Before reading

It is almost the end of the book and I am really exited about it, I will not give you any spoiler about which is the last chapter so you’ll have to read every single post I post, evil? Maybe, do I do it on purpose? Of course, in this journey we are going together, so if I am not finished neither you are, anyways focus on the book, the last time the book kept flat, nothing exciting and nothing usefull, not a new school lesson so a little meh, not bad and not good, lets see if this thing gets better, I really hope it does.

Chapter 20

One more we get to know from a character that we thought that it was going to be really important to the story but suddendly dissapeared from one day to another, yup you guys know who am I talking about, none other than our dear Lahska, she left a message to Mr T about sending a friend of hers to meet at Morovia, none other than another strange men who apparently got kidnapped and sent to morovia than none nother than that evil disappearing woman we missed.

That strange mas was calles Harry, apparently he was someone really famous, someone who has been writing about everything in the field, an expertise who knos everything what is needed to do things right, and in that moment that was exactly what Mr T wanted. Remember that angry manager from a few chapters before well seems like no one could got rid of him, so our hero told Harry about it, and a few moments later that problem was no longer a problem, that manager got demoted, the thing that was happening with this manager is that he only wanted to rest, he wanted to quit things because of the pressure that he had on his back, it was that simple that Mr T could not see it, as easy as that. What was happening in that managers mind is something that happens to a lot of us, we are under that more pressure because we dont want to let everybody down, so we focus on one only thing and that is to get things done, no matter the cost, even if we take some people with us, and of course thats not sane, not at all.

Taking advantage of Harry being in Morovia Mr T took advantage of and decided to take Harry to a meeting where the main discussion topic was about the airline project, aperently they were some things in the meeting that get everyone angry, the problem here was that the meeting was overcrowded a lot of people who actually had nothing to do with the project so none other than Harry came up with the steps to keep a meeting with only the really required people

• look around and declare their intentions
• agenda agreement
• if there are some people who are not participating kick them out
• now the ones who stayed make your statements

Miracles may happen ( but don’t wait for them)

Chapter 21

Seemed like another day of work, birds tweeted, the sun was up and everyone was in the mood of being ready to keep doing it good, everything seemed to normal, to normal to be true, and of course in a book like this nothing is normal at all, the only diference is that the office that kept close for almost 10 months was now open, and the person that was inside was that calm that normal, that when Mr T found out he went totally crazy, exactly, there is only one woman in the world that could make our beloved Mr T go mad, none other than our beloved Lahska.

Mr T was furious about Lahska being back, I mean he was happy after all but angry because she left him in one of the most important moment of his life, she was the one who put him in that situation and she left without saying a word, there was so much things that she could have helped our hero, but as we know in every book, there is no easy way, even Lahska know that. Mr T tried to explain Lahska how hard has been everything with Mr B, and how everything got complicated from the moment she left, but she stopped him and explained that Mr B was no longer part of his problems, Why? Well Mr B got herpes, so he neded to go to clinical that was in another part of the world, and he will be there until the projects are done, don’t ask how, Lahska is the one who makes the dirty tricks, not me.

With these, it was no longer needed to have 3 diferent team, so team A got splitted into the other teams, everything seemed so right at the moment but of course working around a deadline makes our minds up, so did to our hero, even tho he did not have to finish those projects to Mr B deadline, that though could not make out of his mind, you know sometimes things get stuck in our heads more than what we want them to, so in this case that deadline got into our hero’s mind.

My own experience

I have actually never been in a situacion or meeting where people got kicked because they should actually not be part of, so I dont really know what to tell you about it, I mean the only good advice that comes to my mind is to warn you guys, do not enter to meetings you are not invited to, thats my only advice for this one.

About the angry manager I would recomend you not to feel personal about it, sometimes when we are angry or when we are under a lot of pressure we tend to say and think things that we actually dont want to, in thoses cases dont take anything someone angry tells you, dont take it personal, instead try to understand what that person is going through, and think about what could be the best for that person, if space is what is needed or something else, every thing that we do to try to help our people is worth doing, because some day we are going to be in a similar position and we are going to need someone like that to be by our side

This post Dealine

This was actually a surprise, probably not to you but it was for me, finally we get to see Lahska again, and I totally get the reason why the author decided to get rid of Lahska for the half of the book, she is literally the one who can miracles and turn every bad situation into a good one, so in this case if our hero has someone like Lahska aside well this would be a book about Lahska solving the prblems of a manager, and thats probably not a well selling book, I would give an 8 because I really needed Lahska once again in my life.

Before reading

In the last chapters we dicussed about the repercutions about conflicts, not only in business, but in every field, and what is the proper way to try to treat those wounds, the trick here is to aply the solution to where it hurts, and allways try to meditate before trying to confrot it directly, just a wise advice from someone that have been into a lot of conflict, so for these chapters I am really hopping for something really juicy and story related, we are almost close to the deadline of the projects and the end of the book so I want juicy things.

