I don't remember exactly where I found reference to this book but I was intrigued enough to search for it on the net. It's an old book - even the second edition is from 1999. So I was a bit skeptical about finding relevant content. Oh well, if first two chapters aren't engaging enough I will chuck it aside, I promised myself. But I read through the first two chapters and kept reading.
The first part is dedicated to managing human resources. I laughed out aloud upon reading that majority of us who claim to be in the high-tech business are merely into application of cutting-edge technology invented by others. True! Equally sensible is the chapter that talks about why development work is different than production and hence doesn't warrant use of the same principles like treating workers as interchangeable pieces or frowning if people don't spend every moment in office engaged in official work. I particularly reflected upon one such incident from one of the companies that I worked for. I had put in my papers and was serving my notice period. One evening, some work was left unfinished by one of my team members - a lady - by the end of the day. She told me that she cannot wait after office hours because of some personal errands that she had to run that day. Since that work was critical I asked her if she could come a bit early the next day to finish it and she gladly agreed. The manager who was supposed to take charge of the project after my last day took me aside and said that I shouldn't have let her go. I told him that if I had made her stay back that day it was very likely that she would have given only half her attention to the work. But I was sure that she would do her best work by coming a bit early next morning. I am happy that the material in the book made me realize that I had done the right thing :-) The chapters on Quality, Parkinson's Law and Seven False Hopes of Software Management make for a good read.
The second part - on office environment - didn't appeal that much to me. I agree that noise or interruptions degrade the quality of work that an individual or a team turns in and that a manager should make sure that the team has the best possible environment in which to work. But I doubt that beyond a certain point, there is much that he or she can do. That said, it will be interesting to learn more about the work of Christopher Alexander.
The first chapter of Part III, The Right People, has the following 2 lines:
People who work for you for whatever period will be more or less the same at the end as they were at the beginning. If they aren't right for the job from the start, they never will be.
I must say that I respectfully disagree. People can change, provided that they themselves want to change. And a manager should consider it his or her greatest achievement if they can bring about this change, however small its degree.
That said, the authors rightly point out how the definition of 'professionalism' has acquired a narrow look. And anyone who has 'hiring' as part of his professional duties must read the opening of the chapter 'hiring a juggler' as well as sections about asking people getting interviewed for developer position to bring along a sample of their work, aptitude tests and auditions. Over the years, I have watched, with a mix of horror and disbelief, as companies let good people leave and accept it as part of routine turnover, simply assuming that the person is leaving because of a better offer. I wish more people would read the chapter 'Happy To Be Here'.
If you want to read just one chapter from Part IV, Growing Productive Teams, I would recommend the 18th one - about jelled teams. You probably will do a double take as I did when you come across the sentence 'Managers are often not true members of their teams'. And I must warn - you will ignore Chapters 20 (Teamicide) and chapter 22 (Open Kimono) at your own peril. A caveat - read all chapters from this part of the book. It will be an excellent investment of your time.
I found myself nodding, and I suspect that you will too, when I read some of the points made e.g. 'We don't work overtime so much to get the work done on time as to shield ourselves from blame when the work inevitably doesn't get done on tune' and 'Change only has a chance of succeeding if failure - at least a little bit of failure - is also okay'.
But the sentence that will forever remain etched in my memory is the following:
The manager's function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.
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