November 22, 2010 Book Reviews No comments
Book Review: GREAT BOSS DEAD BOSS
I had awesome chance to read book called “Great boos dead boss”, ‘cause one of my wisdom bosses have recommended it. Probably he was driven to do this by latest law of tribe. Tribe? Yeah, I spelled it correctly. Latest law states that each good leader has teacher who knows and can achieve more than his apprentice. First of all, I want to thank my manager very much for suggesting this book.
“So what was there about tribe?” – I hope you have this question in your mind. Let us answer for this question one by one, but I will not give you complete answer for this, because you have to read book to understand completely and to be part of the tribe of readers of this book :)
Greg, main hero of the book, got new job at big microprocessors plant and as usual in such novels there is huge customer with deadline, that cannot be achieved by applying any kind of normal and standard improvements to production of processors. Even more, people at plant are completely exhausted being bombarded with dozen of improvements and built-in administrative control. Greg felt huge confrontation between him and employees, he felt stuck with this tough situation. He ran for help to leader of another company where each employee felt complete comfort and happiness working, each of them was highly motivated and enthusiastic. Greg started to build his own tribe, using hints given to him by leader, who was colonel in army and still likes hunting in Africa. Whole story finishes with triumph of project completed before deadline and with wisdom, that was absorbed by main hero.
Really extraordinary about book is that it shows collaboration between people, their motivation, emotions and acts in light of the most ancient social grouping – tribe. Book really convinces us that when people have common enemy, common ideas and symbols they are motivated to fight and be the best company in their field. Book is concentrated on People not at the process, because process can be improved by people. You only have to find something to trigger people.
I highly recommend you read this book if you are interested to hear some good ideas about management in another light.
Book Review: MCTS exam 70-503 Windows Communication Foundation Training Kit
November 14, 2010 Book Reviews, Certification, WCF No comments
So accordingly to my Career Plan for Software Engineer, I want to pass some Microsoft exams. Next one (see end of 2010) is 70-503 – WCF. Which I already scheduled for 26th November.
Now few words about book itself. It indeed covers all core of WCF and huge set of WCF features/usages. What I liked is explanation of various bindings/enumerations/settings because they are showed in structured order. Yeah, from some point of view it is boring to read tables describing some of the features, but now I know that I can refer to this book as to good catalog of all WCF features.
I’ve been working with WCF for about 1 year or so, but did not understand all in depth. First of all the most difficult was to keep an eye on all that complex configuration on server and client for whole bunch of our services. But now I see that if I would have read this book before I would have much better understanding of things and would be more efficient in configuring and implementing services.
I’m also planning to perform second (first here) “developer’s meeting” for my team on features of WCF. This time it should be Advanced course. It might be difficult to talk about WCF in depth, because not all guys here work with it and it might require for them to try out basics at first, but I believe in them and in my capabilities to show all ready-cooked on the plate.
Book Review: The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management
October 4, 2010 Book Reviews 6 comments
So yesterday (ok today) in the evening (ok night) I finished reading yet another book on management, this time it is called “The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management”.All things are happening in some post-Soviet-Union country, and it turns out that main thing that country does is software development. Hero of the book is lack to be there and lead 6 projects, which of them has deadline. Ugly boss is trying to shorten dates of releases, but fortunately hero has lot of connections to get world-known experts in different areas, also he has lot of people, so he decided to have 3 team for each of the project to be able to experiment and see how different factors impact productivity of the team, for example size of the team.
I read this book, and you know what? I’m disappointed by it. I has lot of ideas that do NOT glue with current world Agile ideas. Book states that everything should be designed and specified up to smallest details and after that developers start code. Also as one of improvements of the process was to omit unit testing o_O. Regardless of this I liked ideas about how managers should deal with people, bosses, deadlines, team sizes.About team sizes: If team is huge it will not lead to good design or effective utilization of resources – it will lead to enormous amount of meetings, discussions, etc, and in the end you could even get worse results!
Book is very naive, but I agree that it was initial intent of the author to write about known to all of us things on Project Management and they could be solved. He described main issues that may happen when you deal with Deadline. Honestly, it looks like he was asleep and had this dream, and then quickly wrote it down :)
If you have time and like to read something before bed you may read it, but I wish I had not spent my time on this book.
Book Review: “Motivate Me Right”
September 18, 2010 Book Reviews, Opinion 2 comments
So, this weekend I’ve read another book on management. This time it is
about motivation, and I do really feel that topic of the book is very
and very valid. This post isn’t like standard book review, but more
about my opinion and couple of thoughts on motivation.
about motivation, and I do really feel that topic of the book is very
and very valid. This post isn’t like standard book review, but more
about my opinion and couple of thoughts on motivation.
So, the book is called “Motivate Me Right” (it is in Russian) and author is running site http://motivateme.ru/ go and check it out (of course if you understand Russian).
You can download it for free using this link. I would recommend to read it. (Will not take longer then 3-4 hours.)
