A Technical Manager's Perspective

Personal Time Management

Over the years I have developed my own strategy for Time Management and I thought that I would share my strategy with you.

My strategy is based on making a daily list of tasks and prioritizing the list. I like to make my lists in the morning before my day really gets started and what I usually do is have one or two big lists per week. What I like to do is put down everything from projects and milestones to follow-up phone calls and emails. My big list includes everything from my deliverables to my staff's deliverables, and occasionally includes non-work related tasks that need to be done that day.

After compiling the list I put a dot next to all the tasks that I feel are a high priority and require some action that day. I usually focus on the priority tasks with a dot, and every morning I review my list, cross off all completed items and create a new list

One the second day, my list is much smaller and includes the 5 to 10 tasks that I would like to complete that day. This is another way of prioritizing my daily tasks and often helps me to stay focused.

During the week, as new tasks and projects come in, I usually add them to my small daily list, and then by the end of the week, I review what has been accomplished and create a new master list with the new tasks and any remaining tasks that need to be carried forward.

I am also a firm believer in Meeting Agenda's, especially for staff meetings and one-on-one meetings. I like to put accomplishments at the top of the weekly agenda and then use older agendas as another way of tracking monthly and quarterly status.

I know that there are other Time Management Strategies, and I am a firm believer in the fact that there is more than one way to get the job done, so here is a link to a nice list that includes 33 other time management strategies.

Balance of Work Life and Home Life

A lot of my reading is about Leadership and Management topics. I came across this great post by Jim Stroup of the Managing Leadership blog called Good Grief. Jim focuses on the impact to a team or organization when a manager focuses solely on the workplace and does not take into consideration a balanced work life and home life.

Here is a sample .....

Many managers would prefer being able to devote their full attention to the administration of non-human assets and factors in their businesses. These are easier to understand and manipulate, and they usually don't give you grief about it. But the fact is, most of the grief "human assets" give their managers is of the latter's own making.

As short while ago, Inc.com reported the results of a study which showed that "bad behavior" is caused by problems with work-life balance issues, and is not prevented by standard disciplinary measures. To be honest, such results suggest errors in research design and data interpretation. One should be cautious about taking at face value a group's attribution of its own bad behavior to the alleged shortcomings of another group (management) or of policy.

Nevertheless, the study does raise questions about the influence of managerial action or policy on staff morale and productivity. While I disagree that bad behavior is caused - or averted - by specific workplace policies, productivity and morale can be.

Of the various factors related to managing people, the one this subject touches on is the managerial duty to remove impediments to performance. It is not necessarily a manager's role to provide employees a balanced life, but it is an obligation to remove barriers - including those that are related to work-life balance issues - to peak employee performance.

To read the entire post follow this link .....

Technorati : leadership, management

Characteristics of an Effective Manager

There are many characteristics of an Effective Manager, and just as there are many different types of managers, each with a unique style, there is not one formula, list, or book that you can go to that will definitively define the role of a manager along with the characteristics of being an effective manager. However, that should not stop us from seeking more information on how to become more effective and how to improve our managerial skills, and with that in mind, I have outlined the characteristics that I feel are important to be an effective manager. I have also included a number of links within each characteristic which reference additional material on each topic.I started with the Role of the Manager, and move onto the characteristics that I feel help shape an effective manager

Role of a Manager:

The role of a manager is different from company to company and position to position. In most cases the manager has a group of employees to direct, in pursuit of organizational based goals. As a manager you have multiple priorities and areas of focus, and depending on the position, the requirements and the industry, the one difference is areas of focus. While managers have to deal with all priorities across multiple areas of focus, many managers focus more on strategy and business matters, while others focus more on process and projects and others focus more on their people and team-building.

You see this focus when you read different thoughts, viewpoints and opinions on managing. In my current role, more of my focus has been on the people and team-building aspects as well as the process and project priorities. That does not mean that I do not focus or work on strategy and business issues, it means that team-building, process and project management had been my focus for a while and has been more of a priority than strategy and business issues.

Here are some other interesting viewpoints on the Role of a Manager .....

• http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/50-advice-for-new-managers-part-1/

• http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/52-advice-for-new-managers-pt2/

• http://www.lifehack.org/articles/management/the-role-of-the-manager.html

• http://www.management-resources.org/universal.php?c=11&a=123

• http://www.managementblog.org/archives/2004/11/20/role-of-the-manager/

6 Characteristics of an Effective Manager:

1) Be a Leader and Lead by Example

Actions speak louder than words. Managers may rule, but leaders are followed. You need to demonstrate that you are a leader by your actions, which will help you to build influence.

