The Seven False Hopes of Software Management (1987).
Each one reaches out with an attractive fallacy that leads nowhere.
As long as you believe them, you’re going to be reluctant to do the hard work necessary to build a healthy & productive culture.
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1️⃣ There is some new trick you've missed that could send productivity soaring.
People like to learn, and to improve. The line that there is some magical innovation out there that you’ve missed is a pure fear tactic, employed by those with a vested interest in selling it.
B.S!
2️⃣ Other managers get gains of 100, 200 percent or more.
Forget it. The typical magical tool that’s touted to you is focused on the coding and testing part of the life cycle.
B.S!
3️⃣ Technology is moving so quickly that you’re falling behind.
While the machines have changed enormously, the business of software development has been rather static. We still spend most of our time working on requirements and specification, the low-tech part of our work.
B.S!
4️⃣ Changing languages will give you huge gains.
Languages are important because they affect the way you think about a problem, but again, they can have impact only on the implementation part of the project.
Another variation of The High-Tech Illusion.
B.S!
5️⃣ Because of the backlog, you need to double productivity immediately.
The typical project that’s stuck in the mythical backlog is there because it has barely enough benefit to justify building it, even with the most optimistic cost assumptions.
B.S!
6️⃣ You automate everything else; isn’t it about time you automated away your software development staff?
Their main work is human communication to organize the users’ needs into formal procedure. That work will be necessary no matter what & it’s not likely to be automated.
B.S!
7️⃣ Your people will work better if you put them under a lot of pressure.
Response: They won’t — they’ll just enjoy it less.
B.S!
If leaning on people is counterproductive, and installing the latest technological doodad won’t help much either, then what is the manager supposed to do?
This!
The manager’s function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.