#engineeringmgmt

Published 2021/05/30

Do You Even Process Bro?

Yeah the title sucks. That is what I get for having kids and living with teenagers – the constant meme-driven noise that pervades every aspect of home life. The title is a deviation from an older meme about weightlifting that has been co-opted into a simple question about doing things that seem obvious and common. Things that we should all be doing. Which brings us to the topic at hand. Processes. The thought of building and following a process can unfortunately have some negative connotations. Processes almost always carry overhead and paperwork. They take time. They can be tedious. Yet there are processes all around us in the business world. They are, at a deep level, a means of communication. Of structure. Of collaboration. To an Engineer, a finely tuned process is a thing of beauty. But I digress. While the goal is to argue for processes and the value…

7 Ways To Gain And Keep Your Manager’s Trust

Published 2020/10/01

7 Ways To Gain And Keep Your Manager’s Trust

The world has changed. Upon first glance that statement seems obvious and almost a little silly. Of course the world has changed, the world changes each and every day. New products come out. More people are The concept that is really on my mind here is the massive changes in the workplace due to the coronavirus. SO maybe a better phrase to use here would be something like this: The workplace has changed. And it will probably never go back to the way that it was before. Yet, even thinking through this idea, this is nothing new. Go watch an episode of Mad Men. The workplace that we know in 2019 looked nothing like that office ideal. While it can be said that any dramatization of workplace culture and etiquette can only present one ruby-lensed viewpoint of a workplace, there are some big differences that can be seen when comparing…

Using Rick and Morty To Solve An Agile Estimation Dilemma

Published 2020/03/02

Using Rick and Morty To Solve An Agile Estimation Dilemma

Agile is great. Agile is wonderful. Agile is the savior of all things related to Software Engineering. On paper. In practice, classic Agile is difficult, confusing, frustrating, and just downright hard to implement. Because of knowing that many people would argue the preceding statement, we need some contextualization here. Therefore, a clarified statement reads: At a small company with less than 10 software developers and a handful of hardware engineers, where the projects change constantly and the number of people working on any single project can change from week to week, classic Agile is difficult, confusing, frustrating, and just downright hard to implement. Some aspects of Agile are awesome for small teams at small companies. This is doubly true when the current projects closely follow the needs and opportunities for the business. Smaller companies do not have the luxury of buffers between the Engineers and the opportunities. Often new opportunities require…

To Make The Jump From Engineer To Manager, Consider These Questions First

Published 2020/02/05

To Make The Jump From Engineer To Manager, Consider These Questions First

Great Odin’s Raven! Have you had it up to here with the Pointy Hared Bosses ordering you around? The constant tasks, deliverables, and timelines. Isn’t it about time that you stepped up and just did that job yourself? Think of all of the money, fame, and influence that you will have when you are a shiny new manager! It looks so easy, and there are so many perks. Besides, you have all of this Engineering mumbo-jumbo locked down right? Since you are so good at what you are doing now, that certainly has to at least imply that the next step up that corporate ladder will be just as easy since it is just a little bit more of the same stuff. By the beard of Zeus, it can’t be that hard, right? While the general thought processes around who would be a good manager and when that transition should…

The Broken Finger Paradox of Engineering

Published 2020/01/29

The Broken Finger Paradox of Engineering

A distraught man walks into his doctors office. “What is wrong with you today?” She asks. “Oh, I am miserable” said the patient as he sat in the doctor’s exam room. “Tell me what hurts” the doctor responded. The patient gingerly touched his right kneecap. “Ouch!” He then reached up and touched his left elbow with a grimace of pain. Then the tip of his nose, right hip, and finally his left pinky toe, all the while showing great discomfort. With a curt nod the doctor stood up and proclaimed, “I see what the problem is!” The patient looked hopeful. “We will get you some painkillers right after we put a splint on that broken finger!” How much time and suffering do we endure because we often focus on the wrong aspect of a problem or issue? The proverb tells us that there are more than one way to skin…

What Does An Engineer Look Like?

Published 2020/01/25

What Does An Engineer Look Like?

An argument for re-defining what (and who) makes a good Engineer Remember the story about Goldilocks? This originally was a fairy tale about an old woman, badly behaved, who broke into someone else’s house, sat on their furniture, ate their food, and ended up sleeping in their beds. When the owners of the house returned later the old woman jumped through a window, never to be seen again. (She was probably looking for her next house to defile) It was only in later revisions that the main character morphed into a sweet young girl and the owners into a family with a mom, dad, and baby. Yet, still, the main character stayed true to her breaking and entering ways. This story is very popular in many different cultures. The Wikipedia article on the tale discusses possible analogues to Snow White and a Norwegian tale about a princess entering a cave…

Hiring By Belief

Published 2020/01/22

Hiring By Belief

Recently I had an opportunity to re-watch a TED talk by a gentleman named Simon Sinek. Mr. Sinek is the author of a number of popular business tomes including Leaders Eat Last (Amazon referral) and Start With Why (Amazon referral). In the presentation, there is a concept that the best businesses start with a concept of “Why” and achieve greatness when people agree with the beliefs defined in the answer to the why question. In this talk there was ample discussion in regards to the successes of Apple, the Wright brothers, and also Martin Luther King, Jr. The talk is excellent and presents a very powerful message to any business . You can check it out below. However, one thought occurred to me after watching this video: Sure, we can run companies through belief and achieve great things in the same manner, but can we hire people through belief and…

Using a 3D Printer To Explain An Engineering Mentality

Published 2020/01/14

Using a 3D Printer To Explain An Engineering Mentality

Creating a 3D print is an act of pure creation. An Engineer may not have much of an artistic streak when it comes to the traditional artistic skills, but an expression of form through technology could be considered stock in trade for this mindset. However, this comes with a caveat. For every minute of watching the X, Y, and Z-axis machinations of the busy printer head, at least 3 times that has been spent simply searching for the perfect thing to print and in getting it set up.

The Simple Power Of Going For A Walk At Work

Published 2020/01/13

The Simple Power Of Going For A Walk At Work

There are a large number of benefits that can be gleaned from this few minutes of exercise. The first of these is simply getting away from the antagonists and problems that feel stressful. That simple separation can do wonders for the outlook for the remainder of the day along with a vast number of other mental and physical benefits to some simple exercise that can be found in a quick stroll.

How The Star Wars Movies Teach Us About Office Politics

Published 2020/01/05

How The Star Wars Movies Teach Us About Office Politics

As fun as it would be to geek out on deconstructing the socioeconomic intricacies and differences between the elected rule of the Old Republic against the totalitarian Galactic Empire propagated by the Sith Lord Palapatine, this article is not focused on the world of Star Wars. What this article is about is the incomprehensible and strange logic behind money and political decisions for storied franchises

Category: #engineeringmgmt