Friday, April 28, 2006

I have a bunch of things to write about so I'm going to compose a few things and spread them out over several entries. Today, it's about interviewing people for jobs in the department.

One day at the lead meeting my manager mentioned that another round of interviews was coming up and he'd need volunteers. Interviews at my workplace usually involve two interviews where a manager is paired with a department employee and a panel interview with one manager and three regular folks.

He looked at me when he said this which I took as a sign that I should volunteer. (Actually later he told me that he thought I was still pretty new to testing and he didn't think I would have to interview yet but if I wanted to...)

I did volunteer. Last week I was sent times for two one-hour interviews where I was paired with a manager that I really didn't know very well. I was also sent a sheet with ten qualities we should look for in the applicant and the weighting of each quality in the decision, a spreadsheet that would help me calculate a total, the job description, and some resumes. I've done a lot of interviewing over the years but I was interested in seeing if this seemingly organized process really was more helpful in hiring than good old intuition.

I did two interviews back-to-back. The first person didn't talk and the second one didn't stop talking. I won't go into the details, but they were very much like other interviews I've done except the manager and I did a good job of taking turns. I went back to my desk and asked a neighbor what I was supposed to do now. He told me I didn't have to fill out the spreadsheet or even have any special writeups, just gather my opinions for the sumup meeting.

Today we had the sumup meeting. Everyone shared their opinions of the candidates. The managers didn't talk, just listened to everyone's opinions and asked questions. Generally it was very positive but there were some "yellow flags" about some of the candidates and some interesting discussion. The most interesting part was when we talked about how some workplaces are so negative that people just bring attitude into the interview even though they know they shouldn't.

Yes, the managers will make the final decision but the process not only has an impact on who gets hired but it also helps everyone understand what qualities they should work on themselves.

They're hiring dozens of people now so I suppose I'll do some more interviewing. Besides it was fun and I'm doing my department duties and I feel like part of the group.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Busy? and Misc.

How busy do you need to be to be happy? Not very busy, kind of busy, very busy, or crazy busy? (What are the other words for busy?)

Some people like to hang out all the time (and somehow manage to keep their jobs) and some people (but not many) like to be manic all the time. I definitely like to be busy.

But busy is only one aspect of activity. Another critical aspect is the quality of your activity. Do you spend hours doing something only to have to undo it or do you actually finish and get some satisfaction out of it. Are you actually using your mind and learning or are you doing the equivalent of pasting stamps on envelopes? Are you busy because you fear the consequences of not being active or do you like what you're doing?

I'm busy most days now. I picked up an active project and I think I might pick up another one since one of my active projects went on hold. I'm constantly figuring out how to do things that I haven't done yet that are part of my job or trying to puzzle out an architecture.

I know I'm at the right level of busyness because on an average day I'm mostly meeting with people or I'm listening to tunes and cranking out various documents. I know I'm not too busy because I don't stay late to finish things (okay I did that once) and I sign up for classes and seminars that squeeze my time but keep increasing my skills. Oh yeah, I do get to eat lunch and take walks outside too.

Misc.

I completed a survey the other day at work about the facility services and won a drawing for a $50 gift certificate--the kind you can use at a bunch of different stores and restaurants. Very sweet.

We're going to have a reorganization very soon--a relatively small one as these things go. As a veteran of numerous reorgs at Not Big Blue, I know that you just wait for it all to finish and then figure out how it affects you and if you need to do something other than just accept it (which is what you usually have to do). The initial reports are that I won't be affected too much.

We're using soccer players from my new workplace on my coed rec team. There's a guy and woman who are really good and fun to have on the team.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

I've been a very inconsistent blogger lately. Between soccer, working on an election campaign, spring drawing me outside, and time spent planning for a graduation, I've been slightly stretched lately. Not badly stretched, but enough that I haven't written even though I've had material.

What to do? I've decided to commit to blogging twice a week, probably on Mon/Tues and Fri/Sat. I like writing something other than my 9 to 5 content--meeting minutes, build/deployment descriptions, etc.--so I want to continue. Also, there are interesting things going on at my workplace and at my former workplace that I want to comment on. I'm going to take notes during the week and write off them when writing time comes.

Project Management Offices.