Chapter 19

Of course when troubles came in a book they need to be more toubles, so the hero, in this case Mr T gets to decide the best option, not for him but for all the ones who are related to the problem and in this case, those who are afected are none others that the A team projects, seems like after some evaluation all the teams were doing really good, but the team A, the ones who are in charge of Mr B projects, of course this was something that Mr T did not expect to happend at all, he just wanted everyone to develope something worth use, not wanted to let team A go worst and dow.

The main problem here was the strategy that the A team managers were running, aparently the designning that they were doing was nothing useful for the project at all, and the real reason why this was happening is that actually these design was meant to be made by a small group of people, but in A team the group is really large, and in something so important and crucial like the design document we can not allow errors like these, otherwise we could end up in situations like this.

Then a sudden oportunity came to Mr T a manager from another project was almost done, and she needed a lot of people to work with, this may seemed like the best oportunity that Mr T could have wished at that moment, but he was actually not that sure that it was the best option at the moment, and I actually dont blame him, who could? At the end olny one choce was the wise one, so team A got splitted and everyone got what they wanted right?

Mr T wrote down some things that he learned from that

• overstaffing tends to force projects in to shortcutting they key design activity
• when work is divided over a large staff prior to completion of design the interfaces among work groups are not minimized
• Ideal staffing requieres a small core team for most of the project, and the significant numbers of people added late in the process.
• Awful suspicion: projects that set out to achieve ‘aggressive’ schedules probably take longer toi complete than they would have if started with more reasonable schedules

My own experience

Once again the main purpose of the chapter was to clarify the importance of a designing document, how before any coding the design is what really matters and is what the coding should be following to become the real product itself, remember back in the day when I advised you that usually a document of these kind is actually really useful? and remember when I told you that was actually not necesary to do it, well that has not changed a bit, there are sometimes when this document is actually not really needed, like small projects, but if you guys are working on a large project well this is actually one of the things that could happen to your project.

This post Deadline

This post was short as the book chapter, and it kinda felt like in this chapter they wanted to show us one of the things that could happend when we do things the wrong way, the book has been trying to teach us these over the chapters and in this time something more important and more crucial, I would say that it was actually not the best so far either the worst one, so I really dont have that much to say about this chapter, was nothing special nothing bad just meh, so a 5 would do it.

Before reading

The last post actually ended pretty good, even tho the chapters were not the best of the best they were what I wanted and expected so I was really happy about it, that much happy that I decided to do this post after the other one, yeah I’m in that mood so ready steady and go, lets read this things and see what does the book has for us, cant wait, or can I?

Chapter 17

Aparently the problems around our hero are way to far from ending, because in this time we are going to talk about conflic and how to solve them, well… kind of. Conflict in our field occurs more than the amount that we want it to, because as developers we think that one way to do things is the best way to do it, and other can actually think the same for other ways… so in this case conflict becomes one real deal in the business something these conflicts can be solved just by talking, something easy something simple. But what happens when the conflict becomes that big that one talk is actually not enough?

Apparently our super heroes decided that getting someone that can teach them the proper way to solve conflicts, and the best way to avoid having those, even tho they are really common they can be avoided, soo if they want to learn how to treat conflicts they need to understand conflicts as they pure form, where does most of the conflicts originate? and Who is the one who solves those conflicts, well in kinder garden usually kids tend to get into a lot of trouble, and of course there is someone, an adult, who makes things calm down, they needed to find that adult that Guru of conflict that could teach them how to avoid it, so a new search has begun.

They found someone that suited perfect as the Guru of conflict, this same man was the one that taught Mr T that when conflict is around meditation should take place, but not that kind of meditation that the monks do, I mean talking and discussing about each sides fears and worries, usually in these kind of meditation there is a third party desinterested person who is going to evaluate and make them see that the problem is actually easier than they thought.

Conflict can makes us go really mad, and unsolved conflict is actually not good for a project because a little rock in the road could turn into the snowball effect and turn the project all upside down.

Chapter 18

In this chapter we see the story of a man, someone who apparently is know for making the people around them happier, someone tho woke interest in our beloved Mr T this person is called Maestro Diyeniar but as we do with the other characters of the book we are calling him M D, aparently this person strategy or way to aproach people is by telling and hearing personal stories, of course these stories are related to what people needs are in the moment, they usually are about work, they usuarlly are about to make people happy but they are allways some learning at the end of every story that he tells, and Mr T needed that.

One good advice that MD gives to Mr T is that when they use to be younger and they hurt themselves a mum kiss will be more than enough to make thing go instantly better, that kiss was the solution and the solution was directly applied to where it hurts, so this means that if there is any problem around it, the best way to deal with this was to aply the solution directly and gently to it.

