Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management

172 Pages·2005·1.65 MB·English

Prepared exclusively for Paulo J Dias
What people are saying about Behind Closed Doors.
Rothman and Derby bring a clarity and honesty to the craft of
software-development management that I haven’t felt since first
reading Demarco and Lister’s classic, Peopleware. Their story-
based teaching style is engaging, and the tips contained provide
a valuable reference for those who find themselves in the world of
management.
Bil Kleb
Aerospace Engineering Manager, Washington, D.C.
I think you have a winner on your hands. I found the book
extremely easy to read and understand, very relevant, and full of
useful ideas and methods.
Andy Akins
Director of Development, TennesseeAnytime
After finishing each chapter, I felt like I could immediately apply
the techniques in my daily work. After reading the entire book, I
felt like everything came together and I could handle most day-to-
day situations better.
Eric Roberts
Project Manager, Austin, Texas
How wonderful to have a window into the office of a great man-
ager! Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby have created a fantas-
tic resource for managers by not just decribing techniques, but by
then showing them in action.
Elisabeth Hendrickson
Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Prepared exclusively for Paulo J Dias
Behind Closed Doors
Secrets of Great Management
Johanna Rothman
Esther Derby
The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Raleigh, North Carolina Dallas, Texas
Prepared exclusively for Paulo J Dias
Pragmatic
Bookshelf
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their
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Starter Kit, The Pragmatic Programmer, Pragmatic Programming, Pragmatic Book-
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assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages that may result
from the use of information (including program listings) contained herein.
Our Pragmatic courses, workshops, and other products can help you and your
team create better software and have more fun. For more information, as well as
the latest Pragmatic titles, please visit us at
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com
Copyright © 2005 Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN 0-9766940-2-6
Printed on acid-free paper with 85% recycled, 30% post-consumer content.
First printing, September 2005
Version: 2005-8-31
Prepared exclusively for Paulo J Dias
For Edward Rothman, my first management mentor.
And for Mark, Shaina, and Naomi, for continuing to
teach me that management is a two-way street.
For my husband, Jeff Lee. Jeff, I appreciate you for
your unstinting support. And for Jack (our dog) who
reminds me to leave work at a reasonable hour.
Prepared exclusively for Paulo J Dias
Contents
Foreword 1
Preface 3
Introduction 6
Week 1: Learning about the People and the Work 8
Monday Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Managing One Person at a Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Tuesday Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Keep a Finger on the Pulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Wednesday Afternoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Friday Afternoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Gather Data about Current Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Now Try This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Bibliography for Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Week 2: Bringing Order to the Chaos 23
Tuesday Afternoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Create the Project Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Thursday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Fast-Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Matching the Roles with the People . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Plan to Integrate New Team Members . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Friday Morning, Sam’s Second Week on the Job . . . . . . 39
Managing the Project Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Now Try This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Bibliography for Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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CONTENTS vii
Week 3: Building the Team 46
Monday Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Thursday Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Creating Shared Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Monday Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Provide Timely Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
When Feedback Doesn’t Correct the Situation . . . . . . . 59
Now Try This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Bibliography for Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Week 4: Managing Day by Day 61
Monday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Create Individual Goals for Each Person . . . . . . . . . . 63
Monday Midmorning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Coaching for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Later That Same Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Learning to Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Monday Afternoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Capitalizing on Feedback Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Now Try This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Bibliography for Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Week 5: Discovering Lurking Problems 77
Recognize Messy Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Friday Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Solving Problems as a Management Team . . . . . . . . . . 86
Now Try This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Bibliography for Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Week 6: Building Capability 89
Monday Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Learning to Delegate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Wednesday End of Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Notice and Appreciate Changes and Contributions . . . . 94
Back to Monday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Manage Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Still Monday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Develop the People in Your Group Every Week . . . . . . . 100
Now Try This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Bibliography for Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Report erratum
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CONTENTS viii
Week 7: Dealing with Corporate Realities 104
Tuesday Late Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Manage Your Boss, Stand Up for Your Team . . . . . . . . 107
Tuesday Just Before Noon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
After Lunch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Thursday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Leading Your Team through a Change in Priorities . . . . 110
Now Try This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
What Management Is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Now Try This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Bibliography for Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Techniques for Practicing Great Management 115
1. Guidelines for Effective Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . 118
2. Setup for Successful Delegation . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
3. Facilitation Essentials for Managers . . . . . . . . . . 122
4. Guide to Giving Effective Feedback . . . . . . . . . . 128
5. Welcoming New Hires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
6. Setting SMART Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7. What Goes on Inside our Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8. Manage by Walking Around & Listening . . . . . . . 136
9. Run Effective Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
10. Making One-on-Ones Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
11. Preparing for Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
12. Solving Problems: Create New Situations . . . . . . . 148
13. Project Portfolio Planning Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Bibliography for Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Bibliography 153
Report erratum
Prepared exclusively for Paulo J Dias
List of Figures
1.1 Start of a portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1 Showing unstaffed work in a project portfolio. . . . . 24
2.2 Patty’s list of management deliverables . . . . . . . . 33
2.3 Completed project portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.1 Affinity grouping of ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2 Action plan for update build system. . . . . . . . . . 53
5.1 How requests enter the group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.1 Management task time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.1 Coaching checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
8.2 Delegation checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
8.3 Alternative evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.4 Six-step process for feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
8.5 Activities to complete upon offer acceptance . . . . . 130
8.6 Activities in preparation for the first day . . . . . . . 131
8.7 Activities for new hire’s arrival on Day One. . . . . . 131
8.8 Satir interaction model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.9 Meeting organization template . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
8.10 Return on investment votes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.11 Return on investment histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.12 Influence prep sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.13 Creating desired outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.14 Example four-week plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
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LIST OF SIDEBARS x
List of Sidebars
You Can’t Spend Too Much Time with People . . . . . . . . 12
Don’t Offer Help If You Can’t Deliver . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Multitasking: Wasting Mental Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Fable of the Rising Young Manager . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Product or Force Behind the Product? . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Stepping Back from Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Skills are Only Part of the Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
See the Work with Big Visible Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
How Is a Group Different from a Team? . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Failure to Give Feedback Costs More than Money . . . . . 56
Who’s Responsible for Career Development? . . . . . . . . 62
Rule of Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
I’ll Scratch Your Back If You Scratch Mine . . . . . . . . . . 70
Functioning as a Human Pressure Valve . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Flipping the Bozo Bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Sustainable Pace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Is Priority Business or Technical? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Focus, Focus, Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
How Many People Can You Manage? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Building Self-awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Digging Yourself into a Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
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