Silicon Valley Code Camp presentation, October 2013, drawing 12 of the top actionable take-aways for managing programmers and programming teams, from the book, Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams, by Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty.

1.
12 Take-Aways:
Managing the Unmanageable"!
"
"Ron Lichty, Ron Lichty Consulting"
www.ronlichty.com"
""

2. Ron Lichty,
Managing Software People Teams
SOFTWEST

3. Why we wrote:
* Addison Wesley published October 2012
*

4. 12 Take-Aways:
Managing the Unmanageable

5. Take-away #1
• Isn t it odd...
– how long we expect you to have studied
the art of programming
– how little we expect you to have studied
the art of managing?

6. Training Managers
ScrumTeam.jpg (from Exploring Scrum- the Fundamentals, by Dan Rawsthorne Doug Shimp)

7. Training Managers: Where’s the Manager?
ScrumTeam.jpg (from Exploring Scrum- the Fundamentals, by Dan Rawsthorne Doug Shimp)

8. How we came to write:
* Addison Wesley published October 2012
*
Mentoring

9. How we came to write:
* Addison Wesley published October 2012
*
Co-mentoring

10. Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*
* 300 in the book
____________________________________________________________
Managing the Unmanageable http://ronlichty.com

11. Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*
• Measure twice, cut once.
• Life is simpler when you plow around the
stump.
• Brooks s Law: Adding manpower to a late
software project makes it later.
– Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
* 300 in the book

12. Take-away #3
• The Take-away:
Leverage Rules of Thumb in managing!

13. Take-away #4:
Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Know: There s no perfect record

14. Take-Away #5
Handle Problem Employees
• Intervention beats performance plans firing
– Requires preparation, commitment, time
– But gets the job done earlier:
• Marty Brounstein: Handling the Difficult Employee
• One of two results:
– Turns them around
– They quit on their own

15. Take-Away #6
Programmers Aren’t All Alike!
• Programming disciplines
• Generations of programmers
• Morning people vs night people
• Employees vs Contractors
• Proximity
• Cowboys vs Farmers

16. Take-away #7: Focus
In the beginning, everyone will talk about scope,
and budget, and schedule, but in the end,
nobody really cares about any of those things.
The only thing they care about is this:
People will love your software, or they won t.
So that s the only criterion to which you
should truly manage.
—Joseph Kleinschmidt, CTO

17. Take-away #8
• Leading by example occurs whether
you like it or not.
— Jateen Parekh,
Founder CTO of Jelli Crowdsourced Radio

18. Leading by Example: Nugget of Wisdom
• Nothing undermines your credibility as a
manager more completely than pounding on
your team all year to get their work done on
time and then telling them you don t have
their reviews done because you were busy.
Whatever you were busy with likely wasn t
managing your people, so you ve just
proven to them that they don t matter. Good
luck motivating them next year.
– Tim Swihart, engineering director, Apple Computer

19. Take-away #9
Rule of Thumb:
The very thing that has made you
successful in your last role will get
in your way in your next role.

20. Take-away #10
• These are not the same things
– Be a Motivator
– Don t Be a De-Motivator

21. Motivators vs De-Motivators

22. Take-away #11:
Be Careful What You Reward
• Behavior revolves around what you measure.
– Jim Highsmith
• Firefighters who get rewarded carry matches.
– Kimberly Wiefling
• Do you define done as coding complete ?
– Or as features that delight customers?

23. Take-away #12
• The single most important leader in an
organization is your immediate supervisor.
– Jim Kouzes
• You can safely assume all perceptions are
real, at least to those who own them.
– Joe Folkman

24. 12 Top Take-aways: These, or...
• Onboarding: your new hire s first day
• The incredible value of 1on1s
• Fostering and nurturing unique culture
• Managing your people
• Getting programmers to work together well
• Or...
300 Rules of Thumb and Nuggets of Wisdom in one place

25. Ron Lichty Consulting
• Coaching and Consulting:
– www.ronlichty.com
• The book:
Managing the Unmanageable:
Rules, Tools Insights
for Managing Software People Teams
– www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net
• The blog:
– http://ronlichty.blogspot.com/
• Training:
– Managing Software People and Teams: the class
– Becoming an Agile Manager