In a survey conducted by Microsoft among 38,000 workers in 200 countries, people spend 5.6 hours each week in meetings and 69% of survey participants considered meetings as not productive.

Yes, yes! the daily meetings from SCRUM methodology are 15 minutes long and doesn’t sum to 5.6 hours per week. But you have to consider management long meetings and mediate them with 1.25h per week SCRUM sessions. After we correlate that with 69% participants that considered meetings to be not productive will find a large bunch of SCRUM practitioners that consider those 15 minutes as wasted time.

Of course, if they do SCRUM at Microsoft.

G

M-a întrebat zilele trecute un junior de ce ar lucra într-un small business și nu ar alege un job corporatist mult mai bine plătit.

Răspunsul l-am sintetizat în tabelul următor:

Small Business Medium Business Corporate
Salariu mic așa-ș-așa mare
Ce înveți meserie scaling (aka cum să dai vina pe alții) nimic (aka best practices)
Rol de toate generalist roboțel
Influență ți se cere părerea planing primești direct planul de bătaie
Acces informații accesibile și-și ține-ți gura
Echipa îți poți alege echipa ai cît de cît o alegere ești pus unde trebuie
Autonomie just do-it indicații generale supra-control

Deși se vede clar că nu îmi place mediul corporatist, nu vreau să descurajez un job într-o firmă mare. Doar încerc să punctez compromisurile pe care trebuie să le faci pentru un salariu mare.

G.

These days I’m in process for selecting a framework for an application. An easy task several years ago when only Windows and Visual Studio were giving the pace. Now, on anything on web days, you have more than plenty good frameworks (and far to many shitsJS) to choose from. Here are some points you must keep eyes on:

  • YOUR APPLICATION

    I have encountered people that chosen a framework because everybody else used it and also must they. Your app will give you the most important criteria to weight a system.

  • What is framework capable of?

    Do not lay your ear on internet hearsay. There are more vaporware than facts. Test it.

  • Who support the framework

    One is Microsoft, Tweeter, Facebook and other ACME ltd who wants to get framework tested for free. Do not put your money on Google. They have made history on laying down projects (and not carrying about clients).

  • Is the framework mature? Can you see it on production?

    My experience says “use only framework versioned 3.x or about to be 3.x”. They change a lot on v1 through v2 to be stable on v3.

  • Does the framework have a comprehensive set of documentation?

    This is the most important criteria to eliminate a framework. Run away from a framework (or anything in computer area) with bad support. If the producer disconsider this part their only meaning is to get free testing.

  • your application

    I cannot emphasize enough how important is the application in the process of selecting the framework to be built on. Do not chose flexibility on flexibility only, do not chose performance on performance only, do not chose web-like on anything is on web only, do not chose scale for scale only, do not chose the popular on popularity only.

G.

I found a PM position advertised as this:

To apply, please send us a link to your linkedIn profile and a 200 word email (in English). You can write anything you wish in that email, provided that it shows us:
1) How you’d handle a situation where the client is angry because someone made an error
2) How you’d handle a situation where the client thinks they know more than you do, but they’re obviously wrong
3) How you’d share negative and positive feedback with your team

You cannot get better text for this job. Compare it with this corporate language:
– Strong written and verbal communication skills
– Strong ability to proactively identify and resolve issues
– Strong analytical skills
– Good time management skills

How can you get from any CV that he has good communication skills? Wth Strong analytical skills are? If you waste the time to apply to this job will still they consider that you have Good time management skills?

G.

ps. as it is a blog to remember me several ideas, here are the answers for the three questions

  1. The client is angry not on error, but on impact of the error on his business. There are two categories of clients – those who can manage themselves the negative impact and who will fire you and the ones that have their asses wet. For the last you can bring help. First thing to say is to assure them that you will work with them to control the facts. Second is to roll up the sleeves to find out where the problem is. Third (only after you know the problem), start to work on the problem AND mitigate the impact on the business. DO NOT begin working with the material impact until you clarify the facts.
  2. This is a tricked question. The client ALWAYS knows better than you everything about HIS business. Obviously wrong from your point of view is a very very narrow point of view and you must trust your client knows better what’s good for him. First thing to do is to try to understand his point of view. Then you can work together to bring it to live. If you still are in uncertainty you can ask him for guidance and close assistance. Or you can resign (this is the best thing to do if you still feel the client thinks they know more than you do…).
  3. There are not positive or negative attributes of feedback. The feedback is always valuable and must be transmitted as is. The most important thing about feedback is not the manner you share it, but how you use it. First you must keep it impersonal and focus on the facts. Second, USE IT, there is not better information than feedback. Even if you use it as lesson learned it is always an added value to your enterprise.

risk tolerance – the degree, amount or volume of risks that an organization (or individual) will withstand;

risk threshold – measures the level of uncertainty or the level of impact at witch a stakeholder may have a specific interest;

risk appetite – the degree of uncertainty an entity is willing to take on in anticipation of a reward.

Crosby – Quality is conformance to requirements;

Deming – Quality is a management problem 85% of the time.

Juran – Quality is fitness for use (suitability for use); conformance and quality by design.

 

 

  • responsibility – ownership of decisions and action;
  • respect – the appropriate treatment of people and resources;
  • fairness – being objective and making impartial decisions;
  • honesty – understanding the truth and taking actions based on truth