
The IBM Black Team (2002) - caser
http://www.t3.org/tangledwebs/07/tw0706.html
======
DanBC
> A member of the Black Team was the last person a programmer wanted to see
> walking towards him, and more than one programmer was reduced to tears while
> having his code evaluated by the Black Team.

I hope that "reduced to tears" stuff is just hyperbole. But even so, there's
an acceptance that to be effective you have to be an asshole, and it's just
not true.

~~~
jjoonathan
Yes, but if management believes it then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

------
simula67
Story about the Black Team :
[http://www.penzba.co.uk/GreybeardStories/TheBlackTeam.html](http://www.penzba.co.uk/GreybeardStories/TheBlackTeam.html)

------
nickpsecurity
A great example of a group of people gelling into a team with its own culture
in a way that enhances its work. I ran across this example in the book
PeopleWare:

[http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-
Teams-E...](http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-
Edition/dp/0321934113)

It had a lot more wisdom in it on teams, interruptions, flow, and so on. I
recommend anyone that enjoyed this story to get it as it has many more with
recommendations. Of course, my version was an older one so the new one might
be better or worse. I'm sure it will be Good at the least. ;)

------
chii
if the teams creating the software was not effective at producing fixes to the
software, the black team's efforts at catching bugs would have been for
naught. So the silent heroes are actually the fixers.

