Review on Chapter 1 & 2 of “The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management”

--Originally published at Project Evaluation and Management Reflections

The first two chapters serve as an introduction into the story. The story starts right away with a description of Mr. Tompkins, a systems manager, and his status as an ReSOE – an employee „Released to Seek Opportunities Elsewhere.“ Along with thousands of other employees of the telephone and communciations company, he is attending a program that includes presentations and trainings for ReSOEs. His boredom and ironic reflections on the program clearly demonstrate that, in fact, the program is only superficial to keep employees who are not needed anymore entertained.
After falling asleep, he meets Lahska Hoolihan, an industrial spy and agent from the fictional country Morovia. As she tells him that her job is to kidnap other people, their conversation turns into a conversation about managing people, the most important task of managers. Tompkins states that „getting the right people for the right job. That´s what makes the difference between a good manager and a drone.“
During the second chapter, he recalls a conversation during a corporate project management training class with the instructur Edgar Kalbfuss. The memory is a practical example for many people who immediately think of GANNT charts, project milestones and so on when talking about project management.
Tompkins on the contrary sees the focus on managing people, which includes mainly the following four essential ingredients of management:
1. Hiring
2. Matching people to jobs
3. Motivating
4. Team building
This point of view of Mr. Tompkins is probably the reason why Lahska Hoolihan is kidnapping him to help Morovia build a new software factory as their manager.

For more information on the book discussed, see: „The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management (Enlaces a un sitio externo.)“ by Tom DeMarco

Chapter 1

--Originally published at Erick learning experience

One of my first impressions while I was reading this chapter was that this book is going to be just theory and that stuff but when I start reading more the chapter was kind of funny, the most interesting was when Tompkins start talking with Lahksa Hoolihan about who was she and start talking about the importance of knowing who to kidnap, when she start talking like about that I start thinking about what I was reading and in my opinion if someone tell me that is kidnapper I would not accept a drink of that person but in the shoes of Tompkins it was a good idea because it was Dr. Pepper and most important it was a diet Dr. Pepper so why not?

Talking about more serious thing about the first chapter I agree in the part that one of the most important thing about a company is to get the right people but is one of the most complicated thing because get those persons is not cheap but is a crucial part to make a company a success.

Chapter 2

I start this second chapter hoping to know what happen to Mr. Tompkins and I agree with Tompkins that this chapter it’s like to be on drugs, becuase in my opinion they are explaining some important stuff in the manner of Project Management in a very strange but interesting way, the things that I keep as the most important of this chapter is the importance of bring attention to the people, teach them how to make teams, make them feel as part of the team, make sure they stay healthy, the importance of letting express themselves.

The Deadline Chapter 1 & 2

--Originally published at TI2011 – Alex’s Barn

Hi again.

After a cold winter holiday, bunch of hours of procrastinating personal projects, and working on two novels, I come back to school. New projects, new perspectives, new emotions.

This semester, I had to take the “Evaluation Project” lecture and, one of the goals is reading “The Deadline” novel, from Tom DeMarco. After a couple of pages, pop up a concept: P E O P L E.

The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management , Amazon.es

This made come into my head a story I experienced before.

The intern who learned manage people.

Last summer, during my internship, the host Enterprise made groups of 3 interns and formed teams with them. The main goal was each team had to develop their own mobile application, in order to solve a critical social issue.

No problemo till here.

My team was conformed by two girls and me. Let’s call them Ariana and Becka.

Becka & Ariana. Source: VectorStock

Becka was a freshment girl, and If I had to describe her in one word It would be: Excitement. She was always full of energy, Lots of ideas and she couldn’t wait to start working with us. During her first year of college, she had just a couple of programming courses, and her experience in programming was minimal.