Question of Motivation
What can do a person without motivation and interest in work? He or she can definitely do something, but what can be achieved by highly motivated person? I’m sure that you know an answer and it significantly differs from what we’ve got in first place. Absolutely same person with high motivation can achieve same results 5-10 times quicker and quality could be much higher at the same time.
Motivation constantly decreases with time
If this is so much important why then no one works on motivating people? When employer is looking for new hire they are interested to get self-motivated person. Yeah, of course they want us do the work for them. And in most cases they get motivated person at the beginning, because each new employee is open for new opportunities. What is happening after? People get disappointed, they start disliking their work because of different aspects. People are simply tedious by the same issues every day. Who works on maintaining motivation among people? – No one!
New employees are motivated
Latest months my company hired lot of new staff. When I come into room where most of them are located I feel that I’m on another planet. They all have eyes with fire inside! Their hearts desire to do something that will rock! They are open for learning new technologies.
Money
Book states that money isn’t biggest motivation factor. In most cases money motivate for not long period of time and then person whats more. Of course if worker doesn’t get money in amount that is enough+ for him you definitely have demotivated person! Managers, pay us as much as we expect and not less! As per book, each employee can expect high bonuses for their hard work. When you give money emphasize on this, show that you appreciate hard work of your employee.
Few other thoughts, but I did not say this (-:
- Fire spoiled people or do something with them or either they will spoil others!
- Maintain motivation in new hires!
- Create poll. Ask people about what is important for them and what is not satisfied.
- Care about employees. Do some changes, they will appreciate this.
- Care about the working environment.
Why do I recommend this book?
I’m often asking co-workers about what motivates them and trying to figure out this for myself. Now I will be recommending them this book, because it is quick and very fun to read essay to understand motivation. I would also give this book to my managers, since I’m sure working on motivation in bounds of huge enterprise many-years project is important.
Book Review: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
September 16, 2010 Book Reviews, TeamWork 3 comments
This is probably first book I read about management particularly in software industry. Book provides couple of very interesting ideas, that can help software projects succeed. It states, that most of the problems in projects are not related to technology, they have sociological nature. So next time you hear about some troubles within your project, that something cannot be done, or can be done but requires enormous amount of time, or that someone cannot be in time with some tasks ASK YOURSELF questions: Are you sure that each team member feels that he is part of the team? Does everyone feel himself responsible for the work he is doing? Is he/she interested in work? Does environment surrounding employee facilitate him?
Indeed, do you remember days when you were distracted too many times per day by stupid not important things and in the end of such day you weren’t able to remember what you had done? I remember when one of my team-mates complained about such situation to SM. What do you think was the response? – That it is all about time management. I would say “Yes and No”. Some workaholics hide their real efforts under what they call “time management”, but there are people who want to work only 8 hours per day and then be back at home with their family. So in their case couple of distractions per day can lead to low performance. Book gives some technics on how to decrease such situations and also how you can build team which will find their own ways to distill their work and remove all not necessary things.
In book I found one way-way too interesting experimental activity to crystallize your teams. So authors propose organizing competitions on weekend for teams (4 members) working on small project (2 people-months). During the competition you as project manager should serve them. Get them out to some extraordinary restaurant at 2 am, yeah at night! Do something that will make them feel your care. In the end there should be lot of winners in different nominations.
This was expensive experiment, but book also proposes other expensive events like flying with whole teams to other countries on the company day for example. I heard about such entertainments at least in two Lviv’s companies. They are now proud of that.
Have you ever heard about black testers team dressing black clothes and making all developers scared, because they will definitely find tonnes of bugs in their programs? No? Except of this there a lot of very interesting examples of how something can be self-organized to reach highest performance and results without managers boring decrees.
Book will bring to the table a lot of interesting facts and ideas about Peopleware. And I would highly recommend to read it to have better understanding of what really has impact on your team progress.
Book Review: The Brand You
August 23, 2010 Book Reviews, Success No comments
I read this book on the fly. Couple of hours and done. Book is written in very specific way, that allows to read it quickly. It spreads very interesting ideas.
One of the main concepts is that you are General Director of your life and your name’s company and that is real place where you must do the best. You should have something like a new title of your current position in Company-You, like “Catalyzer of progress”.
Book just throws into you lot of gripping mottos that make you double think if you do the right things and if in right way.
Book’s author is “COOL” and he wants you to be “COOL” as well. You should make yourself a “dude with power” and then sell yourself with high price.
For some reason book is also concerned about building professional network. Intent is to be aware of the best people around you, so this could help you move forward. Few weeks ago I started looking around for cool people to have lunch with them. During lunch I’m trying to familiarize with that person and understand what does he thinks about the job. Mainly I talk with Software Developers. To some extent this helps me be known and get interesting information from them. Probably it worth to consider meeting with people of other professions.
Regarding what it talks about your job, ideas are great and are very applicable to my current position and current team work. I would love if we use following motto: “Work with what you have, and make it awesome‘. There is no room for complains, there is only room for getting it done.
Be the best!
