How to feed cats. Manual for programmers leading other programmers
Hi, Habrozhiteli!
We have again published the book of J. Rainwater.
“How to feed cats” is a book about leadership and leadership, about how to combine the first with the second. This, if you will, is a dictionary of difficult cases for managing IT projects. A programmer is like a cat that walks by itself. So historically. That is why it is so difficult to be a team leader. Even if you were a brilliant and disciplined programmer a month ago and suddenly found yourself in the role of a manager, you hardly know where to start, which leadership style to choose, how to hire and fire employees, hold meetings, achieve tasks in time. . In this case, without this book you can not do. Or maybe you - an experienced manager who wants to revise their principles of leadership? 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 quite compact and easy to fit 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 will answer: “Yes” - which means this book will be worthless for you.
In this book, I intend to consider the full range of tasks facing the leader. Take heart: to solve these problems is quite realistic, no matter what they tell you. You are required to build a coherent system of thinking, a kind of gestalt. What is Gestalt? According to the Webster’s dictionary, this is “a structure with properties that cannot be obtained by simply adding its elements”. If you translate this definition into an object-oriented programming language, which, I believe, you own better than the Webster's style of presentation, the following will turn out: your mental architecture will have to undergo major transformations. Having inherited the managerial skills, you will have to overload the typical thinking parameters with new types and values - that is, roughly speaking, to experience your own character polymorphism. Due to this, you encapsulate in your programming brain a completely new kind of art - the art of leadership and leadership. There are significant differences between leadership and leadership. Both are needed, but leadership still takes precedence - although strong leadership skills naturally help take new heights in a leadership role.
The timeliness of production and the quality of the software products of your company are now in your hands, and I dare to hope that my book will bring some variety to your work. It is impossible, in the end, to spend all working days absolutely the same!
')
Chapter 1. How to get used to the role of leader.
Leadership development requires new tricks - the skills gained when you were a programmer will not be enough. In this chapter we will talk about how to adapt to the new position. For this, I have compiled a list of the most common personality types of programmers who, naturally, have a certain impact on the ability to manage the development process and direct it along a given course. You should realize the amazing variability of the characters of subordinates, try to analyze their personal qualities and find individual approaches towards them. In the end, you are in charge - what’s wrong with that?
Chapter 2. How to manage yourself.
Here you will have to get to the depths of your consciousness (do not be afraid - this is not so scary) and personally assimilate the principles of leadership. If you don’t learn to control yourself, it’s impossible to take a leadership position among colleagues. As Winston Churchill used to say: “The more closely we look into the past, the sharper we become, predicting the future.” This aphorism is recommended to apply to the questions of introspection.
Chapter 3. How to lead the pack.
The leadership role implies the acquisition of new skills in addition to purely programmer skills. This chapter provides an overview of the main areas of activity of the leader, which should be given special attention. Otherwise, you run the risk of succumbing to outside influences, to go in the wrong direction, and the staff of the group, like frightened cats, run from you once and for all. I absolutely do not want you, as Lord Byron used to say, to be among those "few whose souls emerge after the collapse of hopes."
Chapter 4. How to organize success.
Here we will interrupt for some time the discussion about relationships with others. Increasing the level of personal organization, you can take new heights of 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 will be able to set aside time for the development of leadership qualities - in other words, for fulfilling your main duties.
Chapter 5. How to conduct meetings.
When you were a programmer, you probably got used to not consulting with anyone but 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 (maybe not as pretty as you) and, much worse, with people who, oddly enough, do not make a living by coding! As a leader in meetings, 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 look at some technical principles and their philosophical underpinnings. It’s one thing to make technical decisions with regard to your own code assignment, and quite another to do it for the whole department. It is possible that you managed to ascend to the expert level in the field of technology, but this does not eliminate the need to analyze the consequences of technical decision-making on a corporate scale. Here we discuss the issues of architecture, design, and critical code reviews.
Chapter 7. Sunset leader.
All leaders (not only you, but also your superiors) are subject to the influence of decadent leadership strategies, and sometimes we, unfortunately, are really influenced by this influence. Some leadership styles do not allow constructive leadership, which means they should be avoided. Here I will describe possible options for the degradation of leadership qualities due to the adoption of an incorrect strategy and at the same time I will propose ways out of the crisis.
The head of the 8. Rise leader.
Like software products that are constructed on the basis of robust architecture, leadership qualities are cultivated on the basis of character traits inherent in the leader. In this chapter I will try to reduce all aspects of leadership to one. 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 their methods of adjustment as a necessary condition for professional leadership.
Chapter 9. How to get along with the authorities.
Please note: the chapter is called “How to get along with the authorities,” and not “As a supervisor,” - the latter is simply not possible. Nevertheless, to build relationships with those employees to whom you report should be no less careful than with your own subordinates. Subordination is not an empty word. Here we will discuss in detail the methods of forming a cohesive team of two people: you and your boss.
Chapter 10. Words without a song.
This chapter covers the most diverse, sometimes unrelated, topics that do not always relate to the daily responsibilities of the programmer’s leader, but are nonetheless important in the context of grazing cats. The management of a distributed group of developers, an assessment of trends in the development of 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 the chaos in order and not go crazy.
Afterword. Back to the sea ...
In conclusion, I will spew out a few wise instructions from the depths of consciousness - at least in our shifted, but therefore no less wonderful world of software development, my words will, I suppose, descend for everlasting wisdom.
From reading this book will benefit programmers who have become managers, team leaders and, if you like more senior positions, directors of software development. If you manage a relatively small group of programmers (consisting, say, of four to seven people), work in a small or medium-sized company, are busy developing several projects at the same time - it means that you have chosen the publication correctly. If, say, you are going to build another global air ticket booking system in 12 months, and 100 programmers are subordinate to you, this book will probably not correspond to your scope. In this case, you better defend two master's theses: project management and psychology. Good luck.
If you lead programmers — precisely, you lead — and you feel that leadership is replaced by simple manipulation of projects and people, you need help. My book will help you. Maybe you are an experienced manager who wants to revise his principles of leadership. Then this book is again for you.
I do not exclude that you finally got a promotion, which you had been hoping for a long time or, on the contrary, feared. So, long-term classes in writing intelligent code and designing outstanding programs have borne fruit. The authorities found you a suitable candidate for the role of programmer. Probably, you have a little less sleepwalking than colleagues. It is unlikely, but still possible that you are used to wearing shirts with collars, and this circumstance played into your hands. Or someone quit. Anyway, welcome to the slim ranks of the leaders of groups of programmers. My book will be in such a situation very helpful.
Regardless of age, gender and social status, this book will help you strengthen your position as a programmer leader. It is quite compact on, and the material is quite easy to fit in my head. Standing in a bookstore and wondering what to buy, ask yourself one simple question: “Do you need to improve your leadership skills?” I suppose you will answer: “Yes,” which means my book will be worthless for you.
Hank Rainwater (Hank Rainwater) currently works at the Risk Sciences Group (Atlanta, GA), where he leads a group of programmers who develop software products for insurance companies. His path in science and engineering has been reading for more than three decades. At different periods of his life, he was engaged in programming Fortran using punched cards; teaching mathematics in college; research in the field of radio astronomy, missile guidance systems and telemetry systems; coordinating the production of embedded digital control systems. As a specialist in software development, Hank managed to work as a consultant, lecturer, programmer and head of software development teams for various fields of human activity. As for education, Hank graduated from a college with a physical bias and received a university degree in mathematics and physics.
More information about the book can be found on the publisher's website.
Table of contents
Excerpt
For Habrozhiteley a 25% discount on the coupon - Herding Cats .
We have again published the book of J. Rainwater.
“How to feed cats” is a book about leadership and leadership, about how to combine the first with the second. This, if you will, is a dictionary of difficult cases for managing IT projects. A programmer is like a cat that walks by itself. So historically. That is why it is so difficult to be a team leader. Even if you were a brilliant and disciplined programmer a month ago and suddenly found yourself in the role of a manager, you hardly know where to start, which leadership style to choose, how to hire and fire employees, hold meetings, achieve tasks in time. . In this case, without this book you can not do. Or maybe you - an experienced manager who wants to revise their principles of leadership? 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 quite compact and easy to fit 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 will answer: “Yes” - which means this book will be worthless for you.In this book, I intend to consider the full range of tasks facing the leader. Take heart: to solve these problems is quite realistic, no matter what they tell you. You are required to build a coherent system of thinking, a kind of gestalt. What is Gestalt? According to the Webster’s dictionary, this is “a structure with properties that cannot be obtained by simply adding its elements”. If you translate this definition into an object-oriented programming language, which, I believe, you own better than the Webster's style of presentation, the following will turn out: your mental architecture will have to undergo major transformations. Having inherited the managerial skills, you will have to overload the typical thinking parameters with new types and values - that is, roughly speaking, to experience your own character polymorphism. Due to this, you encapsulate in your programming brain a completely new kind of art - the art of leadership and leadership. There are significant differences between leadership and leadership. Both are needed, but leadership still takes precedence - although strong leadership skills naturally help take new heights in a leadership role.
The timeliness of production and the quality of the software products of your company are now in your hands, and I dare to hope that my book will bring some variety to your work. It is impossible, in the end, to spend all working days absolutely the same!
')
Book structure
Chapter 1. How to get used to the role of leader.
Leadership development requires new tricks - the skills gained when you were a programmer will not be enough. In this chapter we will talk about how to adapt to the new position. For this, I have compiled a list of the most common personality types of programmers who, naturally, have a certain impact on the ability to manage the development process and direct it along a given course. You should realize the amazing variability of the characters of subordinates, try to analyze their personal qualities and find individual approaches towards them. In the end, you are in charge - what’s wrong with that?
Chapter 2. How to manage yourself.
Here you will have to get to the depths of your consciousness (do not be afraid - this is not so scary) and personally assimilate the principles of leadership. If you don’t learn to control yourself, it’s impossible to take a leadership position among colleagues. As Winston Churchill used to say: “The more closely we look into the past, the sharper we become, predicting the future.” This aphorism is recommended to apply to the questions of introspection.
Chapter 3. How to lead the pack.
The leadership role implies the acquisition of new skills in addition to purely programmer skills. This chapter provides an overview of the main areas of activity of the leader, which should be given special attention. Otherwise, you run the risk of succumbing to outside influences, to go in the wrong direction, and the staff of the group, like frightened cats, run from you once and for all. I absolutely do not want you, as Lord Byron used to say, to be among those "few whose souls emerge after the collapse of hopes."
Chapter 4. How to organize success.
Here we will interrupt for some time the discussion about relationships with others. Increasing the level of personal organization, you can take new heights of 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 will be able to set aside time for the development of leadership qualities - in other words, for fulfilling your main duties.
Chapter 5. How to conduct meetings.
When you were a programmer, you probably got used to not consulting with anyone but 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 (maybe not as pretty as you) and, much worse, with people who, oddly enough, do not make a living by coding! As a leader in meetings, 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 look at some technical principles and their philosophical underpinnings. It’s one thing to make technical decisions with regard to your own code assignment, and quite another to do it for the whole department. It is possible that you managed to ascend to the expert level in the field of technology, but this does not eliminate the need to analyze the consequences of technical decision-making on a corporate scale. Here we discuss the issues of architecture, design, and critical code reviews.
Chapter 7. Sunset leader.
All leaders (not only you, but also your superiors) are subject to the influence of decadent leadership strategies, and sometimes we, unfortunately, are really influenced by this influence. Some leadership styles do not allow constructive leadership, which means they should be avoided. Here I will describe possible options for the degradation of leadership qualities due to the adoption of an incorrect strategy and at the same time I will propose ways out of the crisis.
The head of the 8. Rise leader.
Like software products that are constructed on the basis of robust architecture, leadership qualities are cultivated on the basis of character traits inherent in the leader. In this chapter I will try to reduce all aspects of leadership to one. 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 their methods of adjustment as a necessary condition for professional leadership.
Chapter 9. How to get along with the authorities.
Please note: the chapter is called “How to get along with the authorities,” and not “As a supervisor,” - the latter is simply not possible. Nevertheless, to build relationships with those employees to whom you report should be no less careful than with your own subordinates. Subordination is not an empty word. Here we will discuss in detail the methods of forming a cohesive team of two people: you and your boss.
Chapter 10. Words without a song.
This chapter covers the most diverse, sometimes unrelated, topics that do not always relate to the daily responsibilities of the programmer’s leader, but are nonetheless important in the context of grazing cats. The management of a distributed group of developers, an assessment of trends in the development of 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 the chaos in order and not go crazy.
Afterword. Back to the sea ...
In conclusion, I will spew out a few wise instructions from the depths of consciousness - at least in our shifted, but therefore no less wonderful world of software development, my words will, I suppose, descend for everlasting wisdom.
Who should read this book and why?
From reading this book will benefit programmers who have become managers, team leaders and, if you like more senior positions, directors of software development. If you manage a relatively small group of programmers (consisting, say, of four to seven people), work in a small or medium-sized company, are busy developing several projects at the same time - it means that you have chosen the publication correctly. If, say, you are going to build another global air ticket booking system in 12 months, and 100 programmers are subordinate to you, this book will probably not correspond to your scope. In this case, you better defend two master's theses: project management and psychology. Good luck.
If you lead programmers — precisely, you lead — and you feel that leadership is replaced by simple manipulation of projects and people, you need help. My book will help you. Maybe you are an experienced manager who wants to revise his principles of leadership. Then this book is again for you.
I do not exclude that you finally got a promotion, which you had been hoping for a long time or, on the contrary, feared. So, long-term classes in writing intelligent code and designing outstanding programs have borne fruit. The authorities found you a suitable candidate for the role of programmer. Probably, you have a little less sleepwalking than colleagues. It is unlikely, but still possible that you are used to wearing shirts with collars, and this circumstance played into your hands. Or someone quit. Anyway, welcome to the slim ranks of the leaders of groups of programmers. My book will be in such a situation very helpful.
Regardless of age, gender and social status, this book will help you strengthen your position as a programmer leader. It is quite compact on, and the material is quite easy to fit in my head. Standing in a bookstore and wondering what to buy, ask yourself one simple question: “Do you need to improve your leadership skills?” I suppose you will answer: “Yes,” which means my book will be worthless for you.
about the author
Hank Rainwater (Hank Rainwater) currently works at the Risk Sciences Group (Atlanta, GA), where he leads a group of programmers who develop software products for insurance companies. His path in science and engineering has been reading for more than three decades. At different periods of his life, he was engaged in programming Fortran using punched cards; teaching mathematics in college; research in the field of radio astronomy, missile guidance systems and telemetry systems; coordinating the production of embedded digital control systems. As a specialist in software development, Hank managed to work as a consultant, lecturer, programmer and head of software development teams for various fields of human activity. As for education, Hank graduated from a college with a physical bias and received a university degree in mathematics and physics.
More information about the book can be found on the publisher's website.
Table of contents
Excerpt
For Habrozhiteley a 25% discount on the coupon - Herding Cats .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/265389/
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