Making it big in software get the job. Work the org. Become great

457 Pages·2010·2.559 MB·English

by  Lightstone, Sam S

Making It Big
in Software
Get the Job. Work the Org.
Become Great.
Sam Lightstone
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Lightstone, Sam.
Making it big in software : get the job—work the org.— Proofreader
become great / Sam Lightstone. Language Logistics, LLC
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Includes index. Publishing Coordinator
ISBN 978-0-13-705967-6 Cindy Teeters
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Computer software developers—Interviews. I. Title. Alan Clements
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ISBN-13: 978-0-137-05967-6
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Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at
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First printing March 2010
To my wife and children, Elisheva, Hodaya, and Avishai.
Thanks for making our home a place of perpetual fun and love.
To my high school English teacher, Mr. David Aldwinckle.
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Part I Fundamentals
Chapter 1 Making It Big . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What Do “Big Shots” in Software Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Follow Your Bliss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Why Bother? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
It’s Not as Hard as You Think . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 2 What Good Software Is Really About . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Software Projects Gone Bad and Other War Stories . . . 11
The Marketplace Is the Driving Force Behind
Everything We Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Two Kinds of Customers: Ones You Have
and Ones You Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Winning Strategies and Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
When (Not) to Listen to Your Customers . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Interview Marissa Mayer: Google VP and
First Lady of Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 3 School Versus Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Limited Field of Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
School Is a Fishbowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Industry Is a Fishbowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Leveraging the Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Interview Jon Bentley: Author, Programming Pearls . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 4 Mission Impossible? Getting a Job in Software
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Choosing Wisely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
CONTENTS V
Resumé Realities for New Graduates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Killer Resumés for Software Development . . . . . . . . . . 47
Beyond the Resumé—Way Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Value (or Not) of Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The Value of Extracurricular Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Why Student Positions Dramatically Improve
Your Odds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Fifteen Points to a Great Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Interview Bjarne Stroustrup: Inventor of the
C++ Programming Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Chapter 5 Making the Most of the Early Years As
a Software Developer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Tradecraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
The Business of Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Build Domain Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
What’s Old Is New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Watch the Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Start Building Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Who Do You Want to Be? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Everyone Needs a Mentor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Fun Breeds Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Interview Richard Stallman: Founder of the Free Software
Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter 6 Essential Skills. Some Are Even Technical . . . . . . . . . . 84
Hard and Soft Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Technical Skills for Career Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Programming Languages: What’s Hot
and What’s Not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Surviving Spec, Design, and Code Reviews . . . . . . . . . 91
The Growth Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Soft Skills at the Top of Most Organizations . . . . . . . . 95
The Ultimate Soft Skill: Emotional Intelligence . . . . . . 95
Interview Ray Tomlinson: Inventor of Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
VI MAKING IT BIG IN SOFTWARE
Chapter 7 The Sweet Science of Software R&D
Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Who Does What in Software? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
The Good and the Great . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Three Laws of Career Effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Four Modes of Business Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Never Surprise Your Boss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Impressions and System Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Interview Peter Norvig: Google’s Director of Research . . . . . . . . 122
Chapter 8 Career Killers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
People Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Team Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Productivity Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Growth Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Fundamentals Versus Incidentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Part II Leadership
Chapter 9 Working the Org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Getting Buy-In and the Myth of Electronic
Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Give to Get: Building Emotional Caches . . . . . . . . . . 140
Leveraging Your Social Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Negotiating 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Communication That Gets Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Dress for Success: Wear Running Shoes . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Getting Agreement Isn’t Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Interview John Schwarz: CEO, Business Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Chapter 10 Successful Software Project Proposals . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Core Competencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
How Successful Proposals Are Really Made . . . . . . . . 163
The Art of the Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
CONTENTS VII
Personal Tenacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Getting to the Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Interview Linus Torvalds: Mr. Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Chapter 11 Career Advancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Why Evaluations and Advancements
Are So Unscientific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Track Record Is Credibility—Credibility
Is Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Communicate Your Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Goal-Oriented Careers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Your Manager’s Influence on Your Career . . . . . . . . . 185
The Secret Impact of Management Peers . . . . . . . . . . 187
Promoting Others Sincerely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
The Secret of Promotibility Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Interview Mark Russinovich: Windows Guru,
Microsoft Technical Fellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Chapter 12 Time Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Goal-Centric Time Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Task-Centric Time Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Circles of Influence and Concern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Indecision May or May Not Be Your Problem . . . . . . . 207
Act with a Sense of Urgency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
How Much Time Wasting Is Reasonable? . . . . . . . . . 209
The Scourge of Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Interview David Vaskevitch: Microsoft CTO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Chapter 13 Avoiding Software Development Overruns . . . . . . . . 219
Don’t Be Moe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
How Common Are Software Project Overruns? . . . . . 222
Why Software Project Overrun Occurs . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
We’re Late—Now What? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
VIII MAKING IT BIG IN SOFTWARE
Final Thoughts on Software Development
Overruns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Interview Grady Booch: The Sage of Software Architecture . . . . 236
Chapter 14 Zen and the Critical Art of Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Work-Life Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Organizational Culture Affects Balance . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Life Impacts Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Patterns, Possibilities, and Defining Yourself . . . . . . . 248
Interview Tom Malloy: Adobe Chief Software Architect . . . . . . . 251
Chapter 15 Secret Insights on Software Project Management . . 260
Goal-Oriented Project Management:
Lessons from Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Managing Human Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Making Use of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
The Value of Measuring Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Of Mice, Men, and Project Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Assessing Your Development Maturity . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Software Defects and Costs and Efficiencies . . . . . . . . 276
You Can’t Test In Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Interview James Gosling: Inventor of the Java
Programming Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Chapter 16 The Big Leagues: From Medium-Shot
to Big-Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Leading Versus Managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Leadership Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Be an Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Shoot First, Take Questions Later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Building Teams and Recruiting the Best . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Follow the Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
You Get What You Reward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Creating Shared Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Effective Delegation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Directing Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
CONTENTS IX
Part III Greatness
Chapter 17 Leadership in Software Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Why Innovate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Software Innovations That Succeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
The Opportunity to Innovate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Brainstorming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
The Value Perception Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
The Innovator’s Twelve: Fostering Successful
Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
99% Perspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Interview Robert Kahn: Co-inventor of the Internet . . . . . . . . . 323
Chapter 18 The Big Leagues: From Big-Shot to Visionary . . . . . . 333
Be the Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Personal Breadth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Believe in Your Ability to Master New Ideas
andTechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Business Fluency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Patenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Public Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Success Is a Lousy Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Advanced Social Networking (Social Steroids
for Nerds) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Passion and Process for Your Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Interview Steve Wozniak: Inventor of the Apple Computer,
Co-founder of Apple Inc., Pop Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Chapter 19 If I Knew Then What I Know Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
The First Few Months on Any Software Job . . . . . . . . 361
Who You Work For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Who You Work With . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Managing Your Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Creating Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Waiting Until You’re Ready Is Waiting Too Long . . . . 367
Interview Marc Benioff: CEO, Salesforce.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369