A key to my success as a PHB has been learning how to squeeze the most out of people. Motivating people to work harder and longer for the same amount of pay gives the company far more bang for the buck. But it's also important to keep fresh blood talent coming in at all times. When multitudes of fresh minds are brought in to work on the company's projects, our products become that much better. From the work of many rises the higher quality product.
Some might argue that building continuity is more important. There is some truth to that statement, but it's far less important than people think. Programming is a commodity task--it's just easy grunt work. You can hire anyone to do it. That's why I hire freelancers and outsource all the programming details. You can easily drop people periodically and hire someone new; that keeps the cycle of fresh minds working on a project. You can work the fresh freelancer harder, get the most out of him as possible, and then bring in someone new again.
The management is the part of the team with the vision and the ideas. The PHB is where the continuity comes from. With hands on micromanagement, the PHB is familiar with the entirety of the project and can assign the detail work to the constantly changing worker pool. The ever changing company workforce keeps the company on the cutting edge.
Some might argue that building continuity is more important. There is some truth to that statement, but it's far less important than people think. Programming is a commodity task--it's just easy grunt work. You can hire anyone to do it. That's why I hire freelancers and outsource all the programming details. You can easily drop people periodically and hire someone new; that keeps the cycle of fresh minds working on a project. You can work the fresh freelancer harder, get the most out of him as possible, and then bring in someone new again.
The management is the part of the team with the vision and the ideas. The PHB is where the continuity comes from. With hands on micromanagement, the PHB is familiar with the entirety of the project and can assign the detail work to the constantly changing worker pool. The ever changing company workforce keeps the company on the cutting edge.
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