Re: The Art of Project Management

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:25:58 +0000 (UTC), docdwarf@xxxxxxxxx () wrote:

I'm not sure what you're calling 'process rubbish' here, Mr Berkun... but
I've worked on few sites where programmers have told me that telecommuting
was discussed and turned down because the managers decided that without
being able to count nostrils and recta they would not be able to tell if
the work was actually getting done.

Nobody - at least nobody whose view held sway during the considerations
of telecommuting - appears to have said 'How about... 'we know the work is
getting done by the reaching of goals and milestones, just the way we do
now but without actual bodies around.'

But I've also worked where telecommuting was allowed, with such
criteria used.

And when the process
fails, process-mongers always blame the process and start hunting for
a new one, instead of examining their basic incompetencies as managers
or leaders of people.

I remember in AFROTC, every term a new student was boss - and normally
did a reorg.

....

The author begged off, saying that he enjoyed writing programs and would
rather stick with being technical... and the response was a sneered
'Technical? You want to be *technical*? You don't understand...
technical people are given things by management; management gives
things... to itsself.'

The manager could not understand why anyone would not like to be Just Like
Him (a function of identification with a 'we-group'... I think Durkheim
mentioned something along these lines).

Isn't that the nature of man? Look at all of the Righteous wars we
have because the other guys don't want to be Just Like Us? Jews
were hated because they wouldn't recognize that our way was best.
Sunni vs Shiite or Protestant vs Roman Catholic are like that. Even
homosexual bashing is pretty much the same thing.

My way is right - therefore all proper thinking people should want to
do things my way.
.

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