Book Review: It’s Not Luck
August 15, 2010 Book Reviews, Success No comments
So far I read another book on business and management. Now it is called “It’s Not Luck”, and is written by the author of “The Goal”.
Honestly, I liked this book, less than “The Goal”, because now I knew what to expect. I knew that all of the problems will be solved and that the hero will be promoted to the general director of Uni-Co.
The main and huge difference is that in this book author represent to us new way of thinking to resolve issues.
I will try to summarize it here from my perspective and my understanding.
So, first of all you have some conflict. You write it down with good formulation – that is the main thing you need to resolve. After, you should build some tree of dependent reasons-effects. To do that you need to write them all down and dive into intensive thinking to find out all of the dependencies. Book, states that in most cases reason of the main problem is just one of the reasons, you listed. If you commit lot of effort in building your dependencies tree, your reason will be obvious, so after that, you can proceed with building your plan to resolve that. Plan is path from root reason to the main problem, you should solve.
Book is very gripping and is written in way that gives us touches of both personal and business examples. I liked it, and maybe will try to use some of the technics to solve problems in my life.
Book Review: MCTS exam 70-505 Windows Forms Application Development Training Kit
July 18, 2010 Book Reviews, Certification, Fun 6 comments
Oh! Yet another training kit on Microsoft exam. This time it is Windows Forms Application Development (exam 505).
It was extremely boring to read this book.
It was extremely boring to read this book.
Book talks on different Windows Forms related stuff. From the beginning it tries to teach me how to create simple forms app and add controls to it, but hey with my experience developing applications it is too boring. In advanced WinForms controls it talks on ListBox, TreeView, CheckBoxes and so on :) After so complex things it leads me to ADO.NET and how to work with connection Strings and how to even read data from DataReader. In advanced topics on Windows Forms Development it talks on how to create MDI application. OMG, i knew how to do them on my 3rd year in university. In asynchronous operations it talks on how I can use BackgroundWorker and even what is Thread and how to synchronize two of them. Maybe the most interested chapter was Deployment, at least because I never really used it either at work or in university.
But you know what is the most funny about all of this? – Possibility that I will not pass this exam. Why? – Because these entry ms exams are kind of exams for con. It require simple knowing of names of classes and functions. But on other hand I understand, that they couldn’t make it different.
You just need to read this kit to pass this exam, almost no way to do it different.
I understand that if you have no experience working with Windows Forms book could bring lot of value for you. For example, do you know how to create not rectangular button or how to print documents programmatically.
Fact that I read this book means only one – which I’m going to schedule exam for next Friday and spend my evenings trying tests from book, and maybe MeasureUp. Also researching over internet how to prepare myself fot it.
So, wish me good luck on passing this exam.
Book Review: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
July 2, 2010 Book Reviews, Success No comments
Last weekend I had a chance to read very interesting book, kind of business novel. I was given this book by my managers after we finished with my performance appraisal. Which (btw) went very well.
Book talks about guy, who manages plant where he encounter problem of going behind the schedule and his bosses wanted to close out his plant. But he with colleges, using Theory of Constraints and sophisticated thinking, was able to get plant to the new level.
From first pages I was not sure if book is kind of my thing, since I usually don’t read novels, but it turns out that book is only a bit hard going at the beginning. From page to page it was more gripping to read and in the end it just became a real page-turner.
Book forces us to think that everything is possible, you just need to take a look for wider solutions without using any of your stereotypes. Book never gives you ready answers, so it is thought-provoking one. First it states the problem, describing it in details, after that main hero is bombarded with different questions by friends, which provoke us think in pair with him.
Reading book was really-really enjoyable and I would highly recommend it for your reading. Book indeed is exciting for those who are interested in career development and in manager’s positions.
P.S. I’ve changed this post a bit to use more specific words like: interesting, exciting, thought-provoking, a real page-turner, gripping, kind of my thing, hard going at the beginning, gripping. That was English course activity to have review on some book. I’m lazy to write new one.
Law Of Success: book review
May 14, 2010 Book Reviews, Success No comments
Today I finished listening to another book on success. It is called “The Law Of Success” by Napoleon Hill. Book is represented in 16 lessons.
I think that it worth to read or listen to this book. It shows up lot of different tips that you can use to achieve your strongly defined and be biggest goal of your life. I know that most of books on success talk about main goal of your life, but this one I think is the strongest on this requirement.
So it says that you need to define for yourself goal of your life, and… what is more interested… you should keep repeating its formulation every day few times. Hill just refers to autosuggestion as one of the key concepts on getting your results.
Honestly yesterday I tried to repeat for myself that I will wake up 2 hours early than I usually do, and it did not help… sad. Today I will have another try. So “I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8 regardless of Saturday! I will wake up at 8am! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8 and will be able to do what I have planned! I will wake up at 8! Guys, I will wake up at 8! I will wake at 8am! I will really wake up at 8am! I’m going to wake up at 8 o’clock tomorrow! I will wake up at 8 am! I will do that! I will wake up at 8! I will wake up at 8!”
Ok, I did what he asked, now I will see if it will really help me, and will share with you :)
