… I guarantee you’re risking to miss out on nuggets of wisdom that can help you become a more rounded IT professional. If you don’t read it, someone else might come along who have read the book – and s/he will be doing your job better than you. You don’t want that, do you?
Here’s the book written by Jim Brosseau:
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Software Teamwork: Taking Ownership for Success (Paperback) |
Jim Brosseau was my instructor when I was taking my Bachelor’s degree from BCIT. Back then he taught us the software development and software management courses. I thought at first these courses will be the usual canned courses:
– read the book
– count your lines of code
– memorize the COCOMO software model.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. He taught us the important practical stuff:
– How do you really manage projects?
– How do you really manage risks?
– How do you plan to go to the moon and back in 5 days – with all contingencies in place?
What is there to learn from Jim’s book? I haven’t read the book yet (flipping page 2 right now, Jim!), but knowing him, I know he will remind you that we may be programmers/developers/technologists/<insert buzz word or energizer bunny synonyms here>, but we are still human. We kind of forget that. And we forget that there will always be a human factor in any software project that should never be overlooked or we risk failing the project and shortchanging everyone who put their stakes in it.
Matthew Heusser has put it perfectly:
If your desire is to effect change or have more influence on a software team,
you could either stumble around in the dark for a few years, experimenting with
different techniques, or you could buy, read, and apply the techniques in this
book. This choice, of course, is up to you
Not yet convinced? Take a test drive. Jim offers a preview of the book from his Clarrus site. Please take advantage of it: http://www.clarrus.com/resources/software_teamwork.htm
If you still feel you’re taking the plunge with this book, start with baby steps. You still have hope. Start with Compendium. People tips anyone? Maybe start with Patient Team Building (Compendium 4.13). Just remember to be patient.
On a side note, we had lunch today, and he gave me a copy of his book. I “begged” him to sign it for me. He does, and his *note reads:
Donabel,
This is to get back at you for all those huge assignments.
Jim Brosseau
Wow, this is how he will always remember me. Oh well. Lessons learned. At least I made an impact then ?
Jim Brosseau is one of my best instructors, an acquaintance, a friend, and a mentor.
*Update:
Finally am able to upload a picture of Jim’s message.
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