Taking Control of Your Work

8/2/2019 Taking Control of Your Work

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Taking Control of Your Personal

Responsibilities, Commitments & Processes

at Work

Collated from Chapter 7 of

Reflections on ManagementBy: Watts S Humphry


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Outline

Self Improvement Strategies

Time Management Strategies

Managing Schedule Pressures

Responsible Professional Behavior

Managing Commitments

Achieving Lasting Satisfaction

Path of Excellence

Conclusion


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Personal Process as a strategy

John Smiths process of coaching Maurice Greene (1999 Olympics)

Divided ten-second run into 11 phases.

Analyzed each phase and showed Greene how to maximize hisperformance in every phase.

This became Greenes defined and measured personal runningprocess.

Maurice established world record for 100-meter in 1999 AthensOlympics

For several years he was known to be the fastest person alive.

Important Lessons:

Simply working hard is not good enough for improvement

Must also have a defined, measured and planned process tosupport your improvement journey


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Taking Charge as a strategy

Winners take charge whereas Losers look for excusesto justify their loss.

Common excuses when developers face challenges Unreasonable schedule goals from management

Changing customer requirements Too much bureaucracy

Too many distractions / meetings etc.

How can you (developer) take charge and not be a

victim? First, learn how to manage yourself

Second, learn to convince management to let you manageyourself


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Improvement Strategy Case study

Watts was expected to learn shooting when hejoined US Navy

Initial shooting scores were extremely poor forWatts

Coach analyzed the shooting process being usedby Watts and recommended a change

Implementing the change (Switching to Left

Hand) lead to a near perfect score for Watts Simply trying harder did not yield value, but

changing the way did


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Personal Improvement Process

1. Establish initial performance goal

2. Measure current performance

3. Analyze current process

4. Adjust / Improve process5. Use improved process

6. Again measure performance againstgoal

7. Recycle to step 4 until goal is achieved8. Recycle to step 1 to set new goals and

continue improving


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Value of knowing Task Hours

Sounds familiar ? A 2-3 days task ended up taking 1-2 weeks instead

Probable causes Estimation error

Inadequate task hours

Probable actions in case a task is behind schedule Try finishing it faster (Take short-cuts)

Find ways to increase task hours

You need your personal data for Estimated vs. Actual - To improve estimation accuracy

Where did your invest time? - To eliminate interruptionsand maximize your task hours


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Task Interruption - Sources

Switching to an unplanned task

Mails / Telephone calls / Walk ins

Peers / Customers asking for help

A coffee or rest break

Network / Equipment problems

Going for Training / Meetings

Consulting documents / web search

External issue (Bandh/Strike)


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Improving Task Hours

Strategies to minimize unplanned interruptions Establish quite time in the team

Use issue log to just record the issue (For later action)

Leverage time log as a tool to track and improve

To ensure quality, taking breaks is important Make sure to allocate time for following:

Planning & Tracking

Metrics Collection & Analysis

Personal Improvement By allocating 100% of time to principle job role, you

will be missing an opportunity to improve


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Schedule Pressure Why?

Typical responses in the face of schedule pressure

Take short cuts or use poor methods

Experiment with an untested technology

Imagine Phantom problems and multiply pressure

What causes the schedule pressure?

Our natural desire to accomplish what managementwants.

Normal self-doubt about our ability to perform.

Jumping into execution without creating a strategyand plan also enhances the self-doubt.


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Preventing Schedule Pressure

Analyze the work to be done

Devise a strategy for doing the work

Estimate the sizes of the products to be built

Use productivity data to translate sizes into effort

Use effort and resource information to create a plan

Involve management in project launch using initial plan

Track schedule and keep the plan up-to-date

In case of a major change in assumptions viz. scope orresources, re-plan & re-launch with managementinvolvement


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Time Management Strategy

You will likely spend your time this week much the way you spent time last

week.

To make realistic plans, you have to track the way you spend time.

To make more accurate plans, determine where your previous plans were

in error and what you could have done better. To manage your time, plan your time and then follow the plan.

Categorize your major activities.

Record the time spent on each major activity.

Record time in a standard way.

Keep the time data in a convenient place.


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Responsible Behavior

When faced with a challenging problem, here areprobable responses1. We can get emotional, cry, wave our arms, or blame

other people.

2. We can ignore the problem and keep grinding aheadin the hope that things will somehow work out.

3. We can step up to the challenge, look around forwhat we can constructively do, and then work to getit done.

Being responsible implies that our response willbe more like #3 above.


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Irresponsible Behavior ExampleProject Assignment

Judy and two members assigned a project to change finance system to make it compliant with laws which

become effective in Jan 2012.

