miguelbarro – Page 2 – TI2011 Spring 2020

Deadline, Chapter 12

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

At the start of this chapter, Tompkins and his team go through some interviews to find people suitable to be in the new teams, since the old teams had to merge. There was a bit of a problem finding skilled people since all the skilled people had already been chosen in the previous interviews. In the end, every project got an A, B and C team. The A team was way overstaffed, sometimes going as far as having almost 10 times the people that the B and C teams. They were expecting the B and C teams to do way better than the A teams. Of course, the B and C teams had to work secretly since they weren’t supposed to exist.

After having that done, Tompkins received a letter from Lahksa saying that Mr. T. Johns was going to visit them. Mr. T. Johns was the consultant of a company that measures all kinds of things, but software in particular. Software can be measured by lines of code, function points, among others. In this case, they use function points. However,I also found that in more recent times this can be done through artificial intelligence. This AI seems very useful and easy to use. It can measure software size from natural language and can help you save time. Software sizing is really important since it is the main input when doing cost estimation. However, software sizing is hard, software is not a physical object that you can measure with a ruler. Many factors are needed in order to estimate its size.

In this case, they are using function points, which is a concept that I’m not too familiar with. I had to look around in order to find what they are. Function points are a unit of measurement that

Partial Reflection 1

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

It’s time for the first reflection, I know I’m a few days late, but at least I’m doing better than last semester. For this reflection I will mostly be covering the topics that I learned reading the book Deadline. The first partial covered chapters 1 through 11. So far, I have liked the book. It has a good combination between telling a story and teaching new things. Too much story and you wouldn’t learn much, and too much stuff to learn and it would get boring. The book manages to be interesting and informative. Besides being engaging, the book provides a lot of useful information in the area of management.

The book starts with Tompkins being laid off. This is a lot more interesting during the current situation since many people are going through this right now. Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as Tompklins and gets a job right afterwards. Something that’s key is mentioned here, if you really want to take down a company, taking out the CEO won’t do much. You want to take out the managers in order to have a bigger impact, this goes to show how important managers are. Another concept mentioned at the beginning of the book is administrivia. Administrivia is what some may think management is all about: checking your email, doing progress tracking and doing project milestones. However, a manager is so much more than just that. A manager is about people, knowing who to hire, keeping your people motivated and managing people.

It’s until chapter 3 when we are introduced to the nation of Morovia. It’s also in this chapter that we first learn about the software management experiment. There are many variables when building a software development team: age, size, previous experience, how much do the team members know

Working from home

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

The world is in a precarious state right now. People are advised not to go out, even for work. In consequence to this, many companies are allowing their employees to work from home. This has been difficult for some people to adapt, the learning curve may be a bit too steep for them. Working at home is possible thanks to many tools, like emails and Zoom. However, working from home doesn’t go the same for everyone. On one hand, some people feel like they are more productive when working from home, they are more concentrated and have more time to do other activities. But, on the other hand, some people can’t help getting distracted when working at home. You don’t have people constantly keeping an eye on them, so people have less pressure and tend to slack off. Also, at home there are more distractions, no one is looking at what you are doing, you can watch videos on the side, play video games, etc.

Working from home doesn’t have to be detrimental for your performance. Many tips for working from home are given here. One advantage is that you can generally get work done faster. If you work 40 hours a week, if you are productive, you can probably get that work done in less hours, giving you more free time. The key is removing distractions so you can fully focus on your work, but you can take breaks. It’s not about sitting on your computer for 8 hours straight, it’s remote work, you can get up and take a break whenever you want. Taking breaks can increase your work’s quality. Also, since you work through the internet, you have access to everyone on the internet, not just people in your office. Asynchronous communication lets you work at your

Deadline, Chapter 11

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

Chapter 11 starts peacefully. Tompkins was enjoying a beautiful morning. He was breathing the fresh air, looking at birds, relaxing stuff. However, things take a complete 180° when he arrives at his office. NNL had gone to the states and the man in charge was now Mr. Belok. He was very different from NNL. NNL was portrayed as a really evil man at first, but once the book introduced him, he turned out to be a reasonable man. On the other hand, Mr. Belok was very different, even if he, himself, said that he was reasonable.