There was an oportunity for Mr T to finally test what MD taught him, they were two coworkers that were into conflict about the project of course being mad at a coworker will do nothing good for the project, so Mr T tried to aply all that he learned, meditation between these two, Mr T acted as the third party person, and can you guess how things wen? Yep nothing worked, everything seemed like nothing was actually working, and both of them decided to work the conflit by themselves alone, because of course they were not happy about what they were part of. Mr T was a little confused because he applied all thay MD tell him to do but one thing, remember that third party person, well that third party person in the conflict should be someone who is not related and has no power over them, Mr T of course is someone related and of course he has power over them, so that one detail that he forgot was the one who make it all fail.

Interlude

As most of you know about the interlude on books, it is mainly used to explain some kind of rest to the main characters, some not story related story that works for us to get to know more about the characters, about their thoughts and stuff like that, in this casi its kinda like the same.

This time our hero Mr T was feeling kinda like he was living a lie, that all the things that he was doing under Mr B knowledge were not correct, and he felt guilty, so he was ready to explode when Belinda came to explain Mr T why does the things he was doing were actually really good not only for the project, but for all of the ones who have been working on it, the amount of people that he had been helping through those months are actually unvaluable, and that the only thing that our hero needed at that time was a little rest, so a 3 day rest for everyone would suit everyone up, at least just to make them rest a little bit, so Mr T did, he went to rest and started thinking about the things he had done and how close he is to finish those projects, it is no time for leaving, Mr T knew that so he was ready to work again.

Human error note: It’s not what you don’t know that kills you, it’s what you know that isn’t.

My own experience

We all have been part of some kind of conflict, if you have not well probably you are know as the conflict guru of your group of friends, because conflicts usually happens everyday at everytime, at school, work, home, even in our dreams sometimes there is conflict, that is what makes our dreams more interesting I guess, but what do we exactly do when we are under those kind of situations, do we wait until things calm down, or do we confront the problem face to face, well whether your choice was my point here is that conflict should allways needs to be treat, this is because the more the let the conflict to grow, the worts the results, and sometimes if we are with some friends those repercutions may seem not that bad, but if we are working on a big project and there is some kind of conflict, the easier we treat it the faster we can get things done, as a good advice that I tell to all of you guys, go and have some conflicts, sometimes thats what our lives need, but do not overpass the line, and stay safe.

This post Deadline

Actually these chapters were not that amusing and not story related at all, they were just chapters to teach us something again, the good thing here is that I actually did not feel like the book was trying to teach me something and that is what I really enjoy from a book like this, that you got something you were not expecting to get and you end up happy about it, probably the Interlude was the worst thing of this time but being honest we have been reading worst, so because I actually enjoyed it I am giving these 3 chapters a 7, lets keep up with the good grades :D.

Before reading

In the last post we actually discussed about two different chapters, one that was actually not that good, and other one that actually shined in both of them there was actually no important story related things, some little problems that were solved at the end of the day and some learning that gives us something to discuss at the end of the post, so yeah, I am actually hopping to see something cool, extravagant and explosive, I dont know if because of the mood that I have or something else but lets star reading, lets go.

Chapter 15

In this chapter feels like everything is going down for Mr T, even he got rid of Dr M and all the things that wer actually making him struggle, there was actually one man that was triying to make it hard for our beloved hero, and this was Mr B, he of course wanted Mr T to get things done quicker, because all the projectsthat Mr was developing were costing tothe Morovian goverment 30 millions a year, so a lot of money was on the game and they could not be loafing around anymore.

This ment that Mr B wanted everyone to be working on the projects, it does not matter if overwork hours were needed, those projects must be ready by that deadline yes or yes, this could be a problem for the morovian workers because as we are goig to see later working more hours definitely does not means things are getting done quicker, just a spoiler for next posts.

And if that was not enough a new notice came, aparenlty the olimpic games are going to be hosted in another place, and can you imagine where? Exactly in Morovia, what a great time to add more work to Mr T, yeah because a new comunication tower needed to be builded to be able to control the amoun of aerial traffic that they are going to receive in the next months, of course because of the games, even tho it was not Mr T work because of course he did not signed for what he was the only one that could actually do it so lucky you Mr T, lucky you.

And you guys know what comes when more work is added? yeah pressure and pressure is actually a double-edged sword this because pressure is like a punishment and something really interesting about punishment is that actually small amounts of punishment can actually makes us understand and try to fix our mistakes, but if too much punishment is added we can actually break and get the total oposite from learning and things could go really bad, the same as pressure, a little pressure can put us to work, big amounts of pressure are actually not good for us and could makes us go nothing good at all. People under pressure dont think faster and of course does not work faster.

Chapter 16

I actually ended up including this chapter in the post because one post for this chapter only would be kinda short, and we want quality content no just content so lets include it here, this chapter is more like infomative than anything else, as we saw in the previous chapter a new airline tower something related project and of course saying NO is actually not an option to give, so it is actually time for our hero to set things up and start doing some real deal… wait something happened, aparently there is an angry manager in one of the projects that is scarying the developers soo it means that we are going to let the airline thing for later.

