Retail Software Development, from Pawn to King with Ken Sharpe

Goal Map

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

This post is the first of at least two about Goal Mapping. It’s a technique that I invented, but it’s painfully obvious, so I doubt I’m the first. I’ll explain the simple (but still wildly useful) version of the goal map in this one, then the next article will cover the more advanced mappings you can try.

A definition:

A Goal Map tracks the relationship and topology of your goals and the steps you need to take to achieve them.

Each event that you plan for lives somewhere on this goal map — you have a starting position, an ending position, and all the positions in between. There may be alternate routes, dubious passages, and construction work, but this map will show you how to travel from start, to finish.

There are several ways a goal map might help you:

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Exit Strategies

Monday, September 22, 2008

Rich guys focus a lot on exit strategies. As they plan their next venture or deal, they decide how to achieve whatever goal they’ve set for this endeavor — that’s all an exit strategy is.

For example, Jimmy wants to open a restaurant, and his plan is to run it until retirement, by which time he hopes to have a good general manager that can run the day to day stuff while he collects a check from his beach house. That’s Jimmy’s exit strategy.

James, on the other hand, wants to build a medical services company and achieve a 25% market share with a 15% margin. He wants to do this because he knows the bigger players in this industry will buy his company when he achieves these goals. So, he creates a plan that will help him build this company in ten years, and sell it for $100 million to a large competitor. After that he’ll search for the next big deal (right after he flies around the world with his trophy wife for a couple months). That’s James’ exit strategy.

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Ken Sharp to Earth

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I have been absent without warning from writing here for almost a month, which is highly unusual for my three-time-per-week posting schedule.

The reason is that I had an extraordinarily demoralizing experience at Ideal that I began to write about here, but that ultimately killed my momentum. I am at least partially recovered from that experience and I’m ready to begin writing about it, and other topics as usual.

The reason is irrelevant to my commitment to you, dear reader, which I have broken by remaining silent for this time. I owed you at least a note about my coming absence, instead of an apology after the fact.

It won’t happen again — if it is within my power to keep you abreast of developments, I will keep you abreast.

Expect a post to be forthcoming either this week or early next week.

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Asking for a Promotion

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The trick to asking for a promotion is not to have to ask at all.

I’ve hit on this theme several times in the fast track series and Informal Authority, but it’s worth noting again that you create people’s perceptions of you. If you want a job, then you do that job. Once you are doing that job, it becomes easy for your bosses to imagine that you could do it.

That may sound backwards, but hear me out.

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Optimistic Developers

Monday, August 18, 2008

Developers are a naturally optimistic bunch when asked to estimate how long their tasks will take. This study in the Journal of Systems and Software examines the phenomenon, and offers a great bibliography for those interested in reading more deeply.

The take away point, which is actually stated in the abstract of the paper, is that this optimism is largely random — it’s only weakly correlated with any particular trait like experience and or skill. That means we all fall victim to the scheduling optimism disease.

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Winning Big Follow Up

Saturday, August 16, 2008

The major project that Walter dragged his ass on for six weeks is not yet complete. There was a brief and uninteresting delay in the middle that was Ideal’s fault — some logistical issues with getting the infrastructure ready — but unfortunately that has not been the only problem.

I went into work recently feeling really awful. I felt like the situation was coming to a head. I had failed to produce a working version of Emerald in an unreasonably short period of time. That was compounded by my failure to get the infrastructure project working in the six weeks I had promised it within. I felt that the perception of my work and value was in the dump, and I was dangerously close to being “downsized.”

My insecurity was vindicated when Ben asked me to his office to tell me that because of my consistent lack of results, that I was being fired.

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Secret of Rockstar Development

Thursday, August 14, 2008

I’m going to tell you the secret of being a top developer. It’s the actual foundation that underlies the various advice you may have read in the past about how to improve your craft. It’s a subtle epiphany, so it may require that you read this a few times for it to really sink in.

Before we get there, let me tell you about Michael. Michael is the project manager on the infrastructure project that has been ongoing for about 7 weeks now at Ideal. One of the ways he put me at ease with the process was to describe his lead developer, Praveen, as a “rockstar.”

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Got the Raise

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

First, house keeping. This post is on a Tuesday and I missed yesterday. The reason for that is that the post I was working on got really long and complex and required more editing than I could take care of yesterday so instead I’ll post a small update today, and I’ll split what was supposed to be yesterday’s post into tomorrow’s and Friday’s.

What about the Raise?

Good news. I received word today that I got the raise I asked for. The numbers worked, and with a little wrangling on Ben’s end I ended up with only a few dollars less than I asked for.

I was actually surprised because there is a lot of pressure on Ben to keep payroll down right now, so he really did a lot for me. This goes to show that forming relationships, and capitalizing on opportunities even if they are uncomfortable to bring up is a good policy when there is data to back you up.

