Management Bits and Tips

Previously announced book (publication date is 1st of September, 2010) now got preliminary front and back covers.

Front cover:

Back cover:

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

The title of this post employs an operating system metaphor for a team member as a thread in a process (team).  I recalled this morning a book that I was reading 3 years ago and dug it from one of my dark dusty office corners:

My Job Went to India: 52 Ways to Save Your Job (Pragmatic Programmers)

I think it is relevant in this economic downturn if you replace India as an empty set or empty string: My Job Went to “”.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

To my shame I have never read the famous book “AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis”. Being interested in antipatterns which I often figure out myself in the practical domain of software technical support (see Crash Dump Analysis AntiPatterns) I looked for the most recent collection of the management ones and found this book which I’m reading now:

Antipatterns: Identification, Refactoring, and Management (Auerbach Series on Applied Software Engineering)

In addition to their own patterns, the authors of the book provide the description of Brown’s antipatterns (the book mentioned earlier, “AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, …”), provide two tables for easy antipattern identification in an organization or a team (Management Antipattern Locator and Environmental Antipattern Locator), list and comment on Myers-Briggs personality types, discuss Keirsey temperament groupings and Bramson’s human personality phenotypes. Highly recommended. I especially liked “All You Have Is a Hammer” antipattern of which I was guilty myself during my earlier Team Lead role experience.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Yesterday in a local Dun Laoghaire bookstore I stumbled upon this book:

Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t and Why: 10 Things You’d Better Do If You Want to Get Ahead

Initially I hesitated but finally bought it. I wasn’t disappointed when I started reading it that evening. This book finally puts an explanatory system around career promotions and it really fits well with my observations in 15 companies I worked for during past 15 years. This doesn’t mean that I changed the company ever year The longest relationship with a company was 7 years and my current relationship with Citrix approaches 5 years. I just worked for some companies in parallel or just for a few months. This book also teaches some important vocabulary such as:

• - future value
• - a smooth handoff within the window of opportunity
• - optimization of the outcome of the staffing change

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

There are many X-Driven motivations out there but I prefer expertise-driven individuals, motivated by the desire to become experts. It is not bullshit as you might think. It is more like a persistent psychological state found in researchers and scientists and the best results are guaranteed when it is supplemented by money-driven positive feedback loop. I’ve seen such people in both software engineering and software technical support environments.

Copied with corrections from my Crash Dump Analysis blog

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -