cover of the book: Managing the Unmanageable The Book: Managing the Unmanageable

Other-Language Editions
     Chinese Traditional
     Chinese Simplified
     Polish
     Russian (in progress)

pointer to Ron's & Mickey's video training Video Training: Managing Software People and Teams

Now in English and Chinese!

Managing the Unmanageable:

Rules, Tools, and Insights for
Managing Software People and Teams

by Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty

Addison Wesley, publishers
Paperback: 450 pages
order from Amazon
Co-author Ron Lichty presenting during the one-day class, "Managing the Unmanageable" at Code Stars Summit, Oct. 2014.

Managing Software People and Teams - The Class

Personally presented by Mickey or Ron

We’ve been giving our
Managing the Unmanageable Class
to enthusiastic reviews from participants!

In Sunnyvale, San Bruno, San Jose, Palo Alto, Moscow.
Now available to you and your colleagues, wherever you are!

Engage one or both of us---either way, you’ll be delighted with results you will experience immediately!

Contact Ron and Mickey now (email training@managingtheunmanageable.net) to find out more information about the Master Class, and about availability and pricing for your team, department, company, organization, or development conference.

Co-author Mickey Mantle presenting "Keys to Crafting a Highly Effective Programming Culture" at the Engineering Leadership SIG of SVForum, September 2014.


What Participants Have Said

Feedback from managers attending Managing Software People and Teams has included:


Topics

Here is an outline of the key topics covered during this one- to two-day master workshop:

Co-author Ron Lichty presenting the day-long Managing Software People and Teams at Code Stars Summit, 9/16.

Managing Software People and Teams

  1. What Makes a Programming Manager Great
    • What constitutes a great manager?
    • Managing, Coaching, Leading – a philosophy
    • Why do programmers seem unmanageable?
    • The problem with Agile: training skips managers
    • Managing and Agile: notes on managers' roles
    • Agile or not: understanding your role
  2. Understanding Programmers
    • How are programmers different from each other
    • Programming disciplines
    • Types of programmers
    • Domain expertise
    • Programmer levels
    • Proximity and relationship
    • Generational styles
    • Personality types
  3. Finding and Hiring Great Programmers
    • Why recruiting is job one
    • Principles for successful recruiting
    • Marketing your job description
    • Budgeting for hires / selling internally
    • Recruiting strategies: Full-Time Employees (FTEs)
    • Recruiting contractors
    • Reviewing resumes purposefully
    • Effective interviewing
    • Making the decision to hire
    • Making the right offer
    • Full court press
  4. Getting New Programmers Started Off Right
    • First day experiences
    • Get them on board early
    • Prep for their arrival
    • First day musts
    • Introductions
    • Ensuring success
    • Setting initial expectations
    • Why onboarding is so important
  5. Co-author Mickey Mantle presenting presenting the day-long Managing Software People and Teams at Code Stars Summit, 9/16.

  6. Becoming an Effective Programming Manager: Managing Down
    • The transition: from programmer to manager
    • Earn technical respect
    • Hire great programmers
    • Turbocharge the team you have
    • Managing different types of programmers
    • Facilitation and protection
    • Judging and improving performance
    • Be careful what you reward
    • Counseling, coaching and mentoring
    • Performance reviews
    • Organizational thinking
    • Dysfunctional organizations
    • Problem employees
    • Deliver results and celebrate success
  7. Managing Up
    • Managing your boss
    • Managing your boss's boss
  8. Managing Out
    • Managing your peers
    • Managing external relationships
  9. Managing Yourself
    • Style
    • Time and priority management
    • Communications management
    • Management practices
    • Follow-up management
    • Find a mentor
  10. Motivating Programmers
    • Money: a motivator?
    • Motivational theories
    • Putting theory into practice
    • Modifying Herzberg’s Motivation Factors
    • Key motivating factors
    • Personal Commitment
    • Technology offense and defense
    • Start understanding your programmer’s motivations on day one
  11. Establishing a Successful Programming Culture
    • Define “successful”
    • Programming cultures
    • Company cultures
    • Agile cultures
    • Characteristics of successful programming cultures
  12. Co-author Ron Lichty presenting successful delivery strategies, part of Managing Software People and Teams at the 2015 Code Stars Summit.

  13. Managing Successful Software Delivery
    • Clarify your role in delivery
    • Inspire your team
    • Foment iron triangle clarity
    • Demand clear requirements
    • Ensure the team crafts a definition of done
    • Estimating exercise for quick ballparking
    • Ensure there's appropriate architecture/design
    • Support the work
    • Productivity and throughput
    • Multitasking
    • Running the end game
    • Delivering the software
  14. If we’re agile, why do we need managers?
    • Managers play key roles in Agile
    • Create an Agile culture
    • Dispel Agile myths
    • Empower self-organization and excellence
    • Remove impediments
    • Capacity and slack
    • Be mindful of patterns and anti-patterns
    • Review Agile manager roles with fresh eyes

Packed with Rules, Tools, and Insights

This one- to two-day master workshop, Managing Software People and Teams, is based upon material from Managing the Unmanageable. Mickey and Ron have distilled the book's most important insights and created this workshop for software development managers, software team leads, programmers who aspire to become managers, project managers, and those who manage departments of programmers – as well as other managers, directors, and C-level executives who rely on programmers to deliver projects that are critical to their organization’s success and want to learn more about how to manage programmers successfully.

Co-author Mickey Mantle presenting "Keys to Crafting a Highly Effective Programming Culture" at the Engineering Leadership SIG of SVForum, September 2014.

This workshop informs, engages, and delights its attendees, driving home key Managing the Unmanageable insights by:

Mickey and Ron are long-time, enthusiastically received speakers at venues like Code Camp, Agile Camp, Product Camp, Agile Leaders Network, ACM, and IEEE, from San Francisco and Silicon Valley to AgileIndy and Agile Iowa to the Eastern European developer conference in Moscow.

Contact Ron and Mickey now (email training@managingtheunmanageable.net) to find out more information about the Master Class, and about availability and pricing for your team, department, company, organization, or development conference.

Co-author Mickey Mantle presenting Managing Using Rules of Thumb to the Estonian Association of IT, May 2015.

Co-author Ron Lichty presenting to ACM in Palo Alto, June 2015.

Co-author Mickey Mantle presenting Managing Using Rules of Thumb to the Estonian Association of IT, May 2015.

order from Amazon