August 25, 2015 at 12:25How to graze cats. A guide for programmers supervising other programmers
Hi, habrozhiteli!
We have again published the book of J. Rainwater.
"How to graze cats"- This is a book about leadership and leadership, about how to combine the first with the second. This is, if you like, a dictionary of difficult cases of IT project management. A programmer is like a cat that walks on its own. This is historically the case. That is why it is so difficult to be the leader of a team of programmers. Even if you were a brilliant and disciplined programmer a month ago and suddenly turned out to be a manager, you hardly know where to start, what leadership style to choose, how to hire and fire employees, hold meetings, and achieve timely tasks . In this case, you can not do without this book. Or maybe you are an experienced manager who wants to revise his leadership principles? Then, again, this book is for you. Regardless of age, gender and social status, it will help you strengthen your position as a programmer leader. The material is presented quite compactly and easily fits into the head. Standing in a bookstore and wondering what to buy, ask yourself one simple question: “Do I need to improve my leadership skills?” I believe you will answer “Yes”, which means that this book will be useful to you.
In this book, I intend to consider the whole range of tasks facing the leader. Take courage: to solve these problems is quite realistic, no matter what you are told. You are required to build a harmonious system of thinking, a kind of gestalt. What is gestalt? According to Webster's dictionary, it is “a structure with properties that cannot be obtained by simply adding up its elements.” If you translate this definition into an object-oriented programming language, which, I think, you know better than Webster’s presentation style, you get the following: your mental architecture has to go through serious transformations. Having inherited managerial skills, you will have to overload typical thinking parameters with new types and values - that is, roughly speaking, experience a polymorphism of your own character. Due to this, you encapsulate a completely new art form in your programming brain - the art of leadership and leadership. Significant differences can be traced between leadership and leadership. Both are needed, but leadership still has priority - although strong leadership skills naturally help to take new heights as a leader.
The timeliness of production and the quality of your company's software products are now in your hands, and I dare to hope that my book will bring some variety to your work. It is impossible, after all, to spend all the working days in exactly the same way!
Chapter 1. How to get used to the role of leader.
For the development of leadership skills, new techniques are needed - you will not have enough skills acquired while you were a programmer. In this chapter we will talk about how to adapt to a new position. To do this, I compiled a list of the most common personality types of programmers, which, of course, have one or another influence on the ability to manage the development process and direct it at a given rate. You should realize the amazing variability of the characters of subordinates, try to analyze their personal qualities and find individual approaches to them. In the end, you’re the main one - what’s wrong here?
Chapter 2. How to lead yourself.
Here you will have to get to the depths of your consciousness (do not be afraid - this is not so scary) and personally learn the principles of leadership. If you don’t learn to manage yourself, you won’t be able to take a leadership position among colleagues. As Winston Churchill said: “The closer we look at the past, the more insightful we become, predicting the future.” I recommend applying this aphorism to questions of introspection.
Chapter 3. How to lead the pack for yourself.
A leadership role involves the acquisition of new skills in addition to purely programmer skills. This chapter gives an overview of the main areas of activity of the leader, which should be paid special attention. Otherwise, you risk, succumbing to external influences, go in the wrong direction, and group members, like frightened cats, run away from you once. I absolutely do not want you, as Lord Byron used to say, to be among those "few whose souls emerge after a collapse of hope."
Chapter 4. How to organize success.
Here we will interrupt for some time a discussion about relationships with others. By raising the level of personal organization, you can take new heights in the administrative part. In addition, I advise you to study the organizational structure of your company and find ways to improve work efficiency. In this way, you can allocate time for the development of leadership qualities - in other words, for the fulfillment of your basic duties.
Chapter 5. How to conduct meetings.
When you were a programmer, you were probably used to not consulting with anyone other than yourself. Now this situation will have to change. No more meetings during morning shaving and admiring the handsome man in the mirror! You have to discuss further actions with your own kind (perhaps not as pretty as you) and, much worse, with people who, oddly enough, do not make a living by coding! As a meeting leader, you will need patience. Do not despair and do not forget the words of Leonardo da Vinci: "Impatience is the mother of stupidity."
Chapter 6. Philosophy and methods of a technical leader.
