The Colorful and Gray World of Engineering Management

Sometimes there are almost too many things going on at work to keep it all straight. Is it fair to assume everyone on the team will get everything right? I say no. Many people you may only see at work, so sometimes it's easy to forget that they have lives...

The best managers are ones who work to obsolete their roles. Is this bad advice for managers especially given these economic times? Job security is all about being unique and knowing things others don't know, right? Well, managers need to consider how...

Did you know that this is the most depressing time of the year? It's been proven with equations (for all you mathematicians out there). Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Monday_(date) I can feel it at work. Everyone is halfway between stressed...

Do you have a game face and do you use it? Do you know what a game face is and how you can apply it to work? The dictionary definition is "the neutral or intense facial expression of a determined and serious sports player". Picture a losing basketball...

As a continuation from my last blog entry, here are some more thoughts I have about code coverage measurements. · Never roll up code coverage data without the interpretation of that data. Without some text about what your numbers mean, people will...

Instrumenting your product's source code to get an indication of how much of the code was covered during testing is a really, really smart measurement to get. If you aren't at least measuring this number, you should be. Visual Studio provides features...

Since the nights are getting longer and it's Halloween, let's talk about going dark. This isn't about wearing a black costume for trick-or-treating! Going dark is a term used to describe the situation where someone hasn't communicated in a while. This...

Since Windows7 released today, I think it is a good time to reflect back on my experience in the Windows Client team and working on the different versions of Windows. Vista and Windows7 were done much differently. When Vista shipped and we were making...

15 years ago today was my first day at Microsoft. In the last 15 years, a lot has changed. Here is the way things were 15 years ago: There was no IE. There was no Outlook. There was no concept of mobile or digital media. There was no Office, just...

I had a test lead years ago that did a great job at setting expectations for his people. But for himself, his main goal was always stated as "do whatever it takes to ship the product". This was really difficult to measure him against. But the concept...

At Microsoft, we set commitments regularly for all employees. These are basically goals and focus areas that are written down to help employees remember what to work on and to clarify how their work is being measured. Here are some guidelines on verbosity...

In many project teams, I see people mistaking actions for results. One of the best inputs a manager can give to a team is to evaluate when the team is too action-oriented and guide them to be more results-focused. If a project team is always really busy...

I heard the statement "Test is not a landfill!" today from one of my leads and thought it was a great way to describe what Test is striving for. Test should not be like a landfill. When I picture a landfill, I see a fenced in area that garbage gets dumped...

This is the gray part of testing. Should the goal be that BVTs pass 100%? On every build, all the time? The right answer is YES. But is that really the right answer for all cases. Well, of course not. I do believe it is the right answer for most cases...

As I mentioned in a previous entry, it's review time at Microsoft. I already gave my guidelines on how employees should write their comments. Now it's time for my guidelines on how managers should write their evaluations of their employees. Many guidelines...

Many engineers, especially testers, ask me how they can grow their careers and how I know when they should be promoted. I've learned over the years that there are really three key focus areas that show that an engineer is growing. These are in addition...

It's that time of year again at Microsoft where we get to write our reviews. I find it helpful as a manager to go over some guidelines with my team as a refresher on how to write good reviews. These are my opinions from what I've learned after doing reviews...

The last few months have been a staffing challenge for me and my team. I lost a quarter of my team in a 3 month time period due to reorgs….and I couldn't replace any of them. Due to the economic climate, things are tight and that includes headcount. Then...

As a manager in an organization, there are different directions to apply focus and communications - downward, upward, and sideways. Test Managers who focus downward spend most of the time dealing with their team, with testing issues within the team, and...

A few weeks ago, I attended a presentation about diversity and it was enlightening. I personally always think the word "diversity" is very corporate and used as standard manager terminology. For me, I instead think about diversity as " differences " between...

Automation is frequently a passionate debate, usually around how much and whether it is effective. But are test managers prepared for the effects of automation as it grows? Instead of focusing on whether or not to automate or by how much, let's focus...

No matter whether your focus is Test or Dev or some other discipline, most managers will approach situations with a focus on the business or a focus on the people. Which manager are you? As a Test Manager, my business would be testing the features or...

Testing is a very colorful discipline to be in, and Test Management is even more colorful. I find every day to be eventful and filled with variety, therefore "colorful" is a great way to sum it up. Where else can you have the freedom to learn new technologies...