies". This begged the question: where is the "Advanced Java for Dummies" book? And does one exist? Can you get to the advanced tier of "Java developer" and be a dummy? Perhaps the library just doesn't carry it. It was, however, a college library (OK, not exactly a top-tier university).

I checked Amazon. No, there's no "Advanaced Java for Dummies". But there is a POJFD book (OK... take off on POJO.... plain old "Java for Dummies"). There's also "Java Programming for Dummies". Not sure what the difference is. If you're not programming with Java, what exactly are you doing with it? Hmmm.... Perhaps the "Java for Dummies" book describes how to order at Starbucks.

Aside=> My favorite Starbucks order: Alok's: "double tall, two splenda, breve cappacino".... I used to pick up coffee for him and the barista would always eye me and say... "Ah, for Alok?". As if to make sure that I wasn't actually ordering Alok's "usual" for myself. Fortunately, at the time, I had no clue what I was ordering.... it could have come with pork rinds as a garnish for all I knew.

A search for the terms java and dummies on Amazon yielded 412 results. There were only 14 results for ruby and dummies. Hmmm.... guess I figured out where the smart people are hangin' out. To be fair though, not all responses were relevant to the specific technology. The Ruby results included a few "dummies" books whose authors included someone with the name "Ruby". And I'm pretty sure "Ballet for Dummies" has nothing to do with Ruby. Not quite sure how that got into the mix. Didn't have the time to peruse the 412 Java results to weed out the chafe.

Found "Management for Dummies"... hmmm, maybe there is an argument for the validity of this series. (Thinking about managers from previous companies of course.... really.... wonder if any of them are still on my Christmas list?)

Shoemaker's shoemaker

Sometimes I feel like a shoemaker who walks around life in bare feet. I'm a software development professional... consultant even. I help companies create advanced software.

My colleagues are hot on IPods, Macs, PS2, XBox, fancy cell phones.

What's wrong with CD's? I've got a CD player... a bunch of CD's and I can cycle through them. I know, the IPod and other MP3 players allow you to consolidate. OK, good. I have sparse financial resources (4 kids!) and have to wisely allocate those resources. Do I need an IPod? Focus on the word "need". Do I really NEED it? Yes... I'd like one. (feel free to post a response and I'll give you my mailing address for your to send me a check.... or maybe I'll even figure out how to do PayPal, or whatever the cool version of it is now)

Macs.... I really don't understand this one. OK, it makes some cool things easier.... like creating movies, music, art, etc. I'm a left-brained guy. This is not as important to me. If you're a computer guy complaining to your management/IT department that you can't be effective with a PC.... but if they were to get you a MAC, boy, you'd be smokin'.... check your motivation. I mean, really... as an IT professional.... you can't figure out how to make your Windows experience efficient? Be honest with yourself.... you're after the cool factor. You couldn't get the chearleader in school, so now you're trying to be the "football player" of cool technology. Give it a rest. If you want a Mac, buy one yourself. And stop your bitchin.

Gaming machines.... really. Sounds cool. Why don't you try LIVING life instead of experiencing it vicariously through the imagination of some geeks who create virtual worlds? Reminds me of a guy ... good friend actually.... who claimed he couldn't make our volleyball match because he had to sit at home and watch a Giants game. What's with that. Do you live life, or are you a spectator?

Do you really need to check your email via the phone? Really? Are you that important? Ask yourself ... as you thumb through your emails in mid-conversation with a colleague or employee of yours.... is this more important than human contact? I had a manager once who thumbed through his blackberry as we had a "one-on-one" at a Taco Bell of all places. As I was conveying my career goals and such, he was thumbing through the blackberry and mumbling... "uh huh". Please.

Lastly... this "connectedness technology" does not exist for you ... it's for me. If you expect me to answer my cell phone when you call, you have severely mistaken my motivation for obtaining said cell phone. You see... I bought it to make it easier for ME to connect to others.... not for YOU to find me at all hours of the day and night.

Dope a rope

So you're on a team using all of the agile techniques (please don't say methodology). You're pairing, using TDD, daily standups, etc. You have the maturity to understand (or you've been on the other end too many times) that micromanaging doesn't work, but you want to keep a close eye on one of your team members; the code she writes often ends up being less than healthy. In fact, it sometimes is beyond refactoring and needs to be rewritten. You'd rather she not spend a great deal of time going down ratholes. What do you do?

Rotate pairs often. This is a stealthy/healthy way to keep fresh eyes on the problem. It's the classic agile way of spreading the perspective around.