The answer to every workplace's problems is a PMO--well, maybe. The PMO is home to a group of project managers who attempt to document and manage whatever projects a company's management decides should be done. Document as in figure out and write down why the project is being done, what's required, who does what, and how it should work in the end. Manage as in trying to make what's documented real.

I'm not in a PMO. My company has several separate PMOs, and I work with project managers in one of them--a large group that handles migration projects. They handle the overall management of the project and I have the Quality piece which involves working with a subset of the project team. I'm close enough to the PMO that I know what goes on in the group and the politics. About a third of the project managers are highly paid contract project managers who are very knowledgeable and professional.

In fact there's a senior project manager job open in that group that my coworker thinks I should apply for. My spouse thinks she's trying to get rid of me but we actually get along very well. I don't have my PMI certification yet and I'm clueless on a lot of the advanced pmilingo so I don't think I'll try this time.

Widgets is developing a PMO. I wonder if anyone in management there is as supportive of a PMO as they say they are. Do they have the patience to explain why they want a project, explain EVERYTHING that's required, and then go through a CHANGE MANAGEMENT process when they change their mind later?

Yes, real project management should help any company do their projects faster, cheaper, and better. Coding off real requirements! Figuring out what might go wrong before it does! Planning with all the groups involved so nothing is missed! Actually leaving time for testing so the project meets quality standards that are specific and measurable!

There is some bad news about PMOs. Having a PMO doesn't mean that high level managers can't make bad decisions and then tell the PMO to "make it so." Sure the project managers will provide documentation that may lead to questions about how a commitment fits into the business plan, but project managers are implementers, not decision makers.

Still, having a PMO is going to help the people working on the projects a lot! Good night and good luck to PMOs everywhere.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

I got an email from Audible about a new book--Working With You Is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work by Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster. The blurb says, among other things,

"If you find yourself getting fed up and frustrated with a colleague whose incompetence is driving you crazy, a boss who gets angry when you're not a mind reader....chances are you're caught in an emotional trap in the workplace. Quit complaining and do something! Freeing yourself is easier than you think, and you don't have to quit or fire anyone to do it. The solution is simple: Take control of your own response."

While I haven't listened to this book and probably won't, I already have a response: If your manager is driving you crazy, just quit! Tempering your reactions means 1) you're supposed to say it's no one's fault if work is hell (wrong) and 2) you wind up spending a massive amount of energy controlling your responses (which may be justified) instead of doing anything constructive.

At my current job I spend energy on prepping for meetings, preparing planning and tracking documents, running meetings, etc. I don't have to spend any time figuring out how not to react badly to bitter, sarcastic managers. Life is good.

Monday, April 03, 2006

All Hands

On Friday I went to my first "All Hands Meeting" at work. (That's large company talk for a meeting of a large organization where everyone is invited/required to come.)

There must be about two hundred people in my organization so we were in the auditorium in one of the other buildings. I knew a lot of the technical groups were in my organization but I was surprised to see the Project Management Office people there too. Everyone was relaxed and talkative.

This was the yearly meeting about goals. My company's philosophy is that everyone in the company should know what the company's goals are and everyone's personal goals should connect with the larger goals. It took me about four months to get my head around this but now I understand how it's done.

The first step every year is having a meeting where the higher-ups present their goals, which are, of course, in line with the top goals of the company. At the All Hands meeting the Senior Vice President/CTO of our company (which is a big chunk of the larger corporation) told us about last years accomplishments and this year's goals. He's pretty entertaining and, like everyone here, is very open about the good and bad things that go on at the company. He gave direct answers to blunt questions, some of which were a bit surprising (or at least different than "common knowledge.")

Then the organization director did his thing, then the directors from the next level down. They all talked about whether we made last year's goals and then showed their organization's goals--my organization's goals.

The funny thing is that my manager required all of us to finish our personal goals by the end of last month since it seemed like this All Hands meeting was never going to happen. My goals are, in fact, the same as my peer's goals which she used last year.

There were some criticisms of the meeting from the people in my small group. The goal about staff development was too vague for everyone, there were a bunch of slides that you couldn't read and we didn't have handouts, and, worst of all, we ran out of time before they announced the winners of the peer awards so they didn't announce them and just sent an email later.

Oh well, for an All Hands meeting it wasn't tooo bad. Next year, they probably won't make those mistakes again. If I'm there, I'll let you know.