Comments on: The enemy within

By: Hering Cheng

Hering Cheng — Sat, 02 May 2009 04:34:20 +0000

I want to address defensive programming specifically. I do not think it is related to the caliber of our fellow teammates. The whole theory of specifying pre- and post-conditions, plus loop invariants, is to ensure the correctness of and to expose the assumptions inherent in code, even within our own code. We need to push for more defensive coding, with ample use of assertion statements.

By: A ‘Follower’ Leads

A ‘Follower’ Leads — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:31:11 +0000

[...] and how a so-called follower can lead. It all started with Denis’ post December 31 describing what was happening in his [...]

By: Bridging Development Realities | Musings of a Software Development Manager

Bridging Development Realities | Musings of a Software Development Manager — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 07:43:48 +0000

[...] over at One Brike At a Time recently expressed frustration at having to use low trust practices: It used to be that I did not [...]

By: Miki

Miki — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:08:55 +0000

Was the management change in your department of company-wide? Might I ask if you were acquired?

I ask because it sounds as if your management change turned into a complete cultural change.

There are things you can do, but they depend on whether it is department level or the whole company.

Denis, I understand that it might not be a good idea to post the answers publicly, so please feel free to write me directly and I’ll be happy to respond.

By: Denis

Denis — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:19:07 +0000

Forgot one thing Miki:

Happy New Year !

By: Denis

Denis — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:08:52 +0000

Let me see management changed, over committed failed to motivate people. The more experienced and talented members of the team left which provided less structure and safe guards. Now as we know unmotivated people don’t give their best. They do just enough to satisfy their management.

So there are too possible fixes as far as the end product is concerned: re-motivate people (difficult without a fresh start) or make it more difficult to pass (change the process to be less trusting and more controlled).

We will see if the first can happen but the second is definitely within our control and could prove a useful training exercise to elevate the level of our personnel. I also know that a much smaller team of more talented people would be easier to motivate and would be levels of magnitude more productive than this team.

By: Miki

Miki — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:37:25 +0000

Hi Denis, what happened? Why did it change? What would it take to fix it?