SW processes

At the end of 1998 I became Software Engineering Process Group Leader of the Swiss branch of a large multinational group.  It was my responsibility to ensure that software was developed in accordance with the corporate standard processes.  Some of the developers had very little knowledge of Software Process Improvement (SPI).  To “break them in”, I developed “ab initio” presentations with some basic SPI concepts explained in very simple terms.  I just discovered some of the slides in an almost forgotten folder and, given the fact that:
1.    My presentations were never officially registered in the corporate archives;
2.    the business division I was attached to no longer exists;
3.    more than ten years have passed;
I believe I can share them with you without infringing any copyright.

Management - My Leadership Principles 2

32    You can only see further if you stick your neck out.
  
33    Listen to those who stay quiet and talk to those who speak a lot.
  

Management - My Leadership Principles 1

  1    Any goal is impossible until you find the way to achieve it.

  2    You only fail when you give up trying.

Management - Generosity

Keep the others indebted to you.

What do I mean by that? It is simple, really. As long as your collaborators will feel that they owe you something, they will bend over backward with their work to repay you.

Management - Guidelines vs Rules

A lot of people think that guidelines, leaving some leeway and ambiguity, are less restrictive than fixed rules. This is certainly not the case. To convince yourself, try to answer this question: “Who decides whether an action conforms to a guideline or not?”

Management - Need to know

How can people decide with competence if they don't have all the information they need to do it? In one respect, human beings are like any other machine: to deliver good results they need to have the necessary inputs and be able to process them well enough.

Management - Where the buck stops

I have always entertained very informal relationships with my collaborators and allowed them to decide in as many situations as possible. This was only possible because, beside being friendly and open, I systematically made clear that I had the overall responsibility and that, therefore, could overturn any decision made by a team member.

Management - Decisions

A leader should decide as little as possible.

Many people find it difficult to decide. They agonise on alternatives and keep postponing the moment when they finally must commit themselves to one of them. When I say that a leader should decide as little as possible I certainly don't mean that.

Management - Trust

The word trust is for company life what love is for the movie industry: so much used and so often abused that most people develop for it the same self-protecting indifference that nurses and doctors must have for blood.

Management - Foreword

My main reason for writing about management is that I have a vision of a working society in which people are respected as human beings. I hate to see mature and intelligent adults conditioned and blackmailed into subservient roles by arrogant and ruthless bosses. I have to do something about it, even if it is just writing what few people will ever read.