I am curious to see how this will play out when I go for the normal end of year style raise. It may not come up at all, but it’s possible that they could use it to try to give me less. My hope is that the raise and promotion I get by the end of a year is going to be a quantum leap, so a sum of less than 10 thousand won’t be worth considering. Time will tell.

Did I mention that Ben would make a good ally?

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Asking for a Raise

Friday, August 8, 2008

I have to admit that this is not the generic advice article you’re expecting about landing a raise during a yearly review. Instead this is a story of how I got a raise from my already ample salary in the middle of the year.

First, a word of caution. This is a mistake I made, that you can avoid. If you’re negotiating your salary, make sure you know the exact benefits package you’ll sign up for and what it costs. I didn’t pay enough attention and it turns out that I’m getting equivalent coverage for over twice the previous cost. I used to pay around $300 for health, dental, and life insurance for my family, and now the cost per month is about $678.

The good news is that I don’t see anything as a setback — always as an opportunity. I went to Ben and started a conversation about the benefits, asking him about his views on the various packages. He shared with me that Ideal had changed its policy about a year ago. They used to have cheaper coverage, but the new plans they had now only covered the employee, not the family. The result is that single people got a free ride, married people stayed about even, and married people with children (like me) got the shaft.

He felt guilty about this, and so with a little prompting to the effect of “Wow, I’m silly. I should have asked for a more detailed break down… I’m paying over twice what I used to pay,” he offered to revisit the subject once money was actually coming out of my paycheck.

When it did, I decided the best way to approach it with this accountant type, was to crunch the numbers. I did some quick math for him, by figuring out the difference in payments and accounting for taxes, and I told him about $500 would cover the difference.

Even though I’ll only actually be breaking even with my previous coverage, it’s still exciting to see if my play for an ad hoc $6,000 raise is going to work. I’ll keep everyone updated.

Update: I got the raise.

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Invest in Peopleware

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Peopleware is a book about how a development department should be run, and how to treat knowledge workers like developers. I don’t want you to buy it until I explain something to you.

First, for those of you who haven’t discovered Peopleware yet, let me put this in perspective for you: I feel so strongly about it, that I bought a copy for my whole team and one for David, the CEO of Ideal. Now, I keep a copy for myself, and another copy close by. This second copy is one I give away to anyone who asks about it. When I do that, I immediately buy a new one to replace it. It’s that good.

This small investment of around $100 has changed my professional life, and persuaded David and Ben to let me spend around a quarter of a million dollars on “non-essentials,” like individual offices, a library of technical books, and other creature comforts that affect my daily life. 250,000% isn’t a bad return on investment!

Don’t take my word for it!

Don’t think that I’m just hawking you some crap to make a buck. I’m not only one who thinks this book is great. The list of positive reviews reads like a who’s who of software development. If Robert Bogue and Joel Spolsky aren’t enough for you, then google it. It’s tough to find a bad word about this book anywhere. The line that summarizes the book best for me is on page 34:

“The manager’s function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.”

A Gift

That having been said, I have a gift for the fair readers of KenSharpe.net. It doesn’t even matter if you’ve read the book before, it’s just something I’ve created that will help to subtly improve your working conditions. It’s simple, but hear me out:

What I made was a simple desktop wallpaper featuring the Booker T. Washington Ladder that I use as a metaphor for progress here on KenSharpe.net, and the words “Peopleware: Have you read it yet?”

Aside being devastatingly stylish, this instant crowd pleaser serves a purpose. When you click the image, select your desktop size, and then display it, your coworkers will see it, and a conversation will start that might go something like this:

Coworker: What is Peopleware?

You: Peopleware is a book about developers, and development projects. It’s amazing, it changed my professional life.

Coworker: Wow, interesting. What kind of stuff does it say?

You: Have a look for yourself.

At that point, you’ll give your coworker a copy to read. He’ll read it and the fire will spread. Kudos to you.

So for less than the cost of a tank of gas, you have the power to radically alter your working environment — the place you spend more than half your waking hours.

Sounds easy? It is.

What I want you to do is buy one copy for yourself, one copy for each of your coworkers, and one copy for your boss. These books will arrive in a bundle, and you of course will devour yours and bask in the glow of enlightenment that very same day.

The other copies will be read and digested in the coming months, and as changes take place in your department, they will be changes for the better. Your boss will remember that overtime reduces productivity, and he’ll ease up deadlines. Your coworkers will remember that natural light is good for them, and will take up their own cause of getting your office space improved.

There’s nothing stopping this from being a reality, and the first step is to do yourself a favor, spend the $150, and pick up a bunch of the books.

I’m not so sure…

I understand if you can’t afford to buy a bundle right now, so just do yourself a favor, just buy one for yourself. It’s less than lunch out.

Then, put the wallpaper up on your desktop, and point people who ask about it to this page, so they can find out for themselves how good it is.

Nothing is stopping you!

Buy Peopleware Right Now!

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Goal Map

Exit Strategies

Ken Sharp to Earth

Asking for a Promotion

Optimistic Developers

Winning Big Follow Up

Secret of Rockstar Development