Comments on: How to make sure your web-related project FAILs http://zytzagoo.net/blog/2009/01/05/how-to-make-sure-your-web-related-project-fails/ On life, web dev and everything in between. Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:18:21 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: gjurassic http://zytzagoo.net/blog/2009/01/05/how-to-make-sure-your-web-related-project-fails/comment-page-1/#comment-1640 gjurassic Fri, 22 May 2009 15:23:42 +0000 http://zytzagoo.net/blog/?p=85#comment-1640 Amen. Amen.

]]> By: arkon108 http://zytzagoo.net/blog/2009/01/05/how-to-make-sure-your-web-related-project-fails/comment-page-1/#comment-1494 arkon108 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:43:55 +0000 http://zytzagoo.net/blog/?p=85#comment-1494 <blockquote cite="http://zytzagoo.net/blog/2009/01/05/how-to-make-sure-your-web-related-project-fails/">make sure non-technical people are managing technical people</blockquote> Personally, my favorite :). One of the saddest moments of my life as a developer happened when certain manager of relatively big programming team (approx 15 developers) asked why do programmers need to do unit testing, what good was it for and said it was just a waste of time. (and the manager was actually supposed to be tech-savvy) But, I do have a question - how to defend this position? I mean, some executive could say this misses the point - along the lines of “You don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car” reasoning. I would say that non-technical manager just doesn't understand the needs and modus operandi of tech people responsible for the nitty gritty part of the job, but still, I believe there are skilled non-technical people who can successfully lead techies, based on their great leadership, communication and people skills. Still, I haven't met in person such a competent manager. It seems that the more non-technical they are, the more intimidating the knowledge of their team seems. Not to mention difficulties in explaining <strong>why</strong> something should be done.

make sure non-technical people are managing technical people

Personally, my favorite :).

One of the saddest moments of my life as a developer happened when certain manager of relatively big programming team (approx 15 developers) asked why do programmers need to do unit testing, what good was it for and said it was just a waste of time. (and the manager was actually supposed to be tech-savvy)

But, I do have a question – how to defend this position? I mean, some executive could say this misses the point – along the lines of “You don’t have to be a mechanic to drive a car” reasoning.

I would say that non-technical manager just doesn’t understand the needs and modus operandi of tech people responsible for the nitty gritty part of the job, but still, I believe there are skilled non-technical people who can successfully lead techies, based on their great leadership, communication and people skills.

Still, I haven’t met in person such a competent manager. It seems that the more non-technical they are, the more intimidating the knowledge of their team seems. Not to mention difficulties in explaining why something should be done.

]]>