Judy and team's response

Without detailed estimation and planning, Judy and team express an opinion to management that project

is not achievable.

Management's response

Management overrides Judy's opinion with their opinion regarding estimates and pushes Judy and team

to execute the project.

Results

Project did not finish on time. Judy and team blamed the Congress for enacting the law at a short notice

and Management for ignoring their opinion.

What would have been Responsible Behavior for Judy and Management?

Judy and team do detailed estimation and present their estimates to management prior to project launch.

Management understands the reality of estimates and takes appropriate action viz. providing required

resources to Judy and team so that they can finish on time.


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Responsible Behavior Example

A NY engineer realizes at 2 PM on Friday that he needs to travelduring weekend for an urgent meeting in CA.

He walks to FM's office and finds him in a meeting. He talks to theFM's assistant and is not able to get her to arrange for FM to comeout of the meeting.

Realizing the importance of need for travel, he approaches hismanager for help

Manager also fails to get FM's assistant's help for getting anaudience with the FM.

Manager approaches the director to speak directly with the FM.

Director interrupts the FM and helps to arrange the travel advanceon time.

This is a good example of everyone involved handling a problemwith sense of responsibility.


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Irresponsible Behavior - Pitfalls

We don't behave responsibly as we are afraid

that we won't be listened to by management.

Delaying the sharing of facts does not change

the facts and only makes the problem more

difficult to solve for everyone involved.

Lacking the nerve to state the facts is

irresponsible behavior.


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Sharing Facts Works - ExampleEpisode

Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weatherfor several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell.The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on allactivities.

Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, Light, bearing on the starboardbow.

Is it steady or moving astern? the captain called out.

Lookout replied, Steady, captain, which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that

ship. The captain then called to the signalman, Signal that ship: We are on a collision course, advise you

change course 20 degrees.

Back came a signal, Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees.

The captain said, Send, Im a captain, change course 20 degrees.

Im a seaman second class, came the reply. You had better change course 20 degrees.

By that time, the captain was furious. He spat out, Send, Im a battleship. Change course 20degrees.

Back came a flashing light, Im a lighthouse.

We changed course.

Lessons

If you know the facts, make these facts clear to management. If you think of yourself as alighthouse, all these executive battleships (managers) will have to pay attention.

Cited in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - By Stephen Covey


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Managing Commitments

Analyze the job to be performed before agreeingto the commitment. (What?)

Support the commitment with a plan. (Who?

When?) Document the agreement. (It helps in case

questions come up during the course ofengagement)

If unable to meet the commitment, promptly tellthe other party and try to minimize the impact onthat person.


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Failed Commitments Hurt

When work required exceeds time available, It leads to

Failure to meet commitments.

Misplaced priorities.

Poor quality work.

Loss of trust.

Loss of respect for your judgment.

The most important single asset a software engineercan have is a reputation for meeting commitments.

For people to trust your word, you need to say whatyou plan to do and then do what you say.


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Achieving Satisfaction

Satisfaction that you derive from status or

securing a position is at best temporary and

short lived as status changes all the time.

Satisfaction that you derive from what you

have done well or accomplished will be lasting

in nature.

Focusing on doing a job well will generate a

lasting sense of pride and fulfillment in you.


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Path of Excellence

Your progress towards excellence will depend on yourability to build your personal skills.

Make practice a part of every project and learn to measureand observe your own work.

Treat every project as a way to build talent rather thanmerely treating your talent as a way to build projects.

While our carefully developed strategies may sometimes godown in flames, a new and more rewarding opportunitymay show up in the ashes. The key is to keep an open mind

and to keep looking. In life, we all reach the same end, so we need to

concentrate on the journey and not the end.

Pursue the path of excellence, it would be worthwhile.


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Concluding Thoughts Make personal improvement a key focus area for yourself.

Use disciplined methods to improve your work. (PSP methods canhelp)

Strive for team excellence. (TSP methods can help): Rational (Metrics Driven) approach to estimation, planning and tracking

Timely & Responsible sharing of facts

Effective management of task hours (Time Logging) Effective management of delivered quality

Draw immensely lasting satisfaction from doing your job well

Constantly grow your hunger for excellence

Keep learning

Keep improving Keep enhancing your contributions

Keep growing

Most importantly, have fun along this journey


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SOME METRICS FROMINDUSTRY SURVEY

BENEFITSFROM DEPLOYING PSP & TSP


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TSP Driven Improvements 1 of 2


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TSP Driven Improvements 2 of 2

Taking Control of Your Work

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