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The first thing Mr. Belok did change the deadline. The deadline was a few months earlier than Tompkins expected. Mr. Belok was very strict. He stated what he wanted and wasn’t backing off. However, as strict as he was, he made some solid points, although he made some not solid ones too. The first point he made was the insane money they were going to lose for every day that the products are late. With all 6 products they would be making $250,000 a year. So every day the project goes over the deadline they are losing $250,000. Moreover, Mr. Belok wasn’t fond of the management experiment at all, mainly because he was losing money. Mr. Belok demanded that Tompkins joins all 3 teams for each project.

Tompkins didn’t respond calmly to Mr. Belok’s request. And Tompkins actually did many things that you are supposed to do in this situation. Tompkins explained his view of the project as well as gave some criticism of his own. He mentioned that joining the teams would actually increase the time needed, which was true according to his tests. However, Mr. Belok was having none of it. He didn’t care if the projects took longer. And Continue reading "Deadline, Chapter 11"

Deadline, Chapter 10

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

In this chapter, Tompkins goes to Rome and gets in contact with a lawyer. They talk a bit about Tompkins’ old boss. Apparently, Tompkins really liked his old boss. His old boss arranged for Tompkins to meet with someone, Abdul Jamid. They start to talk about hunches. Hunches are prominent in this book, for example, Belinda deciding if she would hire someone. Hunches are generally in your head, but Abdul proposes a way to measure them and improve them. And it makes sense in some way, hunches are data inside you and there are algorithms to make a decision based on those hunches. By putting those hunches in a model, you would be able to improve your hunches. They mention a really clear example of why this is needed in the book that I really liked. If you and someone else feel unsure about something, how do you know who is more unsure? How do you measure that?

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However, using the whole mechanism for modeling hunches may be overkill for just one, but the model is supposed to be used by dozens of them. To put this to the test, Abdul asks Tompkins some simple questions about a project with one hundred people in it that will take one year, will two hundred people complete it in six months? It may seem simple at first, but as they keep talking, this simple model evolves and includes many other factors, such as people quitting, the training period for newly hired people, etc.

Another huge factor that was brought up in their conversation is the size of projects. And it’s clearly stated that smaller teams are more efficient. A study done in 2005 revealed that a small team (less than 5 people) completed a project of 100,000 lines of code Continue reading "Deadline, Chapter 10"

Deadline, Chapters 8 and 9

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

Chapter 8 is all about deciding how the experiments will be carried out. Tompkins and Lahksa are discussing possible ways to test the experiments and how to make sense of the results. To solve this Lahksa has a solution which is collaborating with Dr. Hector Rizzoli. This doctor has done similar experiments in the past so he would be a great person to have working on the project. But they didn’t exactly ask him to work on it, they tricked him into thinking he was going to Latvia for a conference. And all things worked according to plan, Dr. Rizzoli arrived in Morovia and gave his conference to the 1500 workers there. After some days, Topmkins finally gets a chance to talk with him and ask him some questions that he has been wanting to ask him since he arrived.

The conversation starts by giving the doctor an overview of the experiments they are conducting. First, while they are experiments, they need to succeed because the products are real products that need to be done. The problem is that by failing they learn a lot more, but they also need to succeed, they need a way to achieve both of those. Topkins asks the doctor for just one fir the best chance of success. Tompkins suggests an improvement program that’s CMM. I didn’t know what CMM was, but after some reading I found that it’s a methodology for software development. CMM has five levels and as the levels go up the process is more organized and systematic. For example, at level 1 everything is chaotic and there isn’t enough documentation and at level 5 processes are being constantly improved thanks to feedback. However, that’s not a good idea because productivity improvement comes in the long term, not on the short

Deadline, Chapters 6 and 7

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

When chapter 6 starts, Tompkins has to decide how he will organize the teams and managers for the 6 projects he has to do. To prepare for that, he reads a book on structural cybernetic management. When you hear those words, you may think that it has to do with some type of futuristic management since it has the word cybernetic. However, cybernetic comes from the Greek word “kybernetes”, which means “helmsman”. This word was used to describe the captain of a ship, so that’s how it’s connected with management.

Mr. T realized he needed a consultant to help him with his work. His assistant suggests asking the person that was supposed to have the job that Mr. T has now. Webster asks Lahksa about this person and it turns out she’s a woman. Webster assumed it was a guy. This goes to show some of the stereotypes that exist. Thankfully, this isn’t the case nowadays. The percentage of women in management positions is growing.

