
Minimal Project Management - WA9ACE
https://hiltmon.com/blog/2016/03/05/minimal-project-management/
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chiefalchemist
"That is, again, why I hired them."

That's easy to say when there's only five. The problem is, that doesn't scale.
At some point you need to proactively implement a culture (and M&Ps) that does
scale. If you wait til you need then you run the risk of having waited too
long. Veteran team members will be put off, new hires will be updating their
CV.

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abraae
I've experienced the office of about 6 people (mentioned in a post on Epic
Games) as an ideal environment for software development, better than cube
farms or single person offices.

Maybe instead of struggling to apply management concepts to the development
process, companies would achieve more by breaking things up into 6-person
sized teams.

~~~
madhadron
> Maybe instead of struggling to apply management concepts to the development
> process, companies would achieve more by breaking things up into 6-person
> sized teams.

How do you coordinate the six person teams, prevent them from ending up in
contention, etc.?

~~~
downrightmike
user stories and delegation

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madhadron
Ah, the innocence that thinks that is enough.

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downrightmike
The title is minimal :)

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jupp0r
Is this article satire? (some quotes)

> They do not need to be micro- or even macro-level managed

> Developers with nothing to do become disruptive or lazy.

> With all this advice and help, I can easily determine what work needs to be
> done first, what next, what can remain on-hold, and can assign work to the
> team.

> Once the Statement of Work is completed (and reviewed, filed and approved by
> me), the person starts executing the tasks and we move into a work and
> review phase.

If this isn’t micro management, what is? Where is the team empowered to
improve their process? Where is tech debt addressed? Is estimation really so
easy? Ever heard of pair programming?

Note to myself: never work for that person.

~~~
geertvanbommel
I wouldn't judge too much, but it's a shame the article is 3 years old. I
would have loved to hear what he has learnt/adjusted in the meantime.

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flyinglizard
Make sure to issue a summary email after each weekly meeting, in a broad
circulation and including multiple stakeholders that should be kept informed.
Have all owner/action/date triplets clearly marked. Don’t be shy on the
formatting, important points need to pop out clearly. Bullet points are your
friends.

It’s great for the team to use as their own reference, it keeps outside people
generally informed and it’s an immediate springboard for next week’s
discussion.

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lifeisstillgood
My secrets of project mgmt

\- write down and agree what we intend to do \- (auto)record what I actually
did \- review why there is such a big gap \- fix something, keep processing

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zigzaggy
Good write up. I manage multiple ongoing projects and my company is growing a
team under me. This is a great approach that I will put in my toolbox.