Apparently and after some research done in the book this angry manager got angry because the amount of stress that accumulated was bigger than his will, so as we discussed in the previous chapter, a little of stress can actually be good, a lot of stress is actually something that we do not want because there are some of the things that stress can do to people:

• Make people yell
• Make people turn red( make them furious)
• Makes people to humilliate people infront of others

And as we dicussed previously whan happens when some worker actually feels under apreciated? when someone who is working actually does not feels loved? well it not going to be as productive as before, thats why then things like this tend to happen it need to be solved as soon as possible, otherwise thing could get worse.

And at the end of the chapter they star talking about an SRS document, software requirement specifications document or something like this, it is a document where all the software functionalities buttons, capabilities, weaknesses and strenghts are described, what, how, and when does the software does something, it is basically like the before reading manual but it describes every single detail about the project, this document is really important because it shows other people, people who were not involved in the development of the project, it is important because this document should be able to explain the product to everyone no matter who they are.

My own experience

We all have been part of a project that seems like its not going to be finished but at the end we finish it and we are so f** proud because it was actually hard for us but we did it and we did it greatly, well if have been then you can remember what its like the days before the deadline of thay proyect, that stress acumulated can either be a fuel to us or a doom pill that goes inside us, the amount of stress is actually the same in everyone the difference is the capability to be able to control it, if you can control it then you are way ahead if not then you should be really carefull and try no to let things to get to that point. One advice that I give you and that you should try it is that if you are dealing with someone who looks angry then i recommend you to look the other way, first try to help, if you see that is not doing any good dont take it personal, when we are angry we do not say and think things that we normally do, so dont take it personal.

Finally, the document the book says about is actually really important, because when you develope something you are probably making something for people who are actually not expert in the field, so this means that we actually need to make a document so that everyone who wants to use our system is able to work correctly with the system and not get confused, by this we make this document in which every element of our system is described so is actually easy for everyone to understand your system is something not necesarry but I highly recomment you to do it.

This post Deadline

This was actually not bad at all, the chapters were a little short but were actually full of things of story, problems, learning and good avices, probably these kind of topics were already discussed back in the early days of the posts but the thing that actually reminds us of the importance of these topics is actually really good, I can easly say that this chapters were excatly what I expected, not too large and full of usefull things, they were important, short and usefull, so this means that this post deadline is a solid 8.5 I was happy after reading these chapters and happy after making this post.

Before reading

The last time we talked dicussed about the book it was kinda like something that we actually did not expected to happen, the promotion of Waldo to a manager, it of course adds to the book a little bit of spicyness, which is actually what we needed from the book, as we totally know this book is like a roller coaster, sometimes it makes us feel like we are on the top of the hill and sometimes it makes us fell the other way, but lets look what the book has for us.

Chapter 13

This chapter actually feels like nothing that important, because it actually star with Mr T wanting to accelerate the things, aparently the QuickerStill project needed to be finished before Mr B’s new deadline, and of course as its name tells things needed to get quicker still if they really wanted to be finished by that time.

Just a little problem with the project, now Mr T needed Waldos’s help, because he was the one who adviced him on this hard situation but now Waldo has other business to attend because he got promoted the last chapter, and this new assistant was good but he wanst Waldo at all, time’s running out and the software needs to be ready, so the only thing that comes to Mr T is to speak with the people he already know and ask them about how to accelerate things, little did Mr T knew that the solution that we will be given was the one he already had, there is no such thing as short term, every project is different in its own way, this means that no other schema needs to be followed, instead make one for QuickerStill, thats the only way to get things faster, do it right.

Chapter 14

This chapter is actually way different from the last one, in this there is actually a lot to dicuss, so instead of explaining what happened by detail I will just give a brief explanation and at the end I will share my opinion about the things that were dicussed in the book, so lets start.

Mr T was acustomed to be the one and only that decided what, when and how is the project going to be, but then Mr B appeared and now someone else named Dr Menotti were giving instructions to Mr T about the projects and Mr T was done with it so he decided to go with Dr Menotti and ask him to stay away from his proyects, which of couse was going to be something difficult, so he asked General Markov about how he needed to aproach Dr M, and Markov explained that the only way that he actually works with Mr T is that Mr T is not a boss, he understands the people and his problems and shows that he cares about people, he makes people loved, so making Dr M loved will probably be a great way to convince him.

Ready and steady Mr T went to Dr M’s after a little talk with between the two of them, the real deal came out, and Dr M was actually not the one in charge, there is some other people whose Mr T did not know about that was actually more powerfull than Dr M, and that if Mr T wanted them to stay away from their projects decitions he needed to convince that person, the only problem is that if Mr T wanted to go and talk to that other person he needed to give Waldo in exchange, aparently Waldo’s skills were pretty usefull for Dr M. Finally, Mr T agreed and he was able to talk to that person, Mr T was ready to talk and try to convince that person to leave the project, once he entered that person was already waiting for him, Kenoro, someone who nobody knew about, as soon as Mr T entered Kenoro asked him about the real reason why he was there, Mr T barely explained when Kenoro already accepted to stay away from the project decitions, but only one condition, Kenoro wanted to develope, be part of Mr T’s team, and as easy as that they sealed the deal.

