Management styles in Web Development

"Promoting an environment that allows error just makes people defensive. Not try things that might be bad."
- Tom DeMarco, Peopleware

One of the best teachers I know, once a student of martial arts left hand a wooden board, when he knew he was not going to break (due to incorrect technique). After the failed attempt of the student, said the group "I would say that was not going to break, but who am I to stand in the way of your dreams and goals?"

It 'happened a number of times I've arrived in a corporation and heard statements such as "managed projects as you wish. After all, you hired for your expertise and experience." These bold proclamations inevitably give way to desire operations to change things for the better good (ie bypass some of my decisions).

Perhaps this is because the management of the project is presented as a logical process of pre-defined, very similar operations. However, the point of a project is to create something new and never seen before, thus introducing an element of great unknown company. This is one of the reasons why risk analysis is an important part of a formalized project management methodologies.

Passion or concerns can often lead to operational management actions that actually stifle a project. Just as a mother, at some point have to 'cut the apron strings' and allow their child to make mistakes for themselves.

It 's like watching a child beating a toy against a wall, it says "it's going to break if you continue to do that" or take the toy and save it from certain destruction, potentially depriving a valuable lesson about taking care of them property? On the other hand, some lessons can not be learned the hard way, for example, cross the street without looking both ways.

The question then becomes, are you watching someone make a mistake? I would venture that this would often be the motivation of top management, which seems to them that you are making a mistake that could cost the company money or customer relations damage, so it is logical to intervene before it's too late?

I'm pretty sure that no CEO wakes up and thinks to themselves "hmm, how can I make my project manager's life difficult today?" I must say that I do not mean for this article is a denigration of past employers. Operations managers typically do not buy their position without being very intelligent and capable. But I have seen the phenomena called Joel Spolsky Management Command and Conquer. This is where the person least qualified to make a decision is doing just that.

From the companies with whom I have worked so far, I have seen three different approaches when it comes to operating dabble in project management. One type is commonly interposed, if they felt a better way of doing things (with the changes that he could not veto), another began to come to the rescue if things were not going as planned (again, with Me having no power of veto), and probably the most interesting was a leader who only occasionally intervened, but it allowed me to have final say.

Personally, I would not work in an environment where people did not say something if they felt you were about to make a serious error with your work. But this is obviously part of what team is about. People need to be able to ask questions and make suggestions. But they should also be given the opportunity to reject a suggestion without egos getting into it.

The project management discipline is not easy, so why not everyone does. As mentioned previously, the reason for this is because a significant part of a project is unique. Getting a good deal to the unique aspect of projects is only through experience, and experience comes in two flavors: success and failure. Unfortunately, it is difficult for some people to accept the unpredictable nature of software development because mistakes can be costly.

Another interesting ingredient that is added to this dynamic is the growing adoption of industry standard design methodologies such as PRINCE2 of Great Britain. Although this is definitely a good direction for the software industry, it poses a potential obstacle.

PRINCE2 is exactly aimed at project managers, no doubt. The problem lies in the fact that non-project managers within the team also needs to understand the methodology to make it work well. I think it's possible for a project manager to teach the basics of the PRINCE2 to subordinates, as team managers, programmers, designers, etc. (for them just enough to get by). But would this work up, with company management? ......