On the other hand, we had Ariana. Ariana was a very relaxed girl, who lived in the same city where the enterprise was located. Besides all interns who had to move to that area, she kept living in her parent’s home, keeping her life outside work. She tended to left work on Fridays as soon as possible. Next day, in her stories, you could watch her in an awesome weekend adventure, even in another state. She didn’t looked interested in the project, she Continue reading "The Deadline Chapter 1 & 2"

Deadline: an interesting way of learning project management

--Originally published at TI2011 – Press enter to continue…

Today, I'm here to write about a novel, but not any novel, "The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management." This novel has everything everyone can dream about: spies, corporations complots, and project management. The cover of the book This novel follows Mr. Tompkins (also known as Mr. T.), a recently fired manager trying to catch … Continue reading Deadline: an interesting way of learning project management

Opportunity Knocking and Standing Up to Kalbfuss

--Originally published at Project Evaluation and Management

There’s always an opportunity, you only have to find it. That is what Mr. Thompkins did not expected. During the first chapter of The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management we see how Mr. Tompkins is a heavily prepared manager, but that’s not enough to keep his work, and he is drugged and kidnapped by a Soviet Spy.

During his dream, he finds himself stuck inside a dream-loop in which he remembers his discussion with Mr. Kalbfuss. In this discussion he changed the name of the class to ‘Administrivia’, and he remembers The Four Essential Ingredients Of Management:

  • People Selection
  • Task Matching
  • Motivation
  • Team Formation

The concept of the book is interesting. Since we are able to learn about project management from the perspective of a novel I’m really excited to see what’s going to happen.

Programming for food

--Originally published at TI2011 – Press enter to continue…

As a Computer Science student, it is always about coding, but almost all of us programmers are afraid of everything that is related to business. "Coding for food" retrieved from webdevbros.net And I completely understand why we tend to avoid all of this, is basically to much information to learn besides the information related to … Continue reading Programming for food

Probando, probando, TI2011 Blog 00

--Originally published at TI2011 – Alex’s Barn

El sol se levanta un día más y con él todas las bestias salvajes. Las bestias civilizadas se levantan con despertador, con sueños y metas. Se arrebatan la comida en los supermercados, un día antes de navidad. La gente desperdicia tiempo en el tráfico, esperan los viernes, se embriagan los sábados y los domingos van a plazas comerciales. Los conciertos se dan en jueves, se maldice a los lunes y los días que comienzan en M terminan a la mitad. Compran ropa y entretenimiento, pues el tiempo se debe gastar de igual modo que el dinero. Los parques se atiborran de niños jugando y padres cansados. Las iglesias, los cinemas y los restaurantes mantienen a los codiciosos humanos sentados por unos cuantos minutos. La gente se enriquece con los pecados de los ingenuos, en invierno oscurece antes de las 7. La gente corre en una banda, inmóviles, con su espíritu quebrantado. Los días corren, los trabajadores se arrastran, los pequeños colegiados rompen las bastillas de sus pantalones, las muchachas de secundaria arremangan sus faldas para mostrar sus delgados muslos. Los jóvenes se reúnen a beber cerveza barata y comida picante en el centro de la ciudad. Abusamos de nuestros sentidos, retacándolos con imágenes y sonidos. Llenar, llenar, es a lo que se dedica el ser humano contemporáneo. Llenar huecos en la agenda, espacios vacíos en casa con muebles y decoraciones inútiles, el closet con prendas que no usaremos, el estómago con comida nociva que no nos quite mucho tiempo. Llenar, llenar, nada puede quedar vacío ni despejado. Las ciudades se atiborran de anuncios, pancartas, carteles, mensajes, sonidos, olores. El silencio se malbarata, la inactividad es el pecado capital. El vacío ya no existe ni dentro ni fuera. Basura en las banquetas se acumula y la grasa mugrosa se pega en Continue reading "Probando, probando, TI2011 Blog 00"

The Real World

--Originally published at cerros27

Este fue un tema que considero muy muy importante. Ya que después de 4 capítulos del libro por fin tocamos el tema del código en el mundo real. Ya que a lo largo de la carrera son pocas las veces que en verdad enfrentamos nuestro código a la vida real. A lo factores que pueden arruinar nuestro código por completo; eso sin importar lo bien que funcionara en el laboratorio de pruebas. Y la mejor arma que tenemos para hacer de nuestro código un código funcional son los casos de uso.

Los casos de uso nos permiten desarrollar todos los posibles factores que a los que nuestro código se puede enfrentar. Y una vez que identifiquemos cuales son las circunstancias posibles podemos empezar a “proteger” nuestro código para que sepan como responder ante las posibles variables y cambios del mundo real.the-real-world.jpg

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