Since two decades author and leadership consultant Frank Kanu helps top managers and executives to improve success ratios and productivity.
 About Frank Kanu  |  Testimonials  |  Order Books  |  Free Articles  |  Press  |  Excellence in Leadership  |  Genius One

Genius One Inc., Smart Solutions for Growth

Frank Uncovers Excellence in Leadership

Posts

Descent into Hell

© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

When you are familiar with the software industry you know that deadlines are always set very tight.  Most are so unrealistically they will never be reached.


But how often is this nothing else then poor management style?  Here is this company with a CTO and three project leads, one analyst, one tester, one GUI designer, two junior programmer, one programmer and three senior programmers.










    Programmer A I predict that the CEO is forcing us to work heavy overtime.
    Programmer BLet the madness begin.
    Programmer AI was afraid of that.
    Programmer BThe CTO shifted all of the production dates around for the new contract to accommodate a later start (6 weeks) and roughly the same finish time.
    Programmer AI did see that.  Remember, I said that the CTO will ensure that:
    a) If it works it was all HIS effort
    b) If it does not work nothing was his fault, just the low people, named programmers.
    Programmer BYou say that that’s Thanksgiving Holiday?  No Problem!  Just make sure that everything’s done a week earlier, so that the CTO and the project lead can go on their respective vacations!
    [The team wasn’t finished a week early, but the CTO and project lead went on their vacations anyway.]
    No one expects you to contribute to this round.  Lucky You!
    Programmer BEehh!  Wrong!!  I already got the first request to start working on Monday.  After I announced that I’ll take off until the end of this week because of the new baby.  Two and a half days off are way too much!  I even worked the night before my daughter was born…
    Programmer BTests?  I know our two juniors will be writing those.  Let the nightmare begin!


How blind can a management team be?  Even the lead programmer admitted in meetings that the programming team would be coding to the deadlines instead of the design.  Essentially that it is a real big mess.


And it was getting worst by the day.  A new compiler version just came out and another one will be out when approaching the deadline.  Tools used were all over bugtrack: Holes here and there.  Did management care?  Nope, they just waited until the customer complained and then management went into the deserved weekend while the plebus worked…


Now let’s take a closer look at this situation:


  • The CTO had no idea how to properly plan a project.
    You just do not change one important variable and ignore the influence that has on other project variables.
    Changing the starting date without changing the deliverable date can only mean one of two things: Your initial time assessment wasn’t worth the paper written on or you are just looking to descend into hell.

  • The team had a big water-head - why one CTO and three project leads?

  • There is no communication happening in the team.  Or if it does the programmers are ignored by management.
    A six week change?

  • The team already is in a motivational gap.  
    What does that tell you about the quality you can expect?

  • Leave testing up to the most inexperienced developers raises another question about quality.

  • Leaders lead by example.
    How can the CTO and one project lead take off while the team is struggling?
    There is no team spirit at all.

  • There are two times during the year when you need to keep in mind that your employees - especially family oriented ones - get side tracked a lot: summer vacation time and the holiday season.


Mind you that management decided to lie about the implementation deadlines set from the customer.


Many of the problems could have been easily avoided with more honesty towards the employees and team without the management overhead.



Tags:
accommodate  big water  compiler version  cto  deliverable  developers  finish time  gap  gui designer  half days  holiday season  honesty  implementation deadlines  inexperienced  initial time  junior programmer  juniors  management care  management style  management team  new baby  new contract  nightmare  nope  overtime  plan a project  poor management  production dates  programmer  programmers  programming team  project variables  quality leaders  side tracked  software industry  summer vacation  take a closer look  team spirit  thanksgiving holiday  time programmer  two and a half  vacation time  vacations  water head
 Technorati (All Links are external): accommodate  big water  compiler version  cto  deliverable  developers  finish time  gap  gui designer  half days  holiday season  honesty  implementation deadlines  inexperienced  initial time  junior programmer  juniors  management care  management style  management team  new baby  new contract  nightmare  nope  overtime  plan a project  poor management  production dates  programmer  programmers  programming team  project variables  quality leaders  side tracked  software industry  summer vacation  take a closer look  team spirit  thanksgiving holiday  time programmer  two and a half  vacation time  vacations  water head  business  it
 
