Re: The Art of Project Management

In article <mqf7n31pktfs95tove24e298eoufh8ommu@xxxxxxx>,
Howard Brazee <howard@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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.

This, perhaps, might assist Mr Berkun in describing 'process rubbish'...
or it might not; his response has yet to be seen.

[snip]

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?

That I cannot say, Mr Brazee... I've found these human-being type folks to
have strange, inconsistent and unpredictable behaviors. Maybe that's why
I've only read sociology and never worked in the field, instead making my
living as a COBOL-codin' fool.

DD
.