In this chapter I will discuss some technical principles and their philosophical justifications. It is one thing to make technical decisions as applied to your own code assignment, and quite another to do it for the entire department. It is possible that you managed to rise to the expert level in the field of technology, but this does not eliminate the need to analyze the consequences of making technical decisions on a corporate scale. Here we discuss architecture, design, and critical code reviews.
Chapter 7. Sunset of the leader.
All leaders (not only you, but also your superiors) are influenced by decadent leadership strategies, and sometimes, unfortunately, we really succumb to this influence. Some leadership styles do not allow constructive leadership, which means they should be avoided. Here I will describe the possible options for degradation of leadership qualities due to the adoption of an incorrect strategy and along the way will suggest ways out of the crisis.
Chapter 8. The rise of the leader.
Like software products that are built around robust architecture, leadership skills are cultivated based on the character traits of the leader. In this chapter, I will try to bring all aspects of leadership together. To paraphrase Emerson, "verbosity is a disaster for authors, encouraged by publishers, readers, and booksellers." More importantly, here I set out the basic principles of successful leadership and demonstrate how to set them up as a prerequisite for professional leadership.
Chapter 9. How to get along with bosses.
Please note: the chapter is called “Getting along with the bosses” and not “How to lead the bosses” - the latter is simply not possible. Nevertheless, to establish relations with those employees to whom you are accountable should be no less thorough than with your own subordinates. Subordination is not an empty word at all. Here we will discuss in detail the methods of forming a well-coordinated team of two people: you and your boss.
Chapter 10. Words without a song.
This chapter reveals a variety of topics, sometimes not related to each other, that do not always relate to the daily responsibilities of the programmer leader, but nevertheless are of considerable importance in the context of cat grazing. Leading a distributed development team, assessing trends in software development methodologies, and some other topics are discussed in this chapter. With its help, I hope it will be easier for you to turn chaos into order without losing your mind.
Afterword. Swimming again ...
In conclusion, I will cast out from the depths of my mind some wise instructions - at least in our shifted but no less beautiful world of software development, my words, I suppose, will pass for enduring wisdom.
Programmers will benefit from reading this book, turning into managers, group leaders, and, if you like higher posts, directors of software development. If you manage a relatively small group of programmers (consisting of, say, four to seven people), work in a small or medium company, are engaged in the development of several projects at the same time, which means that you have chosen the publication correctly. If, for example, you intend to build another global airline reservation system in 12 months, and you have 100 programmers in your submission, this book will probably not correspond to your scope. In this case, you better defend two master's theses: on project management and psychology. Good luck.
If you lead programmers - just lead - and you feel that leadership is replaced by the simple manipulation of projects and people, you need help. My book will help you. Perhaps you are an experienced manager who wants to revise his principles of leadership. Then this book is again for you.
I do not exclude the possibility that you finally got a raise that you had been counting on for a long time, or which you, on the contrary, had feared. So, many years of classes in writing intelligent code and designing outstanding programs have borne fruit. The authorities considered you a suitable candidate for the role of the head of programmers. You probably have a little less sleepwalking than your colleagues. It is unlikely, but still possible, that you are accustomed to wearing shirts with collars, and this circumstance played into your hands. Or someone quit. Be that as it may, welcome to the orderly ranks of the leaders of the groups of programmers. My book will be in such a situation very helpful.
Regardless of age, gender or social status, this book will help you strengthen your position as a programmer leader. It is quite compact, and the material fits easily enough in the head. Standing in a bookstore and wondering what to buy, ask yourself one simple question: “Do I need to improve my leadership skills?” I suppose you answer: “Yes,” which means that my book will be useful to you.
Hank Rainwater currently works at the Risk Sciences Group (Atlanta, Georgia), where he leads a team of programmers who develop software products for insurance companies. His path in science and engineering has been reading for more than three decades. At various times in his life, he was involved in Fortran programming using punch cards; teaching mathematics in college; research in the fields of radio astronomy, missile guidance systems and telemetry systems; coordination of the production of embedded digital control systems. As a specialist in the field of software development, Hank managed to work as a consultant, lecturer, programmer and leader of program development groups for various fields of human activity. Regarding education,
You can familiarize yourself with the book in more detail on the website of the publishing house.
Contents
Excerpt
For Habrozhitelami 25% discount on coupon - Herding Cats .