Digg  del.icio.us  StumbleUpon  Technorati  Reddit This blog-entry is protected by a digital fingerprint:785273ed81985582c8a1be62f78c9459
 
  • Frank Kanu on Wednesday, October 27th, 2004 @ 10:04
  • Filed under Business, IT


You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Readers, who enjoyed reading this posting, also read:
  • 03/11/2008
  • Advertisement from Hell
  • 07/11/2008
  • Anthony John Gray

Because I value your thoughtful opinions, I encourage you to add them.

Please leave your Response right here:




XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>



Please do not be offended if I edit your response for clarity or to keep out questionable matters, however, and I may even delete off-topic responses.

Archives and Links




« HBS Working Knowledge     Dot-com bombs get an archive of their own »
  • Tags
    • blog
      change
      decisions
      e book
      education
      failure
      few days
      followers
      job
      kanu
      last time
      leader
      leaders
      leadership skills
      love
      mail
      manager
      managers
      mistakes
      money
      president bush
      programmers
      questions
      start leading
      stop telling

    • Tags sorted alphabetically
    • Tags sorted numerically
  • Categories
    • Business
      • Case Studies
      • Negotiations
    • Cooking
    • Definitions
    • Ethics
    • Events
    • Frank Kanu
    • General
      • Daily Question
      • Quote of the Day
      • Weekly Poll
    • IT
      • Code review
    • Leadership
    • Management
      • Teams
    • Motivation
    • Politics
    • Something funny
    • Stop Telling… Start Leading!
  • Random Posts
    • - Stop Telling… Start Leading! - Testimonials
    • - CIO Shortage
    • - Do you love what you do?

    • blogmap
    • More about Frank
  • Links
    • Frank Kanu's Books
    • - Andy Coote
    • - Andy Wibbels
    • - Billy McDermott*s Blog
    • - Blogcritics
    • - dandrea projetos
    • - David Intersimone “David I”
    • - Derek Jones
    • - Develop Your Vision
    • - enhance your leadership skills
    • - Forbes.com
    • - Frank Kanu
    • - Frank Kanu’s article archive
    • - Genius One
    • - Handelsblatt
    • - Karel’s Legal Blog
    • - Managing Leadership
    • - New York Nitty-Gritty
    • - News for nerds, stuff that matters
    • - Philip Greenspun’s Weblog
    • - Practical Developmental Ideas
    • - Practical Solutions to Business Puzzles
    • - Recipes
    • - Rick Cooper, The PDA Pro
    • - Roberta Pili
    • - Sacred Cow Dung
    • - Savvy Intrapreneur
    • - Scrapbooker for hire
    • - Scrapbooking 4 others
    • - seth godin’s blog
    • - stop telling… start leading!
    • - The Art of Managing People by Asking Questions
    • - The Washington Post
    • - TomPeters!
  • RSS Feed
    • Syndicate using RSS
    • The latest comments to all posts in RSS
  • Archives/Calendar
    • yearly archives
    • monthly archives
    • weekly archives
    • daily archives
    September 2008
    M T W T F S S
    « Aug    
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    2930  
  • Blog Of The Day Awards Winner

If not otherwise stated - all postings © Frank D. Kanu. All rights reserved.

This blog is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered.
If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.



Genius One Inc. · USA
Fax: (509) 463-0129 · E-mail:
info@GeniusOne.com

 


Privacy Statement   Sitemap

 
Copyright © 2000-2008 Genius One Inc.
All rights reserved.
Reproduction or use in whole or part in any form or medium without written permission of Genius One Inc. is prohibited.
If parts or any part of these WebPages is judicially determined to be invalid, that invalidity will not affect the remaining part of these Pages.