A Software Engineer’s Guide To Speaking With Non-Technical Managers

The news wasn’t good, but bad news doesn’t get any better with age.  I presented our project manager with the facts:

“We can’t complete our development in time based on these ridiculous estimates” I said bluntly.  “Everyone has been behind schedule, just like we said last week.  There is no way that our team is going to make their deliverables based on the current deadline.  Our development and productivity is only going to get worse the more we are rushed.”

After the meeting, the best manager I’ve ever had, Moe Nwankwo, told me he appreciated that I had been frank – and then gave me some constructive criticism and advice I’ll never forget:

“Sid, you can’t talk to project managers like that.  You can talk to me and developers that way – but you need to speak to our PM in terms she can understand and act on.“

I did not fully absorb what he meant at the time, but as I grew as a software engineer I am amazed at how poorly I communicated my concerns in the past.  I have since learned the secret of communicating effectively with my non-technical managers.

Mental Bias – Would You Like Fries With Your Warm Fuzzy Platitudes?

Have you ever read a horoscope, taken an online personality test, or even had a keyring that told you what your personality was based solely on your name?  Were you surprised at the accuracy of what was said about you?

Perhaps what you should have been surprised by is your own gullibility. Don’t feel too bad about it though – we all do it. It’s what’s known as the Forer effect, and it’s just one aspect of mental bias.

Time Management Matrix by Stephen Covey – Urgent vs Important

Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First popularized the concept of a Time Management Matrix for prioritizing that I love (Side note: I say “popularized” because it appears Eisenhower was originally credited with using it).   The system advocates the use of four quadrants to determine the tasks you “need” to do and deciding what should be made a priority.

In addition to providing text examples, I’m going to have a little fun and illustrate items from each quadrant using one of my favorite comics: XKCD.

The Best Personal Development Books Reading List

Her email closed with – “are there any books you like?  what should I read?”

“Easy question” I thought to myself, as my fingers flew to the keyboard and I rattled off 10 books, then 20.  I could have gone on, but I stopped.

I took a step back, and realized that my reader didn’t need yet another long lists of books – there are plenty of those online, and if you want an endless list of reading material, check out this list of all the self improvement products at Amazon (1,140 at last count).

No – she was asking for my help, to sort through it all. The more items I gave her, the less helpful I would be. A better approach would be to give her a list that provided the best value – a list of the best personal development books, and the shorter better. This was a much more difficult problem.

After a lot of thought, I cut it down from twenty to the six four three most effective personal development books I have read. While the Pareto principle may not always hold in other situation, in this case a handful of the books I’ve read are responsible for most of my achievements and personal development. These books are the ones most worth your time to build a solid foundation for overall personal development and personal productivity.

The Problem with The Pareto Principle

“The Pareto principle … states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” (Pareto principle, Wikipedia)

If you’re trying to streamline your work-day and boost your income, you might have come across authors telling you “facts” like these:

  • 20% of your clients pay 80% of your income.
  • 20% of your output produces 80% of your income.
  • 20% of your time produces 80% of your income.

Whenever you see the Pareto principle cited, ask yourself “Is this true?” I’d argue that, in many cases, it just isn’t. In my freelance work, I’ve often not seen the Pareto principle upheld: I’ll give you the figures for each of these three claims in turn, so you can see how the clients/output/time to income ratio works for me.

Sid Cancels Commitment, World Does Not End. Sometimes, You Need To Just Let it Go

After a series of development mishaps this week, Sid Savara, discovered that his project was at risk of not being completed in time.

As the deadline loomed, Sid was hopelessly behind schedule.  Unable to work through implementation as quick as he had hoped, the deadline was going to get the better of him.  Tradeoffs needed to be made, long hours and additional developers were considered: everything was on the table.  Sid thus considered his options, made a decision, and lived with the fall out.