Guess song challenge: Deadline chapters 20,21

--Originally published at Parra’s Project Management Blog

Welcome to the latest edition of Guess This Song Challenge! The rules are the same as always: I place a song down below, which has changed lyrics, and you try to guess the name of the song. This time the lyrics come from chapters 20 and 21 from the Deadline, by Tom De Marco. Just as always, plain simple. Enjoy.

If you have trouble enjoying the song with the embedded player, use this link: https://clyp.it/udmfhpje

Lyrics:

Always make agendas
Respect people’s timing
This way they can see
If the meeting competes them

Agendas make meetings smaller
Get inside those key players
Decisions will be much easier
And time will be saved

Large meeting are a problem
They create confusion
Consensus can’t be settled
Better cut some people

If you face a similar problem
Don’t worry I got you covered
There is a sacred ritual
To kick some people out

Like a good old ritual
There ares rules
Rules to be set
Make your meetings small
Without hurting no one

Use this ritual
To adjourn people

First say your intentions
Then wait for agreement
Choose a couple persons
Whose’s time is valued

Make them rise they say a statement
What they expect to be seen without them
Make everyone make an agreement
That’s the final step

Moving on to next chapter
They talk ‘bout code inspection
It saves time testing
Unless design is perfect

Don’t solve pathologies
They are just useless 

Guess song challenge! Deadline chapter 19

--Originally published at Parra’s Project Management Blog

Hello everyone! It’s time for the next Guess Song Challenge, as always with original music and changed lyrics. This time the lyrics talk about chapter 19 from The Deadline, by Tom De Marco. Enjoy and hope you guess the song (this one is easy).

If you have trouble listening in the embedded player, use this link: https://clyp.it/rs0r2v1h

Lyrics:

There I was completely baffled
By the truth The Deadline speaks
Early overstaffing is the reason
A project delays

Staffing comes after design
Not the way around
When the project has clear modules
Then it’s time to recruit staff

Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first

If you let your people code then
You will face a lot of bugs
Having a real plan on modules
Will grant optimization

Forming an ideal team
Starts with few people
Key elements to design it
The recruit some more people

Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first

Aggresive schedules don’t work

Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first
Design is first

Project Management and Evaluation – Second Partial Reflection

--Originally published at Parra’s Project Management Blog

Good morning, this time I come with the second partial reflection about the course I’m currently taking, which is Project Management and Evaluation. There were a lot of interesting things I learned, it is one of my favorite courses this semester. Here I leave my audio reflection:

If you have trouble viewing the embedded player, use this link: https://clyp.it/wh2ulb04

There is not so much to say, I’ll let the audio speak for myself. Hope you are all fine!

Chapter 15 – Deadline, not a pleasant view

--Originally published at TI2011 – FABIAN'S GEEK STUFF

This week we continue with our review on the 15th chapter of deadline and how this keep talking about productivity, is amazing how they can keep on one pint, it must be very important that thing called 'productivity', well how do they manage to do it?, or how does today's teams do it?, keep reading... Continue Reading →

Chapter 16

--Originally published at Erick learning experience

I like the part when Aristotle told Mr. Tompkins that he had a manager that started to do his job by fear this is bad because as I said in some chapters before a manager that use fear to motivate people is not a very good manager, this because people perform worse in a state of fear instead of making them feel part of a team where their contribution is important and that feeling makes people feel good about themselves.

So using fear or contempt to motivate the employees is a sign that the manager is not good, this because all that causes are negative effects in the team and I agree in the part that if a upper manager motivate their people by fear then another lower manager is going to copy that style of managing the project an so on, so as we saw in the last chapter just by making people feel fear and pressure that does not mean that they are going to think and do their jobs faster.

Moving on in the part they started to talk about the spec documentation it was very interesting how in a professional project somethings that happen in school can appear, that specification documents that didn’t say anything about the project were the product of individual shame, it had happened to me in the school that I wrote some complex code and part of my team instead of asking me what I was doing in that part of the code or why a made that part in that way, they don’t ask because of shame and then I realised that part of the code was wrong. So in the case of the novel it happened something similar, the documentation that said all the specifications for that big project of

Continue reading "Chapter 16"

Chapter 13 – Deadline in deadline

--Originally published at TI2011 – FABIAN'S GEEK STUFF

So finally, we have reach that part when the satisfactory moment of pleasure of the instance where you get to know the reason why the book is called how is called. In Deadline over deadline this chapter becomes very entertaining and fun in spite that Mr T, has a lot of projects to deliver we... Continue Reading →

The Deadline – Chapter 17, 18, Interlude

--Originally published at Coder Bebop

We are getting into fields I honestly was not expecting to get into in this book. It is a book about management, yes. With an environment set on a tech company, correct. But I did not expect there to be much about problem solving between employees. Now that I think about it, have they ever mentioned a human resources department in this book? As far as we have read, Belinda seems to be the closest thing to an HR Director, though she basically just looked at every employee and said “Hired” or “Not hired”, and her official role has not been cleared. Webster just calls her and Markov (whom I thought would be an antagonist when I first saw his name and description) the “Management Dream Team”. If my hypothesis is correct, they should totally get an HR Coordinator.

What I learnt this semester

--Originally published at Blog de Célia

This semester, because of the coronavirus, we started the online clases. We had to get use to it. I learnt how to work from my house. I had to adapt myself to this type of environment and this new way of studying. At the beginning, it was difficult for me since I live with many roomies. It was harder to concentrate and it is still hard. Moreover, I really miss going to the TEC Campus. However, after some difficulties I have my habits now and I like having my online class, it helps me to concentrate on something else than just the quarantine.

Then, what I enjoyed the most during partial 2 was the many guest speakers that went to explain us to explain their background, their work. This semestre we had the chance to listen and to ask question to ex TEC students. We had at least 4 guest speakers. It was really nice to listen to people that are already done with their studies. We discovered many differents work environments. It helps me listen to people that already work because I still do not know what I exactly want to do with my life and they have really good advices (even if I am not interested in the same industry than them).

Also, we still had to read and comment the book the Deadline Novel. The project in the book is not going that well. The managers have to handle a lot of problems: dealing with a chief that is not connected to reality, managing conflicts, how to have a good productivity rate etc. As always, even if is a fiction, what we learn (at the same time that Mr. T) is very usefull in the Project Management class. Resolving conflict for example is something every manager should Continue reading "What I learnt this semester"

Chapter 15

--Originally published at Erick learning experience

In this chapter at the beginning I consider minister Belok is a very bad manager, first he didn’t care about what is the opinion of the workers in the different projects, he just wanted to win and win money without any investment, other thing is that he had the idea that the work would be faster if you put more and more people into it instead of making smart decisions and if it wasn’t enough he had the brilliant idea to hire courses that the only thing those courses are going to do is delay the projects. This man is the clear example of how you don’t want to run a project or different projects, because in reality the only thing you are doing is giving extra job to your people that can’t be done, so what is the point of doing this.

In the part that Belinda and Mr. T are talking about how good projects have overtime work and the importance of pressure I agree with them in the part that good projects have overtime work, this because you can face some problems that are necessary to fix at that moment, but too much overtime work can be bad for the projects you are running, first because the workers in this case programmers get tired and lose motivation with too much work then you add more pressure that can be in my point of view unhealthy and can burn out the workers and all this for nothing because the project can’t be done faster than is currently be done, you are just going to make people in the project to make more errors and be more anxious about the project.

In conclusion I agree with what their data said about how pressure does not make a significant improvement Continue reading "Chapter 15"

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