Here is my story.  I went into management for a better salary.  Back when I did that, I had reached the top of the career path for developers – Systems Analyst. Several years into my time as an IT Manager, I was tapped to lead the Project Office.  I oficially became a project manager and earned my Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification.

The more I worked with software development teams, the more I missed doing software development. As a PM, I also saw problems with software development that I figured would be hard to improve unless I got involved in the work.  A hands-on approach would show me what was going on and build credibility for potential solutions.

My problem?  Besides the tinkering I do in my spare time, most of my programming skills are rusty, out-dated, and underdeveloped. That being said, I have always been able to learn new things. With budgets tight, it is up to me to get started and prove my value. This is where the web really comes handy.  There are so many good, free resources available for learning!

Here are a few that I am using:

• VB Programming for Non-Programmers! – This course will get your feet wet.  It comes in four weekly installments and is easy to follow.
• SQLCourse.com has an Introductory SQL Tutorial.  SQL is a manditory skill for querying relational databases.
• Learning the Java Language – A free course from Sun covering the fundamentals of the Java language.
• JavaBat – Innovative web page with Java practice problems.

Here are a few articles worth reading:

• Five Ways to Become a Better Software Developer – This one surprised me, as most of the tips involve networking and getting feedback from other developers.
• So how do you become a great software developer? – Another surprise – read! At the core is being able to understand the problem you are solving.
• Platform Engineers or Rock Star Engineers – It’s all about passion, skill, and understanding. The Rock Star Engineer can solve problems using whatever technology you put in front of him.

Finally, a couple book lists:

• Do you want to become a great developer? – This list covers a lot of different topics, but none of the books are language-specific.
• How to become a Great Software Engineer – Once again, most of this is not language-specific!

Here is a quote from the “Rock Star” article referenced above that sums it up nicely.

I’ve lost track of how many times this simple fact has been proven to me. The qualities of a great engineer carry over to any platform, and a great engineer will pick up a new platform quickly — mostly because they love learning new things. If you’re starting out in software development, concentrate on being a great engineer. That’s far more valuable than an engineer that knows a platform.

I have seen this too. If you look at the articles and book lists I’ve noted above, you will see that very little is said about specific languages.  The languages are just the tools.  They are important and you need to know them.  However, it’s not the knowledge of languages that make a developer valuable.  It’s the higher skills – learning, networking, understanding, and problem solving.

The BA’s on our team came to me later and spoke to me why these small tasks were important.  (They weren’t sure they could speak to the impact  during the scrum.)  The accuracy of a key calculation, which is being tested right now in another system, was at stake. I requested that the developer put aside the larger task and complete the small tasks today.

As scrum master, I was acting to remove an obsticle that a different team was encountering. I also wonder what could have happened differently so that I wouldn’t have had to intervene. Could it be that with just a little extra push, the developer could have completed this task earlier so it wouldn’t have become an issue?  Could it be that the importance of this task been discovered earlier in our sprint?

What do you think?

• “If you’re outmatched by the competition, isn’t it silly not to take a chance?”

If you are the niche leader, then:

• “Right now, great teams (such as the Colts and Patriots) use the no-huddle selectively, as a way to maximize their dominance.”

Hmmm…  Is agile software development, kinda like the no-huddle offense?

• “Why not put together a lighter, better-conditioned offensive line and a radically simplified playbook and see what happens?”

Perhaps smaller teams in coordinated efforts will improve speed to market?

• “The strategy that’s right for heavyweights has nothing to do with how welterweights should fight.”

Something to aspire to:

• “Generally, he’s doing so much more with so much less.”

JavaBat is a free site created by by Nick Parlante who is computer science lecturer at Stanford. It contains numerous coding problems and gives immediate feedback if your code solves the problem correctly. (The site can also be a good tutorial on unit test case development. Just study how the test cases are structured.) Helpful links to tutorial pages, as well as sample code, help you learn.

The site focuses on improving your method coding skills. Each area has a large number of problems to solve, ensuring that you can get plenty of practice. It also has the facility to enable a teacher to monitor the progress of his or her students.

I would bet that both new and experienced developers will find something on JavaBat to help strengthen their coding skills. It could also be used as a tool in evaluating potential developers you want to add to your team. Finally, I also like the the minimalistic design of JavaBat.

He lists eight points that help programmers and makes the following observations:

• It’s striking how often programmers manage to hit all eight points by accident.
• Even more striking are the number of officially sanctioned projects that manage to do all eight things wrong.

