Management Bits and Tips

CV as Book

Dmitry Vostokov — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:07:08 +0000

A book can serve the role of CV but a CV can serve the role of a book. Elaborating on this idea I decided to publish my old CV (1987 - 2003) as a book and as an example of a person with CV-writing obsession like I had 5 - 8 years ago. Book details can be found here:

Forthcoming CV as a Book

Front cover of my CV

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Fine Collection of Management Antipatterns

Dmitry Vostokov — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:20:21 +0000

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 -

Management Bit and Tip 0×1000

Dmitry Vostokov — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:15:33 +0000

Some people don’t feel good when they see themselves second or last on To: and Cc: email recipient lists or any other list that lists them (bit). Alphabetize the list and even mention casually that you do so (tip).

Prioritize, Alphabetize, Perspectiwise

The second P is not a misprint but the summary that puts the alphabetization of To: and Cc: lists into perspective wisely!

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Rhetorical Question Disorder

Dmitry Vostokov — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:52:32 +0000

Have you ever seen or worked with a person that never provides concrete answers or in the worst case doesn’t answer at all? Perhaps this persons considers any question as rhetorical and therefore has RQD. You need to stop asking questions and make statements instead.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Management Bit and Tip 0×800

Dmitry Vostokov — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:52:33 +0000

The pressure to deliver is great nowadays (bit). Utilize time-proven software engineering techniques like reuse of accomplishments and artifacts (tip).

Classical example of this is called WORM: write once, report many. For example, you write an article once and report the number of views every month. Of course, the article needs to be popular enough to report.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Expectations, expectations…

Dmitry Vostokov — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:28:06 +0000

I found this book in a local bookshop a few months ago and now I recommend it to everyone dealing with customers, either internal or external:

Managing Expectations: Working with People Who Want More, Better, Faster, Sooner, NOW!

Foreword was written by Gerald Weinberg.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Managing Reading via Cooperative Multireading

Dmitry Vostokov — Sat, 31 May 2008 02:27:36 +0000

Although I still use Preemptive Multireading throughout my working day I decided to try another approach similar to cooperative multitasking used in old operating systems like Windows 3.x. I identified 30 technical books I want to read (mostly related to software engineering, software architecture, design and programming) and allocated one hour every day to spend about 2 minutes on each book. Most software related books have low information density per page and plenty of information is repeated from book to book which allows using some speed reading techniques. These books are unlike mathematics, physics and computer science books where I have to meditate on proofs, formulae and examples. So I switch to another book every 2 minutes and do this 30 times. 2 minutes is usually sufficient to read and turn a page and these amounts to 60 pages per day (one page per minute). An average 300-page book can be finished in 7-8 months and therefore I can read at least 30 books per year using this approach, read all of them together and don’t wait for a second book until I finish the first one! The last point is psychologically very important to me because I want everything now

A technical note: it might look that we still use preemptive multitasking with a fixed quantum here but in reality there are no external interrupt sources. All I do is to voluntarily yield reading control from one book to another. I can always spend one or two minutes more with a book if its current chapter is very interesting.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Management Bit and Tip 0×400

Dmitry Vostokov — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:50:59 +0000

Thick books impress people (bit). Write and publish a technical book related to your work to show the complexity and importance of what your team does and highlight the technical ability of your department (tip).

If there is a perception among other people that the job of your team is easy and tasks can be accomplished more quickly then sufficiently thick book shows the opposite and emphasizes quality vs. speed.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Managing Reading via Preemptive Multireading

Dmitry Vostokov — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:48:40 +0000

Many people ask me how do I manage to read all the books that I have. The trick is to employ Preemptive Multireading similar to Preemptive Multitasking using natural interrupt mechanisms. Here is an example from one of my common daily reading schedules:

- Commuting to work from home in the morning: reading a history book.
- Working hours: round robin reading of software engineering books and encyclopedias during breaks.
- Lunch time: reading one of selected fiction / science fiction / health / food / chemistry / popular science books.
- Commuting to home from work in the evening: reading a selected math / physics / popular science book.
- Waiting for bus/train: one of selected philosophy / popular science books.
- Home: one of selected management / psychology / parenting books.
- Walking with my sleeping son on weekends: English language and writing books.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -

Management Bit and Tip 0×200

Dmitry Vostokov — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:22:24 +0000

When receiving lots of e-mails people pay attention first to something unusual (bit). Flag your request, inquiry or FYI e-mail as low-priority when you send it to a general distribution list (tip).

Here you have a chance to get your e-mail noticed by curious people and if you really sent something unimportant or not appropriate you won’t be accused because your e-mail was flagged as low priority.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -