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Good job there with your checklist. Unfortunately, for every one of you who does the above checklist before pulling the "schedule meeting" trigger, there are 5

by pwg 9y ago

Good job there with your checklist. Unfortunately, for every one of you who does the above checklist before pulling the "schedule meeting" trigger, there are 500 other project managers who's first reaction to everything is: "schedule a meeting".

noir_lord 9y ago
Then there is the "I can get what I need in a 2hr meeting at the cost of 16hrs of other peoples time" ones. I hate those ones. If your programmers are taking laptops to meetings to write code while you are holding the meeting, you should consider a career in yak-farming not project management. Also we need to schedule a meeting to find out why we are behind on our deliverables because of last weeks meeting taking most of the day putting everyone behind. That one made me giggle. Or as one of my friends at that place had as a wallpaper "The beatings will continue until morale improves".
- ryandrake 9y ago
  There are lots of terrible meeting formats. There’s the “everyone talk about what they are not doing because they’re meeting to talk about it” aka Daily Standup. There’s the Bug Beatings, where 50 people gather to go through 200 open bugs, each one where 1 (different) person talks and the remaining 49 work on their laptops. There’s my least favorite: I call it “Executive Storytime” where multiple people put together a status update for a big-shot, and instead of big-shot reading it himself, we project it and read it to him. This is ok when the format is meant to be interactive but if it’s just a readout—yukk. Then there’s the Agendaless Sync, where the same people get together weekly because they always get together weekly and just talk about whatever. Ugggghh.
  - noir_lord 9y ago
    These days I'm the only programmer at a none-tech company and it's glorious, I answer directly to the MD. I set my own schedules, timelines, I prioritise bugs and maintenance and I handle buying anything we need as well having complete freedom in the technologies I choose to solve problems (currently moving to TypeScript for front end stuff for example) - his attitude is to hire good people across the business and then get out the way as much as possible. The boss sets overall goals and we agree together on what is achievable in a given time period. Honestly my job has made me remember what it was I loved about programming (solving real world problems that have a measurable impact). Even the fact I inherited the worst codebase I've ever seen doesn't get me down because my boss knows how bad it is (it's why he got rid of the outsourced company and hired a programmer in house) and I get to work on a bunch of cool problems (production scheduling in a varied environment, global logistics (we import from China and India), some C# stuff (production control), Android (inventory control, scanners)). I actually get to 5pm and want to keep working but the boss bollocks me if I stay late (even though he does most days). I'd have to be offered a spectacular pay rise to even consider working for a 'tech' company again.
  - pwg 9y ago
    And the always wonderful - meeting that should have been an email. https://imgur.com/gallery/9yF0Vyo https://imgur.com/gallery/9yF0Vyo

by pwg 9y ago

noir_lord 9y ago

Then there is the "I can get what I need in a 2hr meeting at the cost of 16hrs of other peoples time" ones. I hate those ones. If your programmers are taking laptops to meetings to write code while you are holding the meeting, you should consider a career in yak-farming not project management. Also we need to schedule a meeting to find out why we are behind on our deliverables because of last weeks meeting taking most of the day putting everyone behind. That one made me giggle. Or as one of my friends at that place had as a wallpaper "The beatings will continue until morale improves".

ryandrake 9y ago
There are lots of terrible meeting formats. There’s the “everyone talk about what they are not doing because they’re meeting to talk about it” aka Daily Standup. There’s the Bug Beatings, where 50 people gather to go through 200 open bugs, each one where 1 (different) person talks and the remaining 49 work on their laptops. There’s my least favorite: I call it “Executive Storytime” where multiple people put together a status update for a big-shot, and instead of big-shot reading it himself, we project it and read it to him. This is ok when the format is meant to be interactive but if it’s just a readout—yukk. Then there’s the Agendaless Sync, where the same people get together weekly because they always get together weekly and just talk about whatever. Ugggghh.
- noir_lord 9y ago
  These days I'm the only programmer at a none-tech company and it's glorious, I answer directly to the MD. I set my own schedules, timelines, I prioritise bugs and maintenance and I handle buying anything we need as well having complete freedom in the technologies I choose to solve problems (currently moving to TypeScript for front end stuff for example) - his attitude is to hire good people across the business and then get out the way as much as possible. The boss sets overall goals and we agree together on what is achievable in a given time period. Honestly my job has made me remember what it was I loved about programming (solving real world problems that have a measurable impact). Even the fact I inherited the worst codebase I've ever seen doesn't get me down because my boss knows how bad it is (it's why he got rid of the outsourced company and hired a programmer in house) and I get to work on a bunch of cool problems (production scheduling in a varied environment, global logistics (we import from China and India), some C# stuff (production control), Android (inventory control, scanners)). I actually get to 5pm and want to keep working but the boss bollocks me if I stay late (even though he does most days). I'd have to be offered a spectacular pay rise to even consider working for a 'tech' company again.
- pwg 9y ago
  And the always wonderful - meeting that should have been an email. https://imgur.com/gallery/9yF0Vyo https://imgur.com/gallery/9yF0Vyo