Category Archives: Management

Interviewing and Hiring Programmers

Posted on January 11, 2007 by John Hunter

Interviewing and Hiring by Tom Van Vleck “Let’s take a break from talking to people. Why don’t you have a seat in this empty office, and write a small program. Use any language you want to. The program can do anything you’d like. I’ll be back in about 30 minutes, and ask you to explain the program to me.” … It seemed reasonable, if the job was programming, to ask people how they felt about actually doing some. And sure, … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, IT, Management, Software Development | 4 Comments

Applied Quality Engineering Education

Posted on January 10, 2007 by John Hunter

Classroom projects translate into immediate workplace gains for working professionals in engineering [the broken link was removed] In the final semester of his UW–Madison master’s degree, Bob Aloisi didn’t just earn a letter grade in his quality engineering class: He saved his company $50,000. It wasn’t the typical classroom outcome — but it wasn’t a typical classroom. As a student in “Quality Engineering and Quality Management,” Aloisi accomplished a major class project in quality improvement at his own workplace. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Education, Management, Science | Tagged , , , ,

How Do You Run a Business Without Managers

Posted on January 10, 2007 by John Hunter

Ask the CHO: How do you run a business without managers It seems that a lot of the problems seem to come from low to middle management and as someone who is looking to start my own software company I don’t want this to happen in my organization. A no managers approach seems pretty appealing. … So rather than have presidents, vice presidents and managers, all employees had an equal say in running the company. This was backed up by … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, IT, Management | 1 Comment

Google Millionaires

Posted on January 9, 2007 by John Hunter

Last week, in Google’s Answer to Filling Jobs Is an Algorithm, I mentioned Google’s turnover was only 4%. This is the context within which I thought that was impressive: O Googlers, where art thou? by Verne Kopytoff: For Google, the departures present a new hurdle. Enticing as many old-timers to stay as possible is a priority because, with each farewell party, a piece of the company’s institutional knowledge and culture is lost. “We take a lot of time and care, … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Management | 1 Comment

Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way

Posted on January 9, 2007 by John Hunter

The Elegant Solution: Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way (pdf) by Matthew May: One Million. That’s how many ideas Toyota implements each year. Do the math: 3000 ideas a day. That number, more than anything else, explains why Toyota appears to be in a league all their own, playing offense on a field of innovation, while their competitors remain caught in a crossfire of cost-cutting. Here’s the thing: it’s not about the cars. It’s about ideas. And the people with those … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Making Better Decisions

Posted on January 9, 2007 by John Hunter

Comment on: When Times Are Tough, Do You Make Better Decisions? [the broken link was removed] When times are tough you are more likely to do something – take some action, make some decision. When times are good, many are content to let things go: not make any tough decisions or any that might upset someone… When in a bind it is accepted that something has to be done, so you can often get past the “we are doing ok, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Competing On The Basis Of Speed

Posted on January 8, 2007 by John Hunter

Competing On The Basis Of Speed (webcast) [the broken link was removed] by Mary Poppendieck discussing complexity, queuing theory, and constant innovation. Google posts presentations given at the Googleplex (including this one). In this one, Mary presents lean ideas as they related to software development. Related: post on software development – lean software development – articles by the Poppendiecks – Competing on the Basis of Time

Posted in Google, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Software Development, webcast | 1 Comment

The Psychology of Too Much Choice

Posted on January 7, 2007 by John Hunter

An understanding of psychology is one of the four components of Dr. Deming’s management system. This understanding lies behind practices such as: driving out fear, respect for people and eliminating slogans. In an organization all the components (practices, processes, investments, training, people, suppliers, customers…) interact with the others. Dr. Deming tried to develop a system that took that reality into account. This reminds me of Einstein’s thought that “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Often … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged | 2 Comments

Baldrige in Education

Posted on January 6, 2007 by John Hunter

Superintendent’s method used by Boeing, Motorola [the broken link was removed] by Helen Gao The three M’s – managing for innovation, management by fact and market focus – are unfamiliar phrases to most people in the educational establishment. But don’t be surprised if, in the coming months, leaders of the San Diego Unified School District start spouting corporate-speak. Management principles long embraced by companies seeking a competitive edge are making inroads in the public school system, as Superintendent Carl Cohn … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Management, Public Sector | Tagged

Z-List: Management Blogs

Posted on January 5, 2007 by John Hunter

Ok, I am going to build upon the z-list meme. Hopefully my modification will be seen as acceptable. I have modified the zlist to shorten it to management related blogs. I was added to one with: Making Z-List and Checking It Twice. I don’t really see how Seth’s blog is a “z-list blog” [more like a-list] but it is the first place I saw the a z-list and knowHR included it and it is excellent so I included it. Management … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Management | Tagged

Google’s Answer to Filling Jobs Is an Algorithm

Posted on January 4, 2007 by John Hunter

Google Answer to Filling Jobs Is an Algorithm. First, from a “what should I do,” view, I believe, Kevin Meyer’s advice is more appropriate: The False God of the Almighty Algorithm. But Google can do some things well that are unwise for others to try. Desperate to hire more engineers and sales representatives to staff its rapidly growing search and advertising business, Google — in typical eccentric fashion — has created an automated way to search for talent among the … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Google, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Epidemic of Diagnoses

Posted on January 3, 2007 by John Hunter

What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses by Dr. Welch, Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Woloshin: For most Americans, the biggest health threat is not avian flu, West Nile or mad cow disease. It’s our health-care system. True, and probably the biggest economic threat too. See: Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases and Health Insurance Premiums Soar Again. But it also leads to more diagnoses, a trend that has become an epidemic. This epidemic is a threat to your health. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Messiness is Good?

Posted on January 2, 2007 by John Hunter

Time to get organized? Not so fast [the broken link was removed], interview of David Freedman on Marketplace. Marketplace is a great show on PBS that covers economics and related matters. This interview, though, fails to inspire me. RYSSDAL: Is it expensive in a corporate sense to be neat? FREEDMAN: It’s extremely expensive. I mean let’s start off with the fact that U.S. corporations spend some $45 billion a year on management consultants. They come in and they help companies … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #2

Posted on January 1, 2007 by John Hunter

Please let me know what you think of these carnival posts. Lean Consumption at the Post Office by Mark Edmondson – “With so much of this customer facing process broken, and the salsa dance suggestion thrown in by an earnest postal worker, my mind went tilt. Yet another example of a good employee coping as well as possible with a broken process.” Toyota Questions… Everything by Kevin Meyer – “Of course Toyota is questioning kaizen, one of the core underpinnings … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management

The IT Iceberg Secret

Posted on December 29, 2006 by John Hunter

The Iceberg Secret, Revealed by Joel Spolsky It’s pretty clear that programmers think in one language, and MBAs think in another. I’ve been thinking about the problem of communication in software management for a while, because it’s pretty clear to me that the power and rewards accrue to those rare individuals who know how to translate between Programmerese and MBAese. … Customers Don’t Know What They Want. Stop Expecting Customers to Know What They Want. It’s just never going to … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Software Development | 2 Comments

Change Your Name

Posted on December 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Best Buy Asks Man To Change Name [the broken link was removed]: Turns out if your last name is less than three letters, the online sign-up isn’t an option for you. Companies often put up barriers for no reason, then leave customer service agents to try and explain. And then this happens: When he called Best Buy one customer service agent even suggested he change his name Now that is great 🙂 Charles Yu: “I said well, I think that … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments