And once again about the responsibility
How long everyone knows that "all the songs are about love", so I am sure that all the articles and books on the topic of management, one way or another, are about responsibility. But, as the songs do not subside, so the works on management are all written and written. So I decided once again to “drive through” on this topic and tell a sad, but instructive story about manager Andrey: what happened to him and what conclusions he made from this.
There lived a manager, Andrew. He was not the manager, not the team leader. In general, he had a team of three or four programmers and everyone in the company called him the smart word "architect". Next to him, in the next department, the salesman Asya lived - also a manager. And the whole charismatic "general" Vladimir ran the whole of this company.
By the way, Andrew was not so stupid. By the time of our story, he and his team had already created a large system for the company (read a number of projects), which was already working, and soon came into circulation. And Asya, professionally, she was very personal with a number of projects (she later helped bring the Andrei system into circulation). And the “general” Vladimir was completely and quite literate. In general, everyone was good and smart.
But once Vladimir decided to develop a new large system, steeper than the previous one. And he appointed Asya the manager of this project. And Andrei in that project was a timlide- “architect”.
')
And the work began to boil (though, as Andrei understood later, this was not at all Agile). Requirements were collected and analyzed. Based on them, the code was written. All this time, Andrei consciously “suppressed the manager in himself”, giving this role to the officially appointed Asa, although she had less experience in managing the development of large systems, and she was a novice in the subject area. But in general, the work went on somehow.
And then came the cherished deadline. Vladimir looked at the system and saw several things that were not expected - well, we all know how it happens (I said that it was not Agile). It became clear to everyone that the project had failed. I must say, it was thought that this was a rather important project, and therefore Vladimir was very unhappy.
According to the results of the project, a retrospectiveexecution was arranged. And it seems that, according to all the rules, in everything (well, let's say, to a greater degree), Asya was to blame for the manager. But no!
At theexecution retrospective Asya escaped with only a slight fright. And Andrei guessed that all the internal, not voiced expectations of Vladimir were directed precisely to him (why it happened so - not in this story). And, despite the fact that Vladimir every now and again said that “he, Vladimir, is himself to blame for distributing duties and all the main responsibilities on him”, Andrei understood “that now they will beat him ... And maybe even feet.
So it happened.
Asya was simply removed from the project, in principle, without gaining anything, but without losing anything - as we said, she got off with a slight fright. But Andrei and his team from this time began to "tighten the screws." Andrew himself fell into political disgrace, and his team was put on a new “motivation system” (well, this is when programmers areunderpaid , they pay their salaries flexibly so that they “work better”).
This, I believe, is a typical story for many medium-sized companies.
Well, what conclusions did Andrei draw from all this?
Conclusion 1: Responsible is not the one who is named as such, and not even the one who makes decisions, but the one who bears the burden of consequences for the decisions made.
For, as Wikipedia writes to us, “Responsibility is a subjective duty to be responsible for actions and actions, as well as their consequences.” Not just “answer”, but “answer for… consequences”!
In our history, it was Andrew. Or rather, Andrei is much more than Asya, the official project manager (presumably, Vladimir at his level also suffered).
Conclusion 2: No matter how many people from the management say that all responsibility is solely on himself - this is not true.
When the five-eyed dog Pi ** ec comes (we read Pelevin), he will cover everyone with his mighty paw: “from small to large”, “the just and the unjust”. In other words, if a major failure happens, like the project’s debris, all its participants will suffer from this - from “tops” to “infantry”.
Often, in more or less large projects, managers are entrusted to “play” with much more money than they can then restore responsibly (from their own, albeit considerable, salary). Therefore, with all his desire, even the “noblest” manager cannot alone bear all the responsibility fully - purely physically.
The most interesting thing is that this imbalance occurs not because of someone's lie or malicious intent, but due to an elementary, but, apparently, very strong delusion. Both Vladimir, Asya and even Andrei repeatedly said: “all responsibility is on me” - and no one could really protect programmers from the consequences of failure (whether this is necessary is also beyond the framework of this story).
Conclusion 3: Never do your "circle of concerns" already your "circle of influence."
That is, never do less of what you can really do (you can read about the circle of influence and the circle of concerns from Stephen Covey).
