Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes the arrangement of furniture in an office is far more important than a first glance indicates.

Once upon a time, I worked in an organization that moved into some office spaces that were previously occupied by another organization. We inherited their office furniture and their arrangement of office furniture.

In the center of the offices sat a round table with half a dozen chairs encircling the table. Half a dozen of us would gather at this table each day at lunch time, eat, talk, and generally come to know one another.

That round table with its half a dozen chairs was beneficial to the organization because it was where persons from different and differing parts of the organization came to know one another as persons. For those who speak of such things, this table is where a group of persons became a team that was greater than the sum of its parts.

In time, senior managers in our organization began to exert their influence on the inherited office spaces. One influence was a decision to fill the center of the offices with cubicles. The round table and its half a dozen chairs would be no more.

Several of us pleaded with our senior managers for the round table and its half a dozen chairs. We pleaded repeatedly but vainly.

Community lunches ceased. Differing persons returned to our differing attitudes about “them” (the universal label for differing persons). The organization returned to being one where the whole was less than the sum of its parts.

Sometimes a table is not just a table. Sometimes a table is a force multiplier.

Please consider this is someone tries to replace a central table with cubicles.

by Dwayne Phillips

Being a computer programmer does not make me a software engineer.

Deep sigh before I begin. This is yet another post borne of frustration in talking with recruiters and hiring managers. Now that the sigh is out of the way.

A computer programmer is not a software engineer.

There. Wrote that bit.

Software engineers do a lot of tasks in addition to programming. Please see:

• The Wikipedia article on software engineering
• The IEEE’s Software Engineering Body of Knowledge
• The Encyclopedia of Software Engineering

Once you have finished those, perhaps you will agree that being a computer programmer does not make me a software engineer.

by Dwayne Phillips

All writers should read. This goes for technical writers, too.

Writers should read. Writers should read good material. Writers should read several hours a day.

Fine. What about the technical writer? That is all non-fiction. There are plenty of good non-fiction books to read. I recommend the Pulitzer prize winners. I also recommend technology history magazines like that from the Smithsonian.

There is plenty of other non-fiction technology writing out there (this blog is one source). Many, however, (this blog included) are a bit sloppy. Find high-quality non-fiction materials and read them several hours a day.

Don’t have time? Yes, we do.

by Dwayne Phillips

The single worst possible change in pose I can do is when I point a finger away from myself and towards another person.

by Dwayne Phillips

I encourage managers and other influence-rs to speak to their colleagues in the place where the colleagues are most comfortable.

I encourage managers and other to speak with each of their colleagues. I find two points here:

First, speak to your colleagues everyday. If nothing special is happening, talk about “the weather.” I use this expression to mean talk about anything. Your colleagues will learn that you like to talk with them. Those folks who study this type of thing call it “establishing a relationship.” I call it being neighborly.

Next, speak to your colleagues in their place. They are comfortable in their place. Look at their desk, the walls, everything. Notice what is present. Talk to them about their life, their interests, anything you see in their office. Again, this is being neighborly.

The opposite this visiting a colleague only when you want something from them. Some bad event has occurred and you need your colleague to do something for you. They learn that you only show your face on bad ocassions. You only bring bad news.

Who wants to be that way? Not very neighborly.

by Dwayne Phillips

I have been interviewed for jobs several dozen times in the last three years. Most “interviews” became free consulting sessions.

The past three years have not been good for me and working at paying jobs. I am over age and over qualified. At least I soothe my feelings by telling myself these things.

I have been interviewed for several dozen jobs in this time. Here is the story of one such interview:

The hiring manager asked me what I knew about Amazon Web Services. I told him about attending several AWS conferences and trying AWS cloud computing in several experiments. I explained how the AWS system works and how Amazon has been able to make piles of money with it and how and why others have struggled. I also explained how AWS fits into the history of computing in the last 30+ years (my work experience) and where this would go.

The hiring manager then asked me about Agile Development. I walked him through the history of software development from rapid prototyping to the agile manifesto through spirals and Vs and other such models. I also told him about how nothing works for everything and how Agile worked in some situations but wasted time in others. I cut through the hype and explained what really happened and why it worked in some situations. I also explained why government contracts often asked for Agile when what they wanted was everything but Agile.

Throughout all of this, the hiring manager took furious notes and interjected questions like, “but what if…so if that is true, then what…” and so on.

I explained to the hiring manager what traps existed in these technologies, how to recognize the traps, and how to avoid them at minimal expenditure of resources.

So, why would they hire me when I had just told them how to do all their work with minimal expense?

They didn’t hire me, and they didn’t pay me for the one-hour consulting session that solved most of their vexing problems.

I felt like asking them the question that is the title of this post.

Do you interview job applicants?

Do you interview them or pump them for information so you don’t have to hire anyone?

Are you honest with people about these questions?

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes projects “lose their way.” Of course that is impossible as what really happens is that people come and go and change their minds.

In government, we had a phrase about projects that seemed to go forever and consume every penny in sight and produce nothing:

They lost their way

Some of these lost projects found their way again. Most, however, continued to wander and eat everything in sight.

Of course all this talk is silly. Projects aren’t real things. Have you ever held a project in your hand? Not the product of the project, but the project itself. Of course not. Projects are concepts. They can’t lose their way.

What happens is that the persons working on the project wander. Persons leave the project to be replaced by new persons. Someone—one of those mysterious creatures that seem to walk the halls when no one is watching—bumps into one of these new persons and says something like,

“Well, you have to understand. The R E A L requirement of that project was X. No one really cares about Y, so you should change direction, forget Y, and work towards X.”

Well, if that is true, the proper course of action is obvious:

Cancel the project and start over with the right project

Some organizations can do this. Some organizations have honest persons who realize what is happening and take logical steps. Many other organizations, however, well, they don’t have persons who are brave enough to be honest and do the right things. They tend to float along the path of least resistance regardless of the consequences.

Persons who float along tend to find themselves on projects that have lost their way. Funny coincidence, huh?

by Dwayne Phillips

When writing about technical subjects, use the correct nouns and verbs as synonyms don’t work.

In various forms of writing about technical subjects, synonyms don’t work. For example, when describing electric current, flow—as in the flow of electrons or current—can’t be replaced by drift or glide, which are otherwise perfectly good synonyms for flow.

There are many other examples to cite, but not necessary here. What is necessary, is that when discussing topics with practitioners,

Learn the correct nouns and verbs and learn when synonyms won’t work.

by Dwayne Phillips

This is fundamental project manager advice. Avoid at your peril.

I’ve managed a lot of technical projects. These projects employed engineers, programmers, scientists, administrators, and so on. One thing I’ve learned is:

People tend to keep their work to themselves.

Hmm. So how is the working progressing? These people won’t come to me and tell me. Now what do I do? I recommend the title of the post. Go to every person on the project and ask them:

• How are you as a person today?
• What are you scheduled to be doing today?
• What are you doing today?
• If the two don’t match, what is happening for you?

The advice holds for every person on the project. Yes, that person as well—the one who gives me the creeps when I approach them, the one who is difficult to work with, the one who just doesn’t fit in, the one who will kill the project if they don’t do their work.

This advice does not mean spy on persons. This advice does not mean interfere with persons who are working. It means talk to them, every one of them, every day.

by Dwayne Phillips

I repeat an old, old story. Does it illustrate the power of collaboration or is it just another old, silly story that we tell children to have them behave?

The old story…

There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

So is with our lives… Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all…

• Call it power of collectivity…
• Call it a principle of success…
• Call it a law of life.

The fact is, none of us truly wins, until we all win!!