My own experience

Through the years that I have been «working» on the field I actually noticed something that actually in this book is mentioned right in chapter 13 and that most of you have probablly noticed before and that is if you want to accelerate things there is actually no easy way, a project is done by its firts deadline if started in a right date and is made correctly thats it. Other thing that was mentioned is that usually we are more productive and willing to work if we are sorrounded by the people who shows respect for us, and in a certain way that we feel loved by those, it could probably seem a little not true, but the thing is that it is actually totally true, I have experienced it before and I can assure you that, if you dont trust the book then trust me, that I have been working with a lot of people for a long time.

This post Deadline

Since we discussed about tho chapters I would like to judge them as individuals but give a final grade, the first chapter felt like nothing related to the story and more like !hey guys there is something that we want to show you but we dont now how so lets put it here! kinda, not bad but not good either, a solid 4. And on the other hand the second one felt like a mistery unsolved, something that we did not expected to happen, some sacrifice some W T F, but the good way things and that is actually what makes the book entertaining and keeps you wanting for more, not a solid 10 but a well deserved 8. So at last this post deadline ends up at 6, thats above average 4 sure.

Before reading

I know it has been a long since I wrote a post but I did not feel like doing it, but now we are back in the game so lets start. The last time we talked about the book we ended up in a situation where all the things were running perfectly for Mr T, but then the NNL decided to leave Morovia and leave someone in charge, someone called Mr B, and this Mr B decided to update things a little bit he reduced the deadline for the six projects and desmantelated the a and b teams that he had for every project just to make one team per project, of course Mr T was not happy about it but with his coworkers decided to run the same projects but withouth Mr B to know it, which actually means more work to do, and less time.

Chapter 12

By now and with the changes Mr B did all the good developers were now working on the projects for Mr B and the other devs were working for Mr T in a place that General Markov knew and Mr B did not. This means that now they have 18 projects to run six A teams and twelve B and C teams, which of course is a tremendous amount of work, which of course our main characters will have to deal with it, it could no everything perfect right?

While Mr T was hanging around he found a misterious letter from Lahska, a letter that said that she was now working in a company in Massachusetts where they focused on meassure things but more specifically software, and that she met someone that could be really useful for Mr T operations now that he has more work to do and less time to do it.

A strange men came to Morovia, Lashka’s friend, a men that knew exactly what to say, when to say and how to say things, who spoke twice as fast as a human being and someone who knew everything about Morovia and computers combined, someone who apparently knew more than the NNL himself.

This men were only in morovia for almost five hours but in those five hours he did more than Mr T could have done in weeks, with all the data and all the information that Mr T had in his office he developed a chart where all the six projects were now meassured in a unit called function point, a unit that nobody knew what do to with, nobody until Belinda came. As soon as Belinda understood how the units worked she knew that all the models and diagrams that they have been designing were now usefull and had a meaning, something that they were trying to do for a long time but could not because of some things that we will discuss later.

Now with everything understood Mr T wanted to know a way to determine in which part of the whole development where they, he wanted to meassure in time a software that is not done, the way that this could be done is by analyzing some other projects projects that have been done and has been similar to the things they are doing ATM.

But they needed someone that could recap information, someone that knew everyone and everything that happened in Morovia, someone who knew how to get information and get it quickly, someone like…. Wait Waldo brought us some cofee, thanks Wald now let us think about someone who has been here all along, yeah thats probably someone who we dont already know, Hey Waldo can you get info about people around here that could fill this job, and quick please? You just gotta be in the right place to become a manager, Waldo all of a sudden and because he was the right man became a manager, because in big projects digging for data from which you can learn a lot is really important and having someone that specializes on it its actually really good.

Now it was time to start working again because six big projects will not be ready in one day.

Belinda was upset, not because something was not going according the plan but because it took them almost months to start what Lahska’s friend did in almost five hours, there is no such thing as we could not do it without him, there is always something that we can do, the difference is that if is hard enough to make us lazy, it will make us lazy, and it’s normal, I am not saying it is ok but sometimes we need a little break from the lots of work that we are into.

My own experience

Through the years that I have been working on different projects I have never faced a problem when hidding from the boss was the answer thats something that I recommend you not to do it because I will cause you trouble so do not do it, but the thing that there is something that we can do but laziness gets control over us thats a total fact, sometimes when something is really dificult we wait until someone arrives to help us to start working on it, but there is always something that we can do, we just have to find out what is that thing that we need to to and start doing it.

And is totally normal not to be sure what our mission on earth is, the only thing that we should be worried about is if the things that we are doing at the moment are making us happy or not, that is the thing we sould be worry about, remember to always to what you really like.

This post deadline

Here we go again, as I said in the previous post, this book has some ups and downs, even though this was not the best chapter that we have read, this was actually one of the good ones, because it had story, had some trouble and had a little mesage at the end of the chapter that made us think about our mission on earth, this is what I really like about this book, its like a box of chocolates you never know what you are gonna to get. So for this reason I decided yo give this chapter a 7/10 Because I liked it and I love when I like this book.

Before reading

In the previous chapters we talked about two new different characters one that seems to be a current character, Markov, and one that only appeared to show Mr T about project managemen and how to assure that the projects that he is doing get to their full potential, Dr Rizoli, they were not the most interesting chapters of all but sure they taught us a lot about project manamegent, which of course is the focus of the book, now lets read The Deadline.

Chapter 10

Time has happened since the last chapter apparently Mr T is in Rome because he has been living the life of a project manager, and by that time he actually contacts with a friend to know about the money that the morovians promised for him, that since the first day a big amount of money would be in his account and as they said the money was in its account, by talking to that friend they get to remember a boss of Mr T when he was an employee back in the day, Mr T actually remembered this person because he was actually a really good boss, if an employee remember a boss is either for one of two reasons, that boss was actually extremely great, or it was extremely rude, there is no middle point in here.

As they keep talking his friend actually introduces someone that could be usefull for Mr T, this person names Jamid, they get to meet once they are there, Mr T of course wants to know about what Jamid has done for project management because eventhough Mr T is not the most expert of all, he is going to keep learning until he becomes the best, Jamid tries to explain Mr T that usually the guts are not always the best to follow, that sometimes models need to be made, even when they are not the most accurate way to meassure things, it is for sure one good way to know if something is taking the course that we want it to take of what course would be taking by doin certain changes, models and simulations could be really helpful because they are easy to understand and can predict the behaviour of the process.

Team production is very variant because it does not follows matematical rules, so every simulation is a proyection of what the best scenario could look like, one example that they give in the book is that if 5 developers finishes a proyect in 12 months, then 10 developers would finish it in 6 months, and that could make sense, if about pure math we were talking about but in project management is kinda diferent because time would be wasted between the team because adding new people uses the team time to teach how things should be done. In big projects there is always someone being trained, someone that is leaving and someone that trains, this of course is not expected in a matematical formula but sure it can be represented by a simulation.

Finally Jamid gives a copy of a modeling software to Mr T so he can also start modeling for his projects.

Chapter 11

Mr T has never feelt so happy before, being fired and then being kidnapped by Lahska was actually the best that could posibily happend to him, he has Belinda and Markov by his side, just as every of us we have had, they were the dream tream of the novel. He was just as happy as a kind in christmas morning, he has his own boss, the only person who was above him was the NNL, but he agreed with every decision made by Mr T so there was no one above him, everything was running perfectly, but of course our hero needed some obstacles to make the novel interesting so then a bad new came.

After a morning walk by the city in his office there was a man waiting for Mr T, a man named Mr Belok, as soon as he enters his office he sees the sign that Waldo made that was counting the days left until the DEADLINE, but the day before the counter that was marked in the sign was 607, today was 420, not even 421, or even 419, 420, as if nobody of us would get that reference, a funny but not needed reference.

Mr Belok introduces himself and explains to Mr T that the NNL had leave Morovia, and he is going to be away for a while, meanwhile Belok would be in charge of everything in Morovia, this including the projects that Mr T is manageging, so with every day Morovia is loosing a great amount of money, that is why he decided to reduce the deadline, reducing it by 25%, this because the amount of money that Morovia would be gaining would be greater than the one they expected before.

There is nothing left for Mr T to do, he tried everything to convince Belok that changing the deadline was not the option, but Belok did not change his mind, so the only thing that Mr T can do is to follow Belok’s rules, did he?, well the dream team actually planned something can be actually follow Mr Belok’s rules but at the same time doing the projects as they want it, of course this would be all secret, because at the end of the day there is no job with no politics.

My own experience

Usually when a project is made by you, a serious project there certain kind of documentation you must be done, this documentation includes, the purpose of your project, the model that you are going to be following, how the project is connected within, the reviews and other things that can be used to read your project and understand it by anyone who reads that document. Actualy in any job, no matter which job you are in, there are always politics, no matter how liberalistic a company can be, the world is ruled by politics, so the companies, imagine being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want it, it would be a total disaster, politics acts like rules, rules to keep the order of things.