In our history, Andrei understood a lot and even knew how much in terms of managing software development, but, nevertheless, he consciously “suppressed the manager in himself”. He did less of what he could do. And, apparently, the “general” Vladimir felt this - that is why all his main complaints were specifically towards Andrei. No, this in no way justifies Vladimir - to allow such distortions, nevertheless, unprofessionally. But it’s about Andrei - life has become more complicated for him and blaming Vladimir’s unprofessionalism is somehow non-active and, in any case, late.
Well, in general, that's all. The fact that Andrei took further, if possible, will tell in the next story.
And finally, what to read:
Story
There lived a manager, Andrew. He was not the manager, not the team leader. In general, he had a team of three or four programmers and everyone in the company called him the smart word "architect". Next to him, in the next department, the salesman Asya lived - also a manager. And the whole charismatic "general" Vladimir ran the whole of this company.
By the way, Andrew was not so stupid. By the time of our story, he and his team had already created a large system for the company (read a number of projects), which was already working, and soon came into circulation. And Asya, professionally, she was very personal with a number of projects (she later helped bring the Andrei system into circulation). And the “general” Vladimir was completely and quite literate. In general, everyone was good and smart.
But once Vladimir decided to develop a new large system, steeper than the previous one. And he appointed Asya the manager of this project. And Andrei in that project was a timlide- “architect”.
')
And the work began to boil (though, as Andrei understood later, this was not at all Agile). Requirements were collected and analyzed. Based on them, the code was written. All this time, Andrei consciously “suppressed the manager in himself”, giving this role to the officially appointed Asa, although she had less experience in managing the development of large systems, and she was a novice in the subject area. But in general, the work went on somehow.
And then came the cherished deadline. Vladimir looked at the system and saw several things that were not expected - well, we all know how it happens (I said that it was not Agile). It became clear to everyone that the project had failed. I must say, it was thought that this was a rather important project, and therefore Vladimir was very unhappy.
According to the results of the project, a retrospective
At the
So it happened.
Asya was simply removed from the project, in principle, without gaining anything, but without losing anything - as we said, she got off with a slight fright. But Andrei and his team from this time began to "tighten the screws." Andrew himself fell into political disgrace, and his team was put on a new “motivation system” (well, this is when programmers are
This, I believe, is a typical story for many medium-sized companies.
findings
Well, what conclusions did Andrei draw from all this?
Conclusion 1: Responsible is not the one who is named as such, and not even the one who makes decisions, but the one who bears the burden of consequences for the decisions made.
For, as Wikipedia writes to us, “Responsibility is a subjective duty to be responsible for actions and actions, as well as their consequences.” Not just “answer”, but “answer for… consequences”!
In our history, it was Andrew. Or rather, Andrei is much more than Asya, the official project manager (presumably, Vladimir at his level also suffered).
Conclusion 2: No matter how many people from the management say that all responsibility is solely on himself - this is not true.
When the five-eyed dog Pi ** ec comes (we read Pelevin), he will cover everyone with his mighty paw: “from small to large”, “the just and the unjust”. In other words, if a major failure happens, like the project’s debris, all its participants will suffer from this - from “tops” to “infantry”.
Often, in more or less large projects, managers are entrusted to “play” with much more money than they can then restore responsibly (from their own, albeit considerable, salary). Therefore, with all his desire, even the “noblest” manager cannot alone bear all the responsibility fully - purely physically.
The most interesting thing is that this imbalance occurs not because of someone's lie or malicious intent, but due to an elementary, but, apparently, very strong delusion. Both Vladimir, Asya and even Andrei repeatedly said: “all responsibility is on me” - and no one could really protect programmers from the consequences of failure (whether this is necessary is also beyond the framework of this story).
Conclusion 3: Never do your "circle of concerns" already your "circle of influence."
That is, never do less of what you can really do (you can read about the circle of influence and the circle of concerns from Stephen Covey).
In our history, Andrei understood a lot and even knew how much in terms of managing software development, but, nevertheless, he consciously “suppressed the manager in himself”. He did less of what he could do. And, apparently, the “general” Vladimir felt this - that is why all his main complaints were specifically towards Andrei. No, this in no way justifies Vladimir - to allow such distortions, nevertheless, unprofessionally. But it’s about Andrei - life has become more complicated for him and blaming Vladimir’s unprofessionalism is somehow non-active and, in any case, late.
Well, in general, that's all. The fact that Andrei took further, if possible, will tell in the next story.
And finally, what to read:
- Wikipedia, Responsibility .
- Stephen Covey, 7 skills of highly effective people .
- Victor Pelevin, Generation "P" .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/119017/
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