Tagged Questions

1
vote
1answer
263 views

How to protect yourself as DevLead from political management games [closed]

As a developer/DevLead you've got your focus on developing software and you may be quite good in it. Developers are, however, in my observation often not so good at playing political games. This ...
12
votes
5answers
622 views

How to start a development project when there are too many potential stakeholders

I've just taken on a new job at a college as (the sole) Web application developer. The college has a number of disparate but all pretty badly coded legacy systems. Mostly built in PHP they deal with ...
-2
votes
2answers
128 views

How to put worker out side of bad tool [closed]

In the interest of career advancement, I've strived continuously to learn new languages and tools. I was promoted to senior as a direct result of these efforts. Afterwards, I've encountered problems ...
130
votes
14answers
6k views

How do you balance between “do it right” and “do it ASAP” in your daily work?

I find myself pondering over this question from time to time, again and again. I want to do things the right way: to write clean, understandable and correct code that is easy to maintain. However, ...
3
votes
3answers
478 views

What kind of programs/solutions can only be written with OOP or are too hard to achieve without it? [closed]

Paraphrasing a recent question: What is Object Oriented Programming ill-suited for? I would like to ask the opposite question: What kind of programs cannot be written unless you use OOP? What kind ...
12
votes
3answers
518 views

How can we unify business goals and technical goals?

Some background I work at a small startup: 4 devs, 1 designer, and 2 non-technical co-founders, one who provides funding, and the other who handles day-to-day management and sales. Our company ...
3
votes
1answer
620 views

What to do when the lead programmer is doing almost zero work? [closed]

I am currently working on a project with a small dev team. The problem is that the lead programmer is "working remotely", and does virtually no work. We have missed every deadline, and at this rate we ...
6
votes
5answers
229 views

How to talk to management about using integrated project management/bug tracking

Background: I have just started at a new shop, where there is one other developer. This shop was not historically a software shop, and their software development process really shows it. They ...
5
votes
6answers
335 views

What are best practices when switching between projects/coming back to projects frequently?

The nature of my job is that I have to switch back and forth between projects every few weeks. I find that one of the biggest impediments to my productivity is the ramp-up time to getting all the ...
1
vote
3answers
573 views

How to effectively find, hire and work with contractors?

I know there are some questions that are sort of similar to this one, but I don't think any of them really ask or answer my set of questions. A bit of background: Approximately 6 mos ago, I went ...
0
votes
1answer
461 views

What is the project manager's responsibility for the failed project? [closed]

Some time ago I was involved into a so called death march project. In spite of the Brook's law, I was hired when project was in the yellow zone. Several weeks after I started on my new job, I've been ...
148
votes
31answers
21k views

Is it unusual for a small company (15 developers) not to use managed source/version control?

It's not really a technical question, but there are several other questions here about source control and best practice. The company I work for (which will remain anonymous) uses a network share to ...
6
votes
1answer
319 views

Best way to visualize/keep track of different environments (test,int,production)

I have several application servers for different purposes (production, integration, test, etc.) with a database that also contain more or less different data states (test database, production clone, ...
3
votes
1answer
177 views

randomized management?

I saw an article a few months ago that explain a company's practice of randomly choosing management via lottery. The employee would manage his peers for some fixed amount of time until the next ...
6
votes
5answers
582 views

How to deal with Project Leader who doesn't involve himself in project in any way? [closed]

Our division is a small offshore development-only unit (not more than 25 members) but we develop many projects. Our main focus is development. Developers are grouped under Project Leaders, and they in ...
6
votes
4answers
407 views

What is the best practice to deliver a task to a developer?

As a very new software PM/Team Leader, I just want to know what is the best practice of a way to deliver a full required information about a task to the developers in my team. In this time, I just ...
2
votes
2answers
109 views

Recommend self-talk logger software or technique

I observed that discussing with your self about a problem is a fairly common practice. I find it is even better to write what you think. Not only it forces you to materialize your problem, but the ...
23
votes
5answers
1k views

How do you convince management to “invest” in unit tests?

How did you convince your manager to let you unit test? By "use", I mean being allowed to develop, check-in to source control and maintain the unit tests over time, etc. Typical management ...
2
votes
7answers
339 views

Can you be a programmer and Business manager at the same time?

I think I'm struggled in some situation! We are a new start-up with 5 employees (2 Programmers). I'm the Technical Manager and that was so fine! Now I can see the fingers point to me to take the ...
-2
votes
2answers
205 views

Issue Management

I know this isn't about programming but i should learn "Issue Management" What is Issue Management? I read Wikipedi page but i don't understand very well. Can you tell me Issue Management and if ...
6
votes
10answers
1k views

Advice on Project Management Software? [closed]

I was wondering, does anybody work as part of a team, or as a project manager who highly recommends a certain project management solution (self-hosted or otherwise)? Ideally I want something where I ...
5
votes
3answers
167 views

Strategic and Tactical direction for IT teams

In their influential team leadership book, "Peopleware", DeMarco and Lister suggest that managers should provide "strategic but not tactical direction" for their IT teams. This is intriguing, but ...
16
votes
12answers
759 views

What makes Agile software development so appealing?

Agile software development is becoming a pretty fun buzzword these days. As a developer, I understand the pragmatic value of iterative development, but (most often) it isn't a developers choice to ...
12
votes
4answers
9k views

What is an example of a good SMART objective for a programmer? [duplicate]

Following on from this question, I wondered if folk might be able to suggest some samples of what might be considered a "good" objective in a periodic review cycle for a programmer? Let's define ...
9
votes
7answers
600 views

What is the proper relationship between the software developer and the business customer?

IT professionals are experts who are trusted with the IT assets of a business or organisation. As trusted professionals we have responsibilities that extend beyond things that a non-IT customer can be ...
15
votes
10answers
2k views

How can I quickly weed out “copy & paste” coders?

I need a way to filter out resumes of folks who just copy-and-paste code then hope it works, and check it in if it does. All this happens without having an understanding (or care) to understand the ...
5
votes
6answers
393 views

What processes do you follow when developing code for large corporations?

I'm interested in learning about any process you need to follow when coding for a large corporation. For example, it would be nice to see a little insight into how you (or your manager) handles ...
10
votes
5answers
1k views

Project Proposal templates/requirements [closed]

When drafting a project proposal, do you use any standard template? What features/information should be included? What is nice to have included? What sort of boiler plate information should I shove ...
15
votes
1answer
294 views

Guiding Management to the Correct Decision

My supervisor (also a developer) and I have a running joke about writing a book called "Managing From Beneath: Subversively Guiding Management to the Right Decision" and including a number of ...
5
votes
5answers
2k views

Moving from technical leadership into management?

Is there a career path for moving from a 'Technical Lead' position to a more management-focussed role, such as that of a project manager? Are there any skill-sets common to both that can be leveraged? ...
29
votes
12answers
2k views

How possible is it to estimate time for programming projects?

It seems like it is nearly impossible to get close because you could run into any number of issues and things not first anticipated. How close can we be expected to reasonably estimate? Our PM wants ...
20
votes
14answers
878 views

How managers choose programming languages

It's not a secret to anyone that managers can and often will impose the programming language that will be used for a project. Being a programmer myself, I have never been able to understand this. ...
19
votes
26answers
606 views

How to deal with the developers refusing to use certain technologies or tools?

How to deal with the developers refusing to use certain technologies or tools? Note: Good help is hard to find, so answer 'Let them go' doesn't work in this case. Besides, they are very good in what ...