Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

Description

Managing Humans is a selection of the best essays from Michael Lopps web site, Rands In Repose. Drawing on Lopp's management experiences at Apple, Netscape, Symantec, and Borland, this book is full of stories based on companies in the Silicon Valley where people have been known to yell at each other. It is a place full of dysfunctional bright people who are in an incredible hurry to find the next big thing so they can strike it rich and then do it all over again. Among these people are managers, a strange breed of people who through a mystical organizational ritual have been given power over your future and your bank account. Whether you're an aspiring manager, a current manager, or just wondering what the heck a manager does all day, there is a story in this book that will speak to you. You will learn:

• What to do when people start yelling at each other

• How to perform a diving save when the best engineer insists on resigning

• How to say "No" to the person who signs your paycheck

Among fans of Michael Lopp is the incomparable Joel Spolsky, cofounder and CEO of Fog Creek Software:

"What you're holding in your hands in by far the most brilliant book about managing software teams you're ever going to find".

This book is designed for managers and would-be managers staring at the role of a manager wondering why they would ever leave the safe world of bits and bites for the messy world of managing humans. The book covers handling conflict, managing wildly differing personality types, infusing innovation into insane product schedules, and figuring out how to build a lasting and useful engineering culture.

 

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
PART 1
THE MANAGEMENT QUIVER
CHAPTER 1 DON’T BE A PRICK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
CHAPTER 2 MANAGERS ARE NOT EVIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 3 THE MONDAY FREAKOUT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
CHAPTER 4 AGENDA DETECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
CHAPTER 5 MANDATE DISSECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
CHAPTER 6 INFORMATION STARVATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
CHAPTER 7 SUBTLETY, SUBTERFUGE, AND SILENCE . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CHAPTER 8 MANAGEMENTESE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
CHAPTER 9 TECHNICALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
CHAPTER 10 AVOIDING THE FEZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
CHAPTER 11 YOUR RESIGNATION CHECKLIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER 12 SAYING NO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
PART I I
THE PROCESS IS THE PRODUCT
CHAPTER 13 1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CHAPTER 14 TAKING TIME TO THINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
CHAPTER 15 THE SOAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
CHAPTER 16 MALCOLM EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

CHAPTER 17 CAPTURING CONTEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
CHAPTER 18 STATUS REPORTS 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
CHAPTER 19 TRICKLE THEORY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
PART 11I
VERSIONS OF YOU
CHAPTER 20 A GLIMPSE AND A HOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
CHAPTER 21 NAILING THE PHONE SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
CHAPTER 22 NINETY DAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
CHAPTER 23 BELLWETHERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
CHAPTER 24 NADD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
CHAPTER 25 A NERD IN A CAVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
CHAPTER 26 MEETING CREATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
CHAPTER 27 INCREMENTALISTS AND COMPLETIONISTS . . . . . . . . 153
CHAPTER 28 ORGANICS AND MECHANICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
CHAPTER 29 INWARDS, OUTWARDS, AND HOLISTICS . . . . . . . . . 163
CHAPTER 30 FREE ELECTRONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
CHAPTER 31 RULES FOR THE REORG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
CHAPTER 32 OFFSHORE RISK FACTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
CHAPTER 33 JOE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
CHAPTER 34 SECRET TITLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201