3) Provide Options, Don't Make Lame Excuses
4) Don't Live with Broken Windows
5) Be a Catalyst for Change
- Stone Soup
- People find it easier to join an ongoing success
6) Remember the Big Picture
- Too many little things can get out of hand
- Too much concentration on the little things will cause the main thing to be lost
Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. -- King Lear 1.4
Normally you're writing software for other people. Often you'll rememeber to get requirements from them. p.10
7) Make Quality a Requirements Issue
- "Great software today is often preferable to perfect software tomorrow."
- Know when to stop
Your knowledge and experience are your most important professional assests. Unfortuantely, they're expiring assests.
8) Invest Regularly in Your Knowledge Portfolio
- Master languages for the long hual but diversify into other areas as well
- Read nontechnical books, too. Don't forget the human site of the equation.
9) Critically Analyze What You Read and Hear
Before a meeting or presentation, write down some notes on what you are going to cover. You'll have to make different pitches to different groups based on what they actually care about.
Talking is not always communicating.
What do you want them to learn? What is their interest in what you've got to say? How sophicticated are they? How much detail do they want? Whome do you want to own the information? How can you motivate them to listen to you?
"Any chef will tell you that you can slave in the kitchen for hours only to ruin your efforts with poor presentation."
10) It's Both What You Say and the Way You Say It