Jason M. Hanley :: Custom Software Developer

A couple of the worst possible ways you can manage people:

• Ostrich mentality (a.k.a. Head in the sand): Refers to the “ignore it and it will go away” attitude. Some managers think that if they just “leave it until next week” somehow the problem will just go away. No. It’ll get worse. Act on it now.
• Ditch digging theory of management: This is the belief that every task in business is the same as simple manual labour (like digging a ditch). In other words, they think that to make a project go faster, they just need to add more people (”horsepower”). No. Often adding more people to a complex project will just slow things down. Some things just take time.
• Warm body theory of management: This is a person pet peeve of mine because I see it everywhere. This is the belief that people (”warm bodies”) in the office, sitting at their desk somehow equals productivity. Some managers frown on personal time, and reward people who are there every day from 7am until 9pm. No. This will just cause burnout. Those people sitting at their desks are not being productive. They’re playing solitaire… or reading this blog.

Economic trends are notoriously hard to predict. Lately, I’ve been reading about (and seeing) some things that make me wonder if we’ve already entered a slow-down period. I’m no economic expert, but I have a few personal key indicators that I’ve seen change significantly over the past six months:

1. Emails from recruiters: My resume is well indexed and during boom times I get 3-5 emails per week from recruiters (Usually for jobs that don’t match my qualifications at all! Can’t recruiters read?) I’ve seen this drop to less than 1 / week in the past few months
2. Syllogistic job leads: I’ve been steadily optimizing and improving my online presence and advertising. Until recently, the number of leads was increasing along with this. Lately, this has started leveling off and perhaps even decreasing a bit.

Now, keep in mind that these two factors are heavily US-based (most of the leads I get are from the States). My guess is that the United States could be headed for (or is already in) a recession. And that means Canada won’t be far behind…

Or maybe this is just a small blip on the graph I’m mistaking for a trend. We should know for sure by this time next year.

Tom Purves has created a nice graph illustrating what I’ve suspected for a long time — that Canada’s wireless oligopolies are pricing services way out of line with what a competitive market would. Not only are data rates bad, but voice and long distance are more expensive than they should be as well.

Wireless providers are second only to the banking cartel in Canada for collusion and price-fixing. ISPs aren’t far behind.

Unfortunately our Conservative government isn’t going to be doing anything about this any time soon.

read more | digg story

A common problem with software development project management is that most people don’t really understand how it works. Programmers are often likened to construction workers. Managers view them as skilled labour, like a carpenter or brick-layer. If you want something built faster, you hire more people, and things go quicker.

Software engineering is a different beast, though. Fred Brooks wrote The Mythical Man Month in 1974, and it is often considered the “bible” of software engineering. In the book, he explains how creating software is different.

Brook’s Law states that “Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.” It’s important to keep teams small and agile, especially in the early stages when the architecture is in flux.

Creating usable, high-quality software takes a lot of time, skill and experience. Trying to cut a deadline by adding more people will almost guarantee the opposite effect.

I just read an article that summed up some common mistakes when starting a business that rung true to me. They mentioned the following (which I’ve put in the order I think is most important):

1. Not focusing on the user
2. Not having enough infrastructure (money + time)
3. Forgetting about branding, marketing and sales
4. Trying to do everything (similar to #2)
5. Staying in “Stealth Mode” too long

Have a look at the original article here:
http://startupspark.com/the-5-most-common-mistakes-made-by-startups/