Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ What are Engineering Management Skills? Engineering Management requires a combination of both technical skills and “soft skills.” – Technical skills: designing software, testing, writing code – Soft skills: team building, communicating, decision making, improving the skills of your team – Activities that are both: gathering requirements, planning Other activities and skills

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Soft Skills are a Foundation for successfully using the Technical Skills. Developers are often given the job of manager based on their technical skills. Attributes for managers – What makes a good manager? – Good leadership/just being loud? Managers responsibilities – In broad terms what does a manager do? Specific Skills – What skills are needed to be a successful manager?

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ What are the skills of someone you would work for? What is important for the project? What is important for you to work for them? What is important for you to be successful? What is success in your organization?

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Attributes of Managers Capable of evaluating risk and uncertainty – Being able to live with risk and uncertainty Honesty and integrity Understanding of personnel problems Communicates clearly and completely Alertness and quickness Versatility

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Attributes of Managers Energy and toughness – If you have no energy then why expect your team to? Decision-making ability Pro-active – You can not wait to be told. Cool headed – Know when to get mad. – Is being mad all the time effective?

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Manager’s Responsibilities Interface Management – Project Interfaces – Management Interfaces – Customer Interfaces – Information Flow Resource Management – Time (schedule) – Manpower

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Manager’s Responsibilities – Money – Facilities – Equipment – Information/Technology Planning and Control – Reduced risks – Identification of alternatives – Resolution of conflicts – Running the project core team

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Specific Skills for Managers Team building – Getting team members committed – Clearly defining goals and objectives – Good working relationships – Being aware of the project’s culture Planning skills Conflict resolution

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Specific Skills for Managers Organizational skills Entrepreneurial skills Administrative skills Resource allocation skills Decision making skills Technical skills

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Specific Skills for Managers Leadership – The process whereby one individual influences other group members toward the attainment of defined group or organizational goals. – Non-coercive influence Coercive influence takes constant energy

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Specific Skills for Managers Leadership/Management – Leadership is where to go Leadership motivates – Management is how to get there Management implements

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Useful Team Skills There are many team skills, the following skills are useful across a broad range of activities. – Communicating – Team building – Facilitating – Making deccisions – Postmortems/Retrospectives – Principled Negotiation – Inspections These skills will be practiced in team exercises through out the semester.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Useful Team Skills In Software Development and especially in the valley, lower level management’s role is often accomplished through influence and facilitation rather than direction. Why? – Lack of formal procedures and policies. – Strong technical contributors, often more senior than management. – Many groups at the same level with conflicting priorities.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Communications Communication is critical to all management activities. Tools for effective communications – Removing ambiguity – Resolving Cultural and Frame of Reference differences – The role of metrics in communications

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Team Building What is a team? – “A small number of people with complimentary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” – Identity, membership, roles and responsibilities Clear vision, objectives and purpose – Management must make these clear if team members are to know what they are doing. – Allows teams to have some level of self direction.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ How Teams Function Using a Learning Cycle Understand and frame the problem – Do not accept the problem at face value. – Look for root causes. Plan – Challenge assumptions, decide on actions Act – Follow the plan! Reflect and Learn – What can we do better? – Involve the team in reflection

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Team Building What happens when there is no clear identity or direction? – Priority conflicts happen – Lack of focus – Easy to sit around and wait to be told what to do. In some sense management’s goal should be to eliminate the need for management. – Self-organizing teams

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Facilitating Getting the Job Done Facilitation is a useful skill in getting teams to meet objectives. Facilitation gives guidance as required and is non- interfering. Facilitating – Keep focus, single topic at a time, quality discussion Everyone needs to know why they are there – Allow everyone to speak in a safe environment Avoid name calling, excessive joking – Make good use of time Avoid discussion loops, side tracking

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Postmortems/Retrospectives Postmortem, Latin for “after death” Regardless of what it is called successful management learns form the past. Being conscious of what you are doing and have done. The facilitator’s role is to create a safe environment in which to get honest feedback.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Postmortems/Retrospectives Study both failures and successes Define the purpose of the retrospective – Define success Decide who should attend Create a safe environment – Establish ground rules Establish the timeline and mine it. – What actually happened and when.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Postmortems/Retrospectives What worked and what did not work. Capture the data. Determine what you are going to do about it. – Conducting a Retrospective and doing nothing about it is a pure waste of time and undermines any future retrospectives.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Postmortems/Retrospectives When we do not learn from our mistakes we are forced to repeat them.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Reaching Decisions An important skill is helping teams reach decisions. Making progress without knowing the entire process. Getting support for decisions. Lack of a perfect plan.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Principled Negotiation Soft Negotiation – Searching for agreement – Avoiding conflict – True buy in? Hard Negotiation – Looking for victory – Wanting to win – True buy in?

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Principled Negotiation Ensure that everyone understands everyone else’s objectives and positions. Separate people from the problem. – Keep emotions out of the equation. Develop win-win solutions. – Look for alternatives. Use objective data – The need for metrics.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Inspections A method for improving both understanding and quality of all work products. Inspections can be done at any stage of the development process. Inspections are a formal/disciplined review of work products with set roles for those who participate.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Benefits from Inspections Detection of defects at an earlier stage – Finding defects at an earlier stage lowers the cost of correction. Expanding the understanding of the code – This means we have multiple developers able to contribute to the improvement of the work product.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Inspections Inspection roles; moderator, reader, scribe, reviewers Focus is on detecting flaws not correcting them on the spot. Materials are reviewed individually before the inspection meeting. – This helps reduce both meeting time and group think.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Inspections During the inspection each line is read. – A disciplined approach is used to ensure everything in the work product is covered. Flaws are corrected following the meeting. – Only those defects that will be corrected should be checked for during the inspection.

Computer Engineering 203 R Smith Management Skills 02/ Issues with Inspections Detecting problems that never need to be corrected wastes effort. – Not following through – Picking at details Inspecting too much – 80/20 rule Solving problems rather than identifying them