Dope a rope. This is a technique I use sometimes to be welcomed into another developer's sandbox. "Dope"... means I express ignorance (maybe too strong a word) about what he's doing and ask 3rd grader type questions. (Easy for me now - as I have no developer credentials on my current project and am acting as a project manager). I ask for explanations that lead the developer to "throw me a rope" and pull me into the code to show me.

What is the result? The developer sees that what he's doing matters (because I'm paying attention) and feels confidence (after all - he knows more than me). I get an opening to subtley convey suggestions for improvement. And I usually learn something.

Cram First

CRAM First

CRAM is an acronym that represents a model for dealing with workplace performance. I first heard it in business school – in my Managing People and Organizations class. It resonated with me at the time and has endured the test of time: 7 years beyond graduation. How much do you remember that long after school finishes?

The natural reaction to underperformance of a team member is to blame it on motivation. “He’s lazy” or “She’s just not applying herself.” While this reaction may be accurate, there may be other more substantial issues that render the motivation issue irrelevant. This model can help to “peel the onion” to find more basic issues related to performance.

To the point: C = Constraints; R = Resources; A = Aptitude; M = Motivation. Think of these as cascading (or – like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – a pyramid).



Constraints: I have been divorced twice. The first time I got separated, I was working at IBM on mainframe operating system development. I was on an elite team doing cutting edge development – writing software that translates service-level-agreement objectives into algorithms that adjust resource allocation within the system to achieve performance objectives. It was complex work and demanded a great deal of concentration.

When my personal life took a dive, I would – literally – sit in front of the computer screen and stare at it. I felt like a zombie. Though I knew that I was falling behind, I didn’t want to – no, that’s not right – I didn’t care about raising a flag to indicate that I was in trouble. I’m sure I experienced aspects of clinical depression. I finally spoke to my manager. He moved me onto a less complex part of the project, where I flourished. I was fortunate that my prior performance provided evidence of my capability, so my manager was able to understand the impact of my personal issues.
So ask me – was I motivated? I don’t know. I didn’t care. My issues were more foundational – my motivation was irrelevant. Ask a homeless person if they are working on self-actualization.

Resources: In this day and age, why doesn’t every developer have a big flat-screen monitor on which to work? Why don’t they have 2-gig systems (or more) with dual-core multiprocessors to speed their work? Understand that the more lag time there is between tasks, the more start/stop energy that gets expended by thrashing. If my build takes 4 minutes, and I start looking at cnn.com in the meantime, I’m losing my concentration. Nobody can be expected to maintain concentration over this time.

I run meetings where I need a projector. Management decides to purchase one projector to share among 50 people – to save money. Consider that I’m costing you $150 an hour… so every 10 minutes I spend hunting down, or reserving the projector costs you $25. Moreover, I’m losing concentration on the tasks I could have been performing.

Administrative assistants provide incredible leverage for productivity. I spent an hour recently reserving rooms for a recurring daily meeting using a terrible Lotus Notes conference room scheduling implementation. You can hire great administrative assistants to do this at a much lower cost. Think of me (and other high-tech workers) as expensive pieces of machinery in your manufacturing plant. To optimize your profit, you need to keep your expensive pieces of machinery at optimum capacity. Don’t eschew paying $50 an hour for a maintenance person who keeps a $1,000 per hour piece of machinery humming.

Aptitude: I had a good friend/colleague at IBM once who was extremely bright. He had (presumably still has) a quick wit, a great attitude, and could solve some complex problems with ease. He had a master’s degree in Mathematics. Unfortunately, he was working as a programmer. He wasn’t a great programmer. He was eventually managed out of the company. To this day, it bothers me. I was his team leader, but I was young and had no leadership sense. I was timid. I wanted to get along – climb the IBM corporate ladder – become CEO someday. My friend was not a poor employee; his best skills were simply not being leveraged. He would have been an outstanding software performance analyst. To this day, when faced with seemingly incompetent people, my experience tells me to look for where the aptitude lies. That person may not be shining in his current role, but may be brilliant in other areas. Let’s find the areas where we can all be brilliant.

Motivation: Some people are lazy, unmotivated – whatever. There are reams of books on motivating people – particularly in the sales arena. I’m sure some of these tactics work. But motivation is irrelevant when deeper issues exist. Don’t be lazy in managing these individuals. Figure out if there are more foundational issues to address before giving your next motivational speech. CRAM first; motivate later.

First Post

My first post. This blog is my foray into blogging on tech topics related to (in no particular order)

Software development
C#/.NET
Agile Software Development/Scrum/XP Programming
Software development career paths
Human Resource Management in the software industry
Project management/Iteration Management/Scrum Mastery
People Management
Performance Measurement/Balanced Scorecard/Metrics