On Stanier (2020), 11th chapter:
When there is too much attention on your project (The Eye of Sauron)
Sometimes there can be excessive interest in whatever your team is doing. This can be evidence for explicit and implicit status requests all around the company (from both expected and unexpected places). The author calls that the Eye of Sauron.
This is stressful by nature. To navigate this well, one must:
- Keep the team aligned
- Over-communicate progress
- Keep the project open for feedback
- Release as often as possible
- Practice Software development pragmatism
- Think about this: SCRUM focus on knowledge acquisition. It might help on packaging comms
See also
Scrutiny is unavoidable
Post-project decompression
The author mentions that it's important to give some space to your team after a stressful project (see Scrutiny is unavoidable and When there is too much attention on your project (The Eye of Sauron)).
Not only do I agree, but I'd also add that this is a worthwhile concept to carry throughout life: chill after stressful stuff.
On any scope:
- Celebrate your achievements, this marks a good moment and creates a nice memory
- Reflect on what happened and how one can improve
On a manager's scope:
- Leave space for your team to do self-directed projects or minor tasks
- Pick up less visible things for some time
On a personal scope:
- Be content and grateful
Productivity decreases as the company grows
Productivity per capita decreases as the company grows. The author cites Brooks's Law as a pointer to a good source of info (which is Brooks (1995)).
This is a natural process since human coordination is hard and code gets outdated as soon as it's deployed. To avert frustration over your team you should:
- Expose Hidden complexity in software projects
- Don't be timid about showing progress as it happens
- Practice Software development pragmatism
Scope VS Resources VS Time
Every project is governed by a balance between scope, resources and time. A manager will have to weigh in and manipulate those attributes to be successful in their projects.
Things to consider when thinking about each aspect:
Scope:
- Break it and categorize its items as "must", "should", "could", "won't" (MoSCoW method)
- Define stretch goals
Time:
- Understand the deadlines. Are those hard deadlines? Is there some leeway? Can we get away with approximated dates? Adjust your plan according to these answers.
Resources:
- Can we parallelize tasks?
- How can we optimally deploy our developers without them stepping on each other's toes? (keep Brooks's Law in mind)
- Do we have the necessary expertise already available?
For all three, consider SCRUM focus on knowledge acquisition