This post Deadline

Ok this was totally really different from what we expected from the previous chapters, seems like the novel has some ups and downs, sometimes it keeps us so trapped that we want to know more about the story, and something we just want to finish reading because it actualy feels like a wikipedia article, these chapters were more like the second one, do not missunderstand me, I like it, the part where it teaches us that there is no free job, and mapping is always a good measurement tool I really felt like that was interesting, what I dit not find interesting was the part that actually they teaches us this, in a dialog, there just two people talking and thats the way that the books teaches us these kinds of things, It is not bad, but not the best, I would hope to see more story examples with a little message at the end that shows us what the book is triyng to tell us, for this reason y will give a 6/10, because the novel really got me and now it started to lose me again.

Before reading

The last chapter that we talked about The Deadline it actually ended in a very instrctural way.
the chapter focusen on teaching us how to recognize when a interviewer really cares about the team they are into, instead of just working and developing, the main focus of the previous chapters were to realize that creating a loving work eviroment is actually more important than just having the best developers, lets see what the book has for us now.

Chapter 8

The chapter starts in a diferent way that from where ended the last time, Mr T gives a brief explanation of what has been happening during the projects work, because all of the six projects seem to have already started to beeing developed, for each project there is 3 teams developing the same product, to see how rivality and competition can influence in the teams to create one really great project.

Mr T statrs thinking about what would they need to controll the teams and how does these teams are going to be evaluated in terms of success, Lahska who is the one that kidnapped Mr T suddenly remembers of a famous doctor names Dr Rizoli, who is a manager that has run some very cleverly controlled experiments, he could be the one that helps Mr T with his problem, Mr T recognizes that Rizoli could be really helpfull for his project, but how would Mr T convince sush a famous character to fly to Morovia just to talk about six projects, little did he know that Lhaska was actually setted uo everything to make Rizoli arrive at Morovia, and this time without kidnapping, just confunsing Rizoli, one really tricky but clever way to reclute Rizoli.

Once they finally meet, Mr T asks Rizoli about the six projects, in which Rizoli agreeds, competition helps because keeps the developers focussed, also Mr T asks Rizoli to see if he knows a way to make things faster and better, like an easy way, which Rizoli answers that there is no such things as short term fix in business, not in their field, that the best way to do things faster is to avoid wasting time, the most common problem that makes softwares fail is that software projects are either late or wasted, but that there is always a sign when a project is about to fail, that can be prevented if you are capable of noticing them.

Chapter 9

This chapter is kinda short because either it is not that much interesting or does not brings anything relevant to the main story, anyway we are going to talk about this chapter. once the talk with Rizoli ended, he went back to his place, and everything needed to work as normally, Belinda, who is the girl that accepted to work with Mr T for a shopping cart, reminds Mr T that there are plenty of interviews left to do because there are teams that still needs people, also the NNL, which is the morovian leader, wants to get involved in the interviews, but of course he does not know anything about when to notice someone that is suitable for the job and someone who is not.

In the middle of a conversation between these three people, Mr T realized that all the imterviewers that are actually not accepted get a job with one administration, this administrator is actually an ex general that decided to become a project manager instead of leaving morovia, the NNL knows this general administrator, called Markov, they arrange a meeting with this pm general.

In this meeting with the general he actually tells them that he has been in charge of a lots of people all over the time, he is not actually the most technological man in the world, but he trully believes that technology is a tool that can be used to help the world, that many of the projects that has been developed by know are to make things easier for humans and help to always keep evolving, he says that is not easy to be in charge of a lot of people but there are some ways that can make things easier, that of course he will be willing to help, but that in his experience most of the software projects are cancelled, useless or not delivered this because bad organization during the team controls.

My own experience

I have never managed a project so big so I do not know if the decision to let 3 diferent teams to develop the same problem could be that usefull, I have been in events where something similar happes, in hackatons there are some problems that the teams must solution within a certain amount of time, this gives pressure and competition between those teams and yeeh, it keeps you focussed, during some of the projects that I have done it is true that there is no easy way, and avoiding wasting time is fundamental to develope a functional software, and yes, most of the times software projects are risky, but as every thing that is risky, its rewards usually tends to be great.

This post Deadline

In these chapters we did not se that much of an involving topic, not even a mistery or a missunderstanding, there was just people talking about some software details, that basically thats just what it is all about this novel, this is supposed to be a novel that teaches you about project management, and of course it does it, at the same time that involves you into a story that has its own ups and downs, this time was not the best for the story but it was helpfull for the pm topics, so in this case I am rating these chapters as a 7/10, because it teaches you something but the story is actually not relevant.

Before reading

The last time we talked about this novel it ended up surprising us because all of a sudden the bad novel that we remembered became a really atractive novel with some little details that made me continue reading withought feeling tired, this time I expect the novel to stay as good as it was the previous chapters.

At the end of the last chapter Mr T felt a little awkward about the project that dicussed with the NNL, the Morovian leader, because for Mr T the way that the NNL wanted to create the project was not the one that Mr T was expecting to do, so he felt like he was not doing what he really wanted to do, with no more things to say lets read.

