The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming

While browsing Jeff Atwood's blog, I rediscovered something from my very early IT education, The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming.  There is a downloadable copy of the commandments on TechRepublic.

Multi-tasking Must Die: 5 Ways to Single Task

Thank you to Mike Cottmeyer for this link to The Slacker Manager.

Cool...

A while back, we delivered a presentation to a customer.  Throughout, comments of "cool" were being uttered.  We left quite pleased.

A friend of mine sent me some definitions of "cool".

In short, it can mean...

1. I like what you say
2. I don't know what you are talking about
3. I'm just filling the pauses until I can get out of here
4. I don't care about your opinion

Can you see good performance?

Most architects that I know pay very little attention to their reputation and visibility within their organizations.  They typically consider such activities with contempt.  It is playing politics, it is putting style over substance, it is dishonest. 

Dishonest?  Yes, dishonest! Why?  Because every delivery is a team effort.  Any one person taking credit is disrespecting the other team members.

So what do you do in a culture that recognizes and rewards those who glister rather than those who just get on with their work and do an exceptional job.  Your choice is stark - play the game, move on, or accept it.

As a manager in such an environment though you have responsibilities...

A manager of mine when he understood what was happening said "perhaps I am looking in the wrong place".  You cannot rely on the grapevine to provide an accurate picture of performance.  The news spread by others is biased, it is politicized, it carries the advertisements of the carriers.  You have to get out there and continually and consistently look for yourself.  You must take a deep interest in the capabilities, aspirations, working environment and efforts of your staff.  Only then will you will you start to get an accurate picture of the performance of your staff.  And only then will you be able to help them.  Only then will you be doing your job as a manager.  Only then will you find excellence.  You will find the gold.

You have another responsibility.  Once you really understand performance rather than the reputation created by rumor, gossip and innuendo,  you must pass on good news.  Your staff deserve to have their strengths and triumphs trumpeted.  They deserve a strong positive reputation.

But what is they are not doing well.  This is also your responsibility.  Do you really understand them, if so then you would deploy them to use their strengths and they would do well.  If they are not doing well then you are failing.  Trumpet their strengths, deploy them correctly, give them the means to achieve success.

Effective communication

Anglo-American business communication has evolved a terse and concise style that is accepted as conventional wisdom.  However, I'm not convinced that saving the time of a few senior managers is really an effective approach to communicating organizational goals .

Why?

I have learned both through instruction and experience that to communicate with those of differing backgrounds and cultures that saying the same thing in multiple ways, providing additional context and painting rich word pictures are essential. If I do it and equally if those that I am communicating with do it then there is a greater prospect of mutual understanding.

Surely, business effectiveness is better served by waffling to mutual comprehension than by adopting the cultural norm of clipped, brief but turgid messages that are misunderstood.