After the rant, it’s time to be constructive. I was pleasantly surprised last time round by the comments: while I may have vented more strongly than some would have liked, there’s a clear dissatisfaction with capital-A Agile in many quarters, and a definite perception from many that it’s had its day. Over time, management fads [...]
Archive for the ‘Management for Geeks’ Category
Development without a name
Posted in Management for Geeks, Software development on November 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Agile Disease
Posted in Game development, Management for Geeks, Rants, Software development on November 16, 2008 | 68 Comments »
The games industry is rushing headlong to Agile development methodologies just now; it’s a great source of excitement for some, with conference sessions and magazine articles left, right and centre, and “evangelists” spreading the word.
I’m sick of it. I can’t wait for the day when everyone realises how much of a fad-diet, religious-cult-inspired, money-making exercise [...]
The Art of Doubt
Posted in Management for Geeks on October 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Do you believe in ESP? Precognition? Clairvoyance? Telepathy? Psychokinesis? Assuming you don’t (!!), how do you argue against such things? It’s pretty simple, right: you apply the critical thinking techniques that are essential to science:
Is the theory falsifiable? In other words, what evidence would be required to disprove the theory? To say that a theory [...]
Dysfunction and fanatics
Posted in Management for Geeks on October 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A game developer starts putting bugs in his code deliberately. A teacher helps their students to cheat on an exam. Another teacher throws a student’s exam paper in the bin rather than submitting it. A shoe factory starts producing nothing but size 7, left foot shoes. A customer service representative hangs up the phone on [...]
Action time
Posted in Management, Management for Geeks on July 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Part 3 of management for geeks.
When it comes to improving your management skills, I can’t think of many better recommendations than an action plan – sometimes called a personal development plan, or something equally cheesy. It’s deceptively simple:
Analyse your current situation/skills
Work out where you want to get to
Find some concrete steps you can take to [...]
Your own worst enemy
Posted in Management, Management for Geeks on June 11, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Part 2 of management for geeks.
The first step in my quest for managerial self-improvement was a bit of self-assessment: a DISC assessment and a 360-degree review. These delivered a pretty big message: I’m working against myself here, my very own personality:
Personality characteristics beneficial to a programmer are not necessarily the same as those beneficial [...]
Management for Geeks
Posted in Management, Management for Geeks on June 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Are you a geek? A former programmer? Have you just recently started managing people? Me too! There’s nothing specific to game development about this, but the fast growth of the industry means there are inevitably quite a few people in this position.
Repeat after me: I truly suck
Let’s take a minute to [...]
