Contents of

Roundtable on Technical Leadership:
A SHAPE Forum Dialogue

edited by Gerald M. Weinberg,
Marie Benesh, and James Bullock

ISBN: 978-0-932633-51-4  
©2002  176 pages   softcover  
$15.95 (plus shipping)

Subject(s): Communication Skills, Programming, Software Project Management, Technical Leadership

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Contributors xi

Preface xxv

Series Preface xxvii

Introduction 1

• The Thread 1

1        Tricks That Ignore Those Who Come After

• The Thread 6
• Hard-Coding Information That Will Change in the Future 6
• Failing to Clean Up Temporary Code 7
• Making Comments Impossible to Ignore 8
• Overloading the Value of an Identifier 9
• Overloading the Mind of the Writer or the Reader 10
• Creating Cryptic or Cute Variable Names 11
•Using One Argument to Change the Meaning of Another 11
• Naming with Too Much (or Too Little) English 12
• Casting Types: Smart or Stupid? 13
• Building Monolithic Code 14
• Disregarding the Difficulty of Maintenance 16
• Lessons 18

2        Tricks That Destroy Portability 19

• The Thread 20
• Embedding Machine Dependencies in What Looks Like Portable Code 20
• Depending on the Permanence of Message Texts 21
• Inventing Your Own Programming Language 22
• Depending on Internal Compiler Details 23
• Using Half-Significant Things That Could Become Significant 24
• Arbitrarily Limiting a Tool's Capacity 27
• Optimizing for Something You've Got Lots Of 27
• Ignoring Compiler Warnings 28
• Lacking -- or Ignoring -- Information from the Compiler 29
• Depending on the Compiler to Be Consistent Across Environments 31
• Not Imposing Controls Over the Installation Process 32
• Lessons 33

3        Stupid Design Tricks 34

• The Thread 35
• Failing to Design Your Program Before You Code It 35
• Failing to Consider at Least Three Design Alternatives 37
• Making it Overly Complex 37
• Designing Without Thinking 39
• Missing the Key Driver of Risk 41
• Being Penny-Wise and Pound-Foolish on Moral Grounds 41
• Failing to Think in Terms of Trade-Offs 42
• Binding Too Early or Too Late 43
• Writing a Program When No Program Is Needed 45
• Lessons 47

4        Stupid Design Document Tricks 48

• The Thread 49
• Leaving No Design Artifacts and No Garbage 49
• Mistaking Documents for Documentation 51
• Coding from the Wrong Type of Document 52
• Mistaking Documents for the Design 53
• Failing to Design Your Documents 54
• Simple for the Programmer; Incomprehensible to the User 55
• Thinking "I'll Be Gone By Then" 57
• Lessons 60

5        Tricks Arising From Social Inadequacy 61

• The Thread 62
• Career Development Through Co-Dependencey 62
• Using Technical Tricks to Avoid Social Situations 62
• Not Documenting Your Assumptions 63
• Not Asking for Help 64
• Preventing Others from Learning, by Being Impatient 65
• Failing to Notice Your Fault Feedback Ratio and to Do Something About It 66
• Not Documenting Why Choices Were Made 66
• Lack of Feedback Doesn't Necessarily Mean the Code Was Good 67
• Let Your Tools Do Their Work 68
• Keeping in the Stuff That's Corrected by Other Stuff 69
• Replacing One Big Mess with an Unending Series of Small Messes 71
• Give a Fresh Start When Needed 73
• Failing to Use Your Own Product 73
• Lessons 75

6        Experts and Gurus as Leaders 76

• The Thread 77
• "Guru" As a Degrading Term 77
• Not Labeling, but Hypothesizing 79
• Be an Expert Who Can Teach Expertness 79
• Be Recognized by Other Gurus as a Guru 80
• Transcend the Realities Others Live In 81
• Know the Difference Between the Map and the Territory 82
• Be Content to Be Content 84
• Be Accessible and Humble 84
• Be Emotional 85
• Lessons 87

7        The Leader as Learner 88

• The Thread 89
• Learn at a High Level 89
• Be Both Inventive and Traditional 90
• Immerse Yourself in a Virtuous Learning Cycle 90
• Have Personal Experience 91
• Be Self-Aware 92
• Be Able to Communicate Your Expertise 93
• Be a Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment 94
• Do Not Need to Be Omnipotent 95
• Remember That There Are Some Things Even a Guru Can't Do 95
• Lessons 96

8        The Expert as Teacher 97

• The Thread 98
• Provide More Choices 98
• Provide Distinctions 98
• Let Them Experience Their Own Experience 99
• Provide a Discovery Trail 100
• Don't Confuse Beginners 101
• Be Up-Front with Oversimplification 103
• Select Students 103
• Engage Each Learner 105
• Connect with the Learners Where They Are 106
• Teach on a "Pay as You Go" Plan 108
• Provide the Questions, Not the Answers 110
• Have a Sense of Timing 112
• Help People Discover What They Already Know 114
• Lessons 115

9        The Courage to Teach in Any Direction 116

• The Thread 117
• Give Your Boss Some Credit 117
• Balance Self-Worth and Safety 119
• Luck Is Always a Factor (Especially If You Help) 120
• Don't Confuse Courageous with Dumb 121
• Is What You're Getting Worth What You're Paying? 123
• Plant a Seed; Cultivate; Be Patient 124
• See Them As Human Beings 126
• Lessons 127

10        The Courage To Be Yourself 128

• The Thread 129
• Don't Try to Be a Generation Younger 130
• Dress to Make Both of You Comfortable 132
• By and Large, They'll Have to Resolve Their Own Chaos 132
• If It's Not a Good Fit, Don't Do It 133
• Adapt in Order to Communicate 135
• Is It the Hair, or Is It the Arrogance? 135
• Who You Are Is More Important Than What You Wear 136
• Lessons 137

Bibliography 139

Index 141

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