We have again published the book of J. Rainwater.
"How to graze cats"- This is a book about leadership and leadership, about how to combine the first with the second. This is, if you like, a dictionary of difficult cases of IT project management. A programmer is like a cat that walks on its own. This is historically the case. That is why it is so difficult to be the leader of a team of programmers. Even if you were a brilliant and disciplined programmer a month ago and suddenly turned out to be a manager, you hardly know where to start, what leadership style to choose, how to hire and fire employees, hold meetings, and achieve timely tasks . In this case, you can not do without this book. Or maybe you are an experienced manager who wants to revise his leadership principles? Then, again, this book is for you. Regardless of age, gender and social status, it will help you strengthen your position as a programmer leader. The material is presented quite compactly and easily fits into the head. Standing in a bookstore and wondering what to buy, ask yourself one simple question: “Do I need to improve my leadership skills?” I believe you will answer “Yes”, which means that this book will be useful to you.In this book, I intend to consider the whole range of tasks facing the leader. Take courage: to solve these problems is quite realistic, no matter what you are told. You are required to build a harmonious system of thinking, a kind of gestalt. What is gestalt? According to Webster's dictionary, it is “a structure with properties that cannot be obtained by simply adding up its elements.” If you translate this definition into an object-oriented programming language, which, I think, you know better than Webster’s presentation style, you get the following: your mental architecture has to go through serious transformations. Having inherited managerial skills, you will have to overload typical thinking parameters with new types and values - that is, roughly speaking, experience a polymorphism of your own character. Due to this, you encapsulate a completely new art form in your programming brain - the art of leadership and leadership. Significant differences can be traced between leadership and leadership. Both are needed, but leadership still has priority - although strong leadership skills naturally help to take new heights as a leader.
The timeliness of production and the quality of your company's software products are now in your hands, and I dare to hope that my book will bring some variety to your work. It is impossible, after all, to spend all the working days in exactly the same way!
Book structure
Chapter 1. How to get used to the role of leader.
For the development of leadership skills, new techniques are needed - you will not have enough skills acquired while you were a programmer. In this chapter we will talk about how to adapt to a new position. To do this, I compiled a list of the most common personality types of programmers, which, of course, have one or another influence on the ability to manage the development process and direct it at a given rate. You should realize the amazing variability of the characters of subordinates, try to analyze their personal qualities and find individual approaches to them. In the end, you’re the main one - what’s wrong here?
Chapter 2. How to lead yourself.
Here you will have to get to the depths of your consciousness (do not be afraid - this is not so scary) and personally learn the principles of leadership. If you don’t learn to manage yourself, you won’t be able to take a leadership position among colleagues. As Winston Churchill said: “The closer we look at the past, the more insightful we become, predicting the future.” I recommend applying this aphorism to questions of introspection.
Chapter 3. How to lead the pack for yourself.
A leadership role involves the acquisition of new skills in addition to purely programmer skills. This chapter gives an overview of the main areas of activity of the leader, which should be paid special attention. Otherwise, you risk, succumbing to external influences, go in the wrong direction, and group members, like frightened cats, run away from you once. I absolutely do not want you, as Lord Byron used to say, to be among those "few whose souls emerge after a collapse of hope."
Chapter 4. How to organize success.
Here we will interrupt for some time a discussion about relationships with others. By raising the level of personal organization, you can take new heights in the administrative part. In addition, I advise you to study the organizational structure of your company and find ways to improve work efficiency. In this way, you can allocate time for the development of leadership qualities - in other words, for the fulfillment of your basic duties.
Chapter 5. How to conduct meetings.
When you were a programmer, you were probably used to not consulting with anyone other than yourself. Now this situation will have to change. No more meetings during morning shaving and admiring the handsome man in the mirror! You have to discuss further actions with your own kind (perhaps not as pretty as you) and, much worse, with people who, oddly enough, do not make a living by coding! As a meeting leader, you will need patience. Do not despair and do not forget the words of Leonardo da Vinci: "Impatience is the mother of stupidity."
Chapter 6. Philosophy and methods of a technical leader.
In this chapter I will discuss some technical principles and their philosophical justifications. It is one thing to make technical decisions as applied to your own code assignment, and quite another to do it for the entire department. It is possible that you managed to rise to the expert level in the field of technology, but this does not eliminate the need to analyze the consequences of making technical decisions on a corporate scale. Here we discuss architecture, design, and critical code reviews.
Chapter 7. Sunset of the leader.
All leaders (not only you, but also your superiors) are influenced by decadent leadership strategies, and sometimes, unfortunately, we really succumb to this influence. Some leadership styles do not allow constructive leadership, which means they should be avoided. Here I will describe the possible options for degradation of leadership qualities due to the adoption of an incorrect strategy and along the way will suggest ways out of the crisis.
Chapter 8. The rise of the leader.
Like software products that are built around robust architecture, leadership skills are cultivated based on the character traits of the leader. In this chapter, I will try to bring all aspects of leadership together. To paraphrase Emerson, "verbosity is a disaster for authors, encouraged by publishers, readers, and booksellers." More importantly, here I set out the basic principles of successful leadership and demonstrate how to set them up as a prerequisite for professional leadership.
Chapter 9. How to get along with bosses.
Please note: the chapter is called “Getting along with the bosses” and not “How to lead the bosses” - the latter is simply not possible. Nevertheless, to establish relations with those employees to whom you are accountable should be no less thorough than with your own subordinates. Subordination is not an empty word at all. Here we will discuss in detail the methods of forming a well-coordinated team of two people: you and your boss.
Chapter 10. Words without a song.
This chapter reveals a variety of topics, sometimes not related to each other, that do not always relate to the daily responsibilities of the programmer leader, but nevertheless are of considerable importance in the context of cat grazing. Leading a distributed development team, assessing trends in software development methodologies, and some other topics are discussed in this chapter. With its help, I hope it will be easier for you to turn chaos into order without losing your mind.
Afterword. Swimming again ...
In conclusion, I will cast out from the depths of my mind some wise instructions - at least in our shifted but no less beautiful world of software development, my words, I suppose, will pass for enduring wisdom.
Who should read this book and why?
Programmers will benefit from reading this book, turning into managers, group leaders, and, if you like higher posts, directors of software development. If you manage a relatively small group of programmers (consisting of, say, four to seven people), work in a small or medium company, are engaged in the development of several projects at the same time, which means that you have chosen the publication correctly. If, for example, you intend to build another global airline reservation system in 12 months, and you have 100 programmers in your submission, this book will probably not correspond to your scope. In this case, you better defend two master's theses: on project management and psychology. Good luck.
If you lead programmers - just lead - and you feel that leadership is replaced by the simple manipulation of projects and people, you need help. My book will help you. Perhaps you are an experienced manager who wants to revise his principles of leadership. Then this book is again for you.
I do not exclude the possibility that you finally got a raise that you had been counting on for a long time, or which you, on the contrary, had feared. So, many years of classes in writing intelligent code and designing outstanding programs have borne fruit. The authorities considered you a suitable candidate for the role of the head of programmers. You probably have a little less sleepwalking than your colleagues. It is unlikely, but still possible, that you are accustomed to wearing shirts with collars, and this circumstance played into your hands. Or someone quit. Be that as it may, welcome to the orderly ranks of the leaders of the groups of programmers. My book will be in such a situation very helpful.
Regardless of age, gender or social status, this book will help you strengthen your position as a programmer leader. It is quite compact, and the material fits easily enough in the head. Standing in a bookstore and wondering what to buy, ask yourself one simple question: “Do I need to improve my leadership skills?” I suppose you answer: “Yes,” which means that my book will be useful to you.
about the author
Hank Rainwater currently works at the Risk Sciences Group (Atlanta, Georgia), where he leads a team of programmers who develop software products for insurance companies. His path in science and engineering has been reading for more than three decades. At various times in his life, he was involved in Fortran programming using punch cards; teaching mathematics in college; research in the fields of radio astronomy, missile guidance systems and telemetry systems; coordination of the production of embedded digital control systems. As a specialist in the field of software development, Hank managed to work as a consultant, lecturer, programmer and leader of program development groups for various fields of human activity. Regarding education,
You can familiarize yourself with the book in more detail on the website of the publishing house.
Contents
Excerpt
For Habrozhitelami 25% discount on coupon - Herding Cats .
