MSE 608 Spring 08

1. MSE 608 Spring 08 • The 3 rules of management • Team building • Culture

2. Management Lessons • Lesson One An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing?" The eagle answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it. • Management Lesson: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

3. Management Lessons Lesson Two A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "But, I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon the turkey was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree. • Management Lesson: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

4. Management Lessons Lesson Three A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him. • Management Lessons: • Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy. • Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend. • And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

5. Building and managing team

6. Productive teams • What is a team? • Do you consider your research assignment groups a team?

7. Building & Managing Teams • Class Exercise Separate into 3 teams and come up with 5 characteristics of a good team. For each one, write down what does a manager have to do in order to build such a team.

8. Productive teams • Jelled teams • Momentum • Formed around goals • What is a goal? • How do you recognize a jelled team?

9. Peopleware – Productive projects and teams Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister

10. Managing the human resource • Managing people as though they were modular components • Where does it come from? • Promoted to manager because we were good doers. • Design into components with standard interface

11. Project failure • 15 % of projects get cancelled • Politics as a cause of failure • Communication problems • Staffing • Motivation • High turn over

12. Many of the issues were not technological but sociological

13. Managers agree that they have more people issues then technology issues, but they do not manage that way. • Interested more in the technical issues then the people issues • Results from the training and education that the manager had in his technical background.

14. The high tech illusion • Are we in the high tech world? • Concentrating on technical is easier then concentrating on people • Human interactions are complicated.

15. Fast food business model • Remove the errors, make the machines (or people) run as smooth as possible. • Do not allow goofing off on the job • Treat the people as interchangeable parts • Optimize the steady state • Standardize everything • Don’t think, do everything by the book

16. Is this approach applicable to your working environment?

17. Allow for errors • Mistakes are part of experimentations • Plan to throw away • Environment that does not allow errors will make people defensive • Kicking people might help in the short run but not make them more creative.

18. We haven’t got time to think about the job, just do it

19. Allow time to: • Think • Question • Examine • Test alternatives

20. How much time is your manager allocating for you to: Study ? Read ? learn ?

21. Overtime

22. Overtime • Productivity • Getting more through unpaid overtime • Is the delivery date set because of actual reason? • Trick employees into accepting the schedule

23. Overtime What is the affect of overtime on people? • The home front affect • Productivity during long periods over overtime decline • Workaholics • Burnouts

24. What do organizations do to increase productivity? • Pressure people to put more hours • Mechanize the process of development • Compromise the quality • Standardize procedures

25. Result: • Work less enjoyable • Following this method will increase turn over • What will be the effect of losing key people?

26. Quality (if time permits)

27. Quality (if time permits) • People have emotional binds to their products • Managers risk product quality by setting unreasonable deadlines. • Is it a challenge? • When time is running out, there will not be more resources, more people, more tools, but the thing that will be reduced will be quality. • Problems will be pushed under the rug or put a side for later fix

28. Quality (if time permits) • How does the reduced quality affect the team members? • Managers treat quality as another attribute of the product. • The builders have the point of view that the outmost quality is needed for their product.

29. “The market doesn’t give a damn about that much quality” • Quality increase productivity • “Quality is free but only to those who are willing to pay heavily for it”

30. Parkinson’s law Work will expand to fill the time allocated for it. Will setting impossible dates force the people to work harder?

31. Does Parkinson’s Law apply to your people? • People that enjoy their work do not loaf around wasting the time • If you run into this issue, perhaps you should look into reassigning people to different tasks (or different companies)

32. Organizational “busy work” tends to expand to fill the working day • Forms • Unneeded reports • Etc…

33. There is no Silver bullet Fred Brooks – The mythical Man Month • Pressure to improve productivity pushes managers to look for a silver bullet, a magic solution that will increase productivity and solve all of the problems.

34. The seven false hopes of software management • There is some new trick you’ve missed that could send productivity soaring • Other managers are getting gains of 100%, 200% or more • Technology is moving so swiftly that you’re being passed by • Changing languages will give you a huge gain • Because of backlog you need to increase productivity immediately. • You automate everything else, isn’t it time you automate away your software development staff • Your people will work better if you put them under a lot of pressure * Taken from Peopleware – Productive projects and teams Tom Demarco & Timothy Lister

35. The office environment • How does the environment affect productivity ?

36. The furniture police

37. Office noise • Paging system • Load phones • Privacy

38. Personal space • Saving money on space • Noise protection • Hiding out

39. Office arrangement • Windows • Who sits next to the windows ? • Offices • Open space • Bringing back the door • Creative space

40. “You never get anything done here between 9 & 5” • I come early to accomplish more then when people show up • In one late evening I can accomplish more then 2 regular days • Too many meetings to get anything done

41. The Right People • Get the right people • Make them happy so they don’t want to leave • Turn them loose

42. Finding the right people • The interview • Standard dress • The resume • The interview session

43. Finding the right people • But what do you really know about the candidate? • Have him bring examples • Holding an audition – have the candidate prepare a presentation about his prior projects.

44. Keep employees happy • What is the annual employee turnover in the organization over the past few years? • How much does it cost to replace a person?

46. Replacing people • Hidden costs of turnover • Short term view of employees • Employee moral • Structure is top heavy due to fast promotion

47. Methodology • Do it the way we teach you….. • Too much paperwork • Absence of responsibility • Loss of motivation

48. What will happened if people will follow all the rules to the dot?

49. How to kill a team • Defensive management • Bureaucracy • Physical Separation • Fragmentation of people’s time • Quality reduction of the product • Phony deadlines • Clique control

50. “Most organizations don’t plan on killing a team, they just do so”