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When he finds this woman, named Belinda Binda, it turns out she’s a bag lady. However, as the conversation between the two progresses, it’s evident that Belinda hasn’t forgotten what makes a good manager. She says that management is about three main things: your gut which is used to make decisions, your heart which people respond to, and your soul which allows team members to have close, warm interconnections. Webster originally thought that management had to do with your brain, but Belinda showed that there’s much more to it than that. And finally, she agrees to work with Mr. T, but he has to give her a shopping car somehow and there are no supermarkets in Morovia.

Chapter 7 starts off strong. Belinda just throws all the resumes into the trash. Since everyone

Deadline, Chapters 3, 4 and 5

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

Chapter 3 starts with Mr. Tompkins waking up in a room he hadn’t seen before, however, he had seen the furniture in the room. Apparently, his new job came with many benefits, one of which was that the job pays really well. After that, Lahksa mentioned more details about Morovia. Morovia somehow had fifteen hundred highly skilled software engineers ready to work under Mr. T. She explained that Morovia used to be a communist nation in the past, and one of the few benefits of being communist was the good education. Mr. T had fifteen hundred people and only 6 projects to do. That’s way too many people, so Mr. Tompkins has an idea of running an experiment. I actually found this really interesting. There’s so much you can learn from it: the correct size of teams, the correct time frame, the correct age, etc. While I find this very intriguing, it’s kind of like using the employees as toys or test subjects. But maybe the benefits obtained by the experiment are worth it. Does the end justify the means?

“It’s all yours, Webster. You have got all of Morovia to play with.”

At the beginning of chapter 4, Lahksa hands Mr. Tompkins a journal for him to write everything he learns during the experiment. Mr. T is also introduced to his assistant. The first project Mr. T has to work on is the building of the CD-ROM plant. It’s actually not a software engineering project, but he still has to do it. Next, he has a talk with the construction manager, Mr. Mopoulka.

I find the talk as a really good example of why fear doesn’t work as motivation. There’s a problem with the terrain so the construction can take up to 25 weeks. This is obviously not

Economics of Software Engineering: Analysis and Estimation

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

Previously, when I was going to start working on a project for school, I started by deciding the programming language I was going to use, how the classes were going to be structured, and what each member of the team was going to work on. However, after reading about the economics of software engineering, I realized that there’s so much more that goes into a project before you even do any coding. Maybe, the reason why I didn’t realize it was because the projects were for school, I’m not making any money from it. When you actually want to make money out of a project, you have to take into account many other factors. Using a certain library may seem convenient, but can somehow increase the cost of the project. The economics of software engineering is about making decisions about software engineering, but taking into account the business side.

Now, let’s talk about goals, estimates and plans. When starting a project, all these three things need to be established, all three of them are different. Goals are about business needs, such as generating profit, and how to reach them. Estimates consist of thoroughly evaluating the resources and time that will be needed for a project. Estimates are used to know if a project can be done within the limits of time, budget, etc. Plans are specific activities that are needed to reach the goals of a project.

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The problem that I see with all this is that a lot is based on predictions. Nothing is really certain. But that’s just how businesses are, there is no path that will guarantee success 100% of the time. That’s not to say that goals, estimates and plans are useless. They vastly increase your chance of success, but you shouldn’t be Continue reading "Economics of Software Engineering: Analysis and Estimation"

Deadline, Chapters 1 and 2

--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog

The first chapter starts with our main character Webster Tompkins, or Mr. Tompkins, or Mr. T, sitting on the back of an auditorium. He is about to be, as they say it, released to seek opportunity elsewhere (ReSOE). Being laid off is something real that happens often, leaving many people without jobs. There are many causes for being laid off. It isn’t really explicitly said in the text why Mr. Tompkins was a ReSOE, but I assume it was to cut costs, meaning that the company isn’t doing too good. Anyway, our main character doesn’t seem to care all that much since he just goes to sleep in the back. However, this sleep was short lived since the HR people were making too much noise for him to sleep, even in the back.

Mr. T is approached by a woman named Lahksa Hoolihan. It would be safe to assume that she was just another ReSOE, but that’s wrong, as she reveals that she is actually a spy from Morovia, an industrial spy at that. I have never really thought about the possibility of industrial spies, but it doesn’t seem like something from another world. I could actually see there being industrial spies around. Stealing confidential information could really give you an advantage over your competition. It is so beneficial that Hoolihan said that she would kidnap or even kill.

After that, Hoolihan actually gives us a bit of context about the story. It happened during the 1990s. She also mentions that 3.3 million jobs have been lost in the last nine months. That number is quite big. She also mentions that often taking out the CEO won’t really damage the business. If you really want to manage a business you need to take out the managers. This goes to