It looks like there is plenty of room for managers (and programmers) to improve!

Industry data shows that outsourcing saves 20%.
Outsource the project above and it costs you $1.6 million.

Introduce Scrum locally and you can realize a 240% improvement.
Local Scrum for the above project only costs $0.83 million.

Source - Jeff Sutherland - 2006

• Pretty straight-forward concepts: Scrum Basics
• Another quick overview of Scrum: SCRUM in Under 10 Minutes
• Google Tech Talk with Jeff Sutherland: Scrum Tuning: Lessons learned from Scrum implementation… (This runs about an hour.)
• Goofy: Agile Development with Scrum: What they don’t tell you.
• Kinda long: Agile vs. Waterfall: A Tale of Two Teams

“Traditional business processes, in contrast, have the capacity to hide vast inefficiencies without anyone noticing – people just assume that a typical process takes days or weeks to complete.  They don’t realize that a lean process might accomplish the same thing in a matter of hours or even minutes. – The Toyota Way, p. 88

“The first question in TPS is always “What does the customer want from the process?” (Both the internal customer at the next steps in the production line and the final, external customer.)  This defines value.  Through the customer’s eyes, you can observe a process and separate the value-added steps from the non-value-added steps.  You can also apply this to any process – manufacturing, information, or service. – The Toyota Way, p. 27

1. Overproduction – Producing items for which there are no customer needs.
2. Waiting – Workers “standing around” waiting for the next processing step.
3. Conveyance – Moving work between different processes or storing work.
4. Over processing or incorrect processing – Taking unneeded steps to process the work or inefficient processing which produces defects.  This could also be caused by producing higher-quality products than needed.
5. Excess Inventory – This is harder to identify in the office environment, but think about work stacking up in one function area.  A constraint or inefficiency causes the work to “get stuck” at this bottleneck.  There may be some functions that should be outsourced to eliminate this “inventory” from your business processes.
6. Unnecessary Motion – Any wasted motion that is performed during the course of work.  Walking is an example of this. So are many meetings.
7. Defects – This refers to production defects that require rework, inspection, special handling time, extra cost, or lost revenue.
8. Unused Creativity – This is not in the core seven types of waste, but in the world of knowledge workers is a real form of waste.  This happens when you do not engage or listen to your workers.  It also happens when no time is set aside to think.  The cost can be high in terms of missed opportunities to save time, capture ideas, and improve skills.

As you look to improve the efficiency of your business process, examine everything in light of the eight wastes listed above.  Be brutally honest in your evaluation and then take positive action.  This will help you identify and eliminate the real pain points that are holding your business back.

I eagerly awaited my copy of this book. Like many others, I want to have control of all my life. I don’t see any reason why a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) can’t work at my work.

I will state up front that I have the hardest time with some of the language in the book, including the title. I just don’t use these words in my life and have a difficult, if not impossible time, saying them. Sure, I used to cuss back in my junior high days, but there was a point when I gave up that kind of talk. I won’t speculate why this kind of language was used, but it is my opinion that it will hurt adoption of ROWE in many organizations.

That being said, I am working in my organization to implement and promote the concepts of ROWE. I have challenged my own assumptions about work and how to measure it. Certainly, results are what are really important. I am able to telework one day a week. This has taken some pressure off my life. However, I would like complete control over when and how I do my work. I see the need in my team and colleagues, too. They are all trying to juggle life, work, and expectations. It would be much better if they could decide how and when to do their work, as long as they produce results. Results – it’s what every manager should want from their organization.

Cali and Jody do a great job of taking the reader through the changes at Best Buy. They also discuss the benefits of ROWE to both the employer and employee. The discussion of sludge is especially good. Any team will benefit from removing sludge. It is also good to hear about how ROWE has impacted people through the Voices from a ROWE sections after each chapter.

Finally, the total focus on results is the key to everything. Yes, a lot of what goes on in the workplace is looking busy. It always amazes me how little of the traditional workday is productive and how little of the communication is truly effective. In a ROWE individuals have control over their time and are measured by results. They now become focused on the important, communicate better, and are more productive.

I recommend, what I refer to as “The Introduction to ROWE Book” with the caution I stated above about the language. The book is packed with great ideas which should prompt valuable discussions. I hope that many workplaces will transform themselves into Results Only Work Environments. If they don’t, the world may just go there anyway.