RE: Managing Extreme Programming

Chris

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Hanson [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 5:56 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: RE: [xpAdoption] Managing Extreme Programming
> 
> At 8:18 AM -0700 1/10/03, Steve Ropa wrote:
> >Especially when it comes to our field, the ingrained hostility
> >between engineers and management seems very very very strong.  I
> >wonder why that is?
> 
> I think it's because often managers don't see engineers as their
> peers but rather their subordinates.  It's "Scotty Syndrome."
> Captain Kirk tells Scotty that he needs warp drive *now*, Scotty says
> "we need a few hours to repair the engines," Kirk says "*Now*
> Scotty!"  Scotty always seems to come through, and it's Kirk who is
> seen to save the day.

[>] As a manger of mangers, seeing the engineers as peers is sometimes
very difficult, since the job roles are very different. Even the second
level managers have difficulty seeing the first line managers as peers -
again for the role separation reasons.

This should not mean the engineers (or developers) are seen with
disrespect, quite the contrary they are the deliverers of value. But the
staff is certainly seen as "labor" if only for the reason of accounting.

Managers who fail to give credit for the source of the firms success are
doing a very good job of managing. 

> In many managers I've observed this type of deeply-ingrained
> disrespect for anyone not in a management role.  Anyone not in
> management is "labor" and just there to follow orders, and managers
> have far too much to do to understand what it is "the troops" do in
> any depth.  Pretty much everything about the work can be changed
> arbitrarily because "they'll think of something, or we'll find
> someone who will."

[>] hopefully that message is not conveyed here. But it works in
reciprocal more often I afraid, but here and in the real world.

> This attitude leads to practices like the current fad for third-world
> outsourcing.  After all, there's obviously no difference between a
> software developer billing US$100/hour and a software developer in
> the third world billing US$10/hour - they both sit at their keyboard
> and type for 8 hours a day, right?

[>] our parent firm has a very large design center in India (civil and
construction engineering) and the motivation is hourly wages for
equivalent work - not the disrespect. Our local poster child for
outsourcing is Quark with 80% of the code written in India. So if you
use Quark Express as a tool your experiencing the $10/hour developers
(more cost than that I think).

> >   Like I mentioned the other day, I imagine that a lot of managers
> >in our field used to be some of the better programmers who got
> >promoted for their successes into the management ranks.
> 
> I think promotion from within -- at least beyond the "lead engineer"
> or "architect" level -- is the exception these days rather than the
> rule.  The last 25 years or so have seen the development of a
> professional management caste in western business; in most
> organizations, it's absolutely impossible to start in the mail room
> and work your way up to the top no matter how much time you're
> willing to put into it.  

[>] Not true. Our bosses boss (the CFO of a $8B contract) started as a
clerk typist 

> Everyone is hired for a specific role, and
> if you're being hired for management you need a management education
> and background to qualify.

[>] When I hire "managers" I certainly expect them to have skills and
experience of managing work and the people - in some way. Education may
vary, but I'd sure take an MBA over not one if all other experience and
training were equal.

We're a big firm ($2.7B annual) so our world is certainly different from
a small startup or web development firm.

> This is what "scientific management" has wrought.
> 
>    -- Chris
[>]Glen B. Alleman
 


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