Re: [tlug] Up against the wall! [was: Running without Gnome...]

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2016-04-29 15:13 +0900 (Fri), Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> It turns out that "project manager" is a necessary role....

Oh, I never said it wasn't, and in fact I absolutely believe that it
is. However, it's also not terribly hard for anybody of reasonable
intelligence to learn, and having basic knowledge of it is essential--or
at least highly important--for anybody doing actual work on a project
full-time.

Plus, the actual workers are the only ones actually qualified to say how
fast they can get something done. Though of course they have to actually
be thinking about how they estimate and actively trying to estimate
better in order to eventually produce good estimates.

Thus, when you have a bunch of good developers working full-time on a
project, get them to do the project management as well. (But, as per my
previous message, do make sure you've got a product manager for them to
talk to.) You'll be more than compensated for the slight extra overhead
by having project management that's not only much cheaper, but that
actually works.

Of course, if your developers are idiots, they won't be able to learn
how to do the project management. But if your developers are idiots,
you're still screwed no matter how good your project manager is.

In some areas of industry, having a "manager" who doesn't actually
handle the real work can work. For example, logistics companies and the
ones that take on their own logistics (such as Amazon) can afford not
to understand the actual effects of their policies on their warehouse
staff because those staff can still work to a reasonable standard even
when utterly demoralized, and when they burn out and quit all the time,
there are plenty more where they came from. But if your typical clueless
project manager tries to run a development team like that, he'll destroy
the product.

> Remember, Linus and Guido are talented hackers, but it's project
> management where they're off-the-scale geniuses.

Yes, but they wouldn't be "off-the-scale [PM] geniuses" or even be
accepted by those they manage if they weren't first and foremost
developers who are willing to sit down and do the work.

(A rule I think a _lot_ of organizations would benefit from is, "if you
have a proposal, and nobody else is willing to do it, be prepared either
to do it yourself or to drop it.)

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson         <cjs@example.com>         +81 90 7737 2974

To iterate is human, to recurse divine.
    - L Peter Deutsch