Chapter 6

At the beggining of the chapter Mr T was still not sure that the project is what he really wanted to do, but because he has already accepted the job he had nothing left to do than start his work, he felt a little insecure because he had never managed that many people, Lahska gifted a book about project management, and what Mr T used to do is that at the end of every chapter he wrote down in his diary what he had learned, the only problem is that the book was not teaching anything usefull to Mr T so he inmediately stopped doing it because he had nothing to write down, kinda the same what happened to us at the beginning of the book.

Waldo showed up asking Mr T if he was ready to start working, but Mr T had a little problem and it was that he did not know how to make the decisions, in his previous jobs he had some people to discuss what the best option was, but know he was alone, Waldo told him that probably there was one person that could help him with that, his predecesor, a woman called Belinda, a woman who according to Lahska has never missed an appointment, whose projects were allways succesfull, a bad lady.

Mr T get to know this misterious woman, and little did he know that Belinda was actually a leadershipn in project management, one of the advices that Belinda gives to Mr T is that it is allways good to speak your mind, say what you want to say when you want to say it, but the most important advice about project management is that PM is not about being the leader is about having guts, heart and soul.

Guts : The voice inside you that tells you who is and who is not.

Heart :People follow their leader not because they are succesfull but because they love their leaders.

Soul : Real work enviroment requires close, warm and intimate connections between team members.

Management has to do with trusting your team, trust that they are capable of doing something even when they are not asked to do it. Mr T offered Belinda to work with him, of course Belinda wanted something, and that something was nothing less than a shopping cart.

Chapter 7

This chapter is a short one, so the things that we learned in this one are nothing compared to the last chaper. The chapters starts with Mr T and Belinda meeting up to decide which are going to be the project managers for the six projects that must be done, there is a pile of resumes in the desk that Belinda organices from the best to the worst, at the time Waldo, who is Mr T’s assistant tells them that he has list of the interviews that hey must do before the day ends, these interviews are to choose the PM’s.

The first interview starts with a man that tries to explain what PM is for him, that basically says that PM is about the leader telling everyone what must be done, that the work is done by the leader and the team members are just following orders, which of course is not what Belinda and Mr T are looking, Belinda explains the interviewed that actually being a PM is not about being the one who tells everyone what they need to do, being a PM is about preparing everyone for the fight, that when the fight comes, everyone knows exactly what to do and when to do it, even when they are not asked to do it, they know, the job of a PM ends when the fight starts and everyone starts acting, that is what PM is all about Belinda explains.

Belinda is the one that seems to be teaching a lot of things to Mr T, this because back in the day she was the best in the field, everyone would like to work with her, one strategic plan that taughts to Mr T is to put someone to work in a project of a known scale, then ask them to grow the project, and see if they are ready to develope more than what they actually do a little trick that seems to work.

Interviews and Hiring tips

• Hiring involves all the managerial body parts: heart, soul, nose and guts
• Don’t try to do it alone, more guts are better than one
• Ask new hires to undertake one project at exactly the level of competence they have already proved, to defer real stretch goals till the next time.
• Ask for pointers: The person you are most inclined to hire may well know of other good possibilities.
• Listen more than you speak

At the end of the day Waldo gave Mr T a list of the ones who could be the best PM to hire, surprinsingly the list was in the same order that Belinda organized at the beginning of the day, little did Mr T knew that Belinda was the one needed for the job.

All these things work better if you stack the desk

This post Deadline

Ok so everything by now seems to be really good, the slow parts about this novel are not anymore, and know it feels like a story that I would like to tell to my grandsons, if I get to have, one of the best things about this part of the book is that they introduced us a new character someone that has more things to teach not only us but our main character, as in the previous post I said, Mr T is a hero who is trying to save the worl, in this case the six morivian projects, but as every other hero story the hero has a master, someone who teaches our hero what to and what not to do, as uncle ben teaching spiderman «With great power comes great responsability» the same with Belinda and Mr T, belinda is teaching Mr T to follow his instincts and that is something that I would never imagine to see in a PM novel, so this is why I think that the novel is doing its job, really well executed and exiting for the readers.

One of the things that really got me into the novel is that there is allways someone that knows more about you, and there is nothing wrong with that, projects are not supposed to be done by one person, sometimes asking for help is needed and there will be someone willing to help, at least in my experience I have asked for help too many times, as well as I have been asked for help too. I have never been the project manager of a big software, but what I have learned is that people are never going to work at their best if the enviroment is not good, as a PM I think that making everyone feels good is escential, following your instincts is also really important because sometimes that voice inside us the one that knows what the best option, guts, heart and soul are exactly what the real world need in every team, as Belinda said, there are some people that even when they does not have that much experience their willing to work and lear is bigger than any experience than someone would have, this is definetely a real life example.

I will rate these chapters as a 9 out of 10, because they showed us exactly what PM is about by giving us real life examples, and the chapters felt kinda interesting, the book is definetely getting better.