Here are some other interesting viewpoints on Leadership and Leading by Example .....

• http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development-leadership/11344-1.html

• http://www.instigatorblog.com/10-essential-business-leadership-skills/2007/04/16/

• http://www.schulersolutions.com/how_to_lead_by_example.html

• http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2007/06/13/are-you-demotivating-your-employees/

2) Effective Communications

These days, Effective Communications is a business requirement, and without strong effective communication, management becomes difficult or impossible.

Here are some other viewpoints on Effective Communications ....

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_management

• http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?&docid=95378&promo=100511

• http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?docid=263731

• http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/category/communication

3) Provide Feedback

Managers need to provide both positive and negative feedback, focusing on actions and behaviors. Always stick to the facts and observed behaviors when delivering feedback.

Here are some other viewpoints on Providing Feedback ...

• http://www.manager-tools.com/2005/07/giving-effective-feedback/

• http://www.susanfee.com/coaching/tips/GivingFeedbacktoSensitiveEmployees.htm

• http://ezinearticles.com/?Without-Effective-Feedback-Employees-Will-Continue-To-Perform-Poorly&id=382015

4) Be Fair

Managers need to be fair when establishing rules and processes.

Here are some other thoughts on Fairness ...

• http://www.hr.umich.edu/greatplaces/fairness.html

• http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development-employee-ethics/2975409-2.html

• http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/how_to_be_a_good_leader_be_fair.php

• http://www.gameproducer.net/2006/12/15/3-practical-tips-for-better-leadership/

5) Be positive, Negativity Kills

As a manager, you need to be a positive influence. Everyone, especially team members, watch you and take their cues from you, so be honest and positive. Negative comments are a reflection on you and your team, so if you do not have something good to say then do not say anything.

Here are some other thoughts on having a Positive Influence ...

• http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2007/06/13/are-you-demotivating-your-employees/

• http://careersavvy.typepad.com/career_savvy/2007/02/positive_influe.html

• http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2003/august/i_ids3.html

• http://www.schulersolutions.com/how_to_lead_by_example.html

6) Promote Teamwork

Teamwork is about working together as a team. Factors the help or hinder teamwork are communication, trust, commitment and change. Managers need to understand these factors within each group, and provide both positive and negative feedback to team members in order to maintain and improve teamwork.

Here are some other viewpoints on Promoting Teamwork ....

• http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/category/teamwork/

• http://search.bnet.com/search/Leadership+and+teamwork.html?t=0&s=0&o=1

• http://smartlemming.com/blog/index.php/2007/06/23-ways-to-be-happy-at-work-17-share-knowledge/

• http://www.bnet.com/2410-13059_23-64253.html

Web Services 2003 and 2007

While talking with the application folks about the gaps in my understanding of SOA, one of the architects sent me a document called WebServicesProposal that he co-authored in 2003 after attending the Web Services Edge 2003 Conference. I was amazed how their observations from 2003 are so relevant today and thought it would be great to share this document with you. The authors are Joe Frate and Sean Nally and their document defined Web Services, identified what it can do for our company, documented where it would make sense within our company, and concluded that we should start working on Web Services with a quote of “Web Services is a breakthrough technology that should be taken advantage of.”

They went on to discuss ……

In a nutshell, Web Services is a services-oriented architecture that allows disparate and independent software systems to be integrated using standard message-based protocols for exchanging data.  These protocols leverage XML to standardize data representation.

With Web Services, software systems can provide services to each other no matter what platform they are implemented on or what technology they utilize.  For example, a software system implemented in J2EE on Unix could access services (and have its own services accessed) by another software system implemented in a COM environment on Windows.  Such integration is possible not only for modern software systems, but also for any legacy software system that is enhanced to communicate with a Web Service.  This is accomplished by “serializing” the data into a standard XML format, which is then exchanged between two Web Services; this is referred to as “messaging”.  When a software system is accessible through a Web Service, we can say that the software system is “wrapped by a Web Service”.

After reading their document, I can see where they have influenced applications development within our company over the last few years by wrapping web services around some of our older application or by replacing client server front ends with java based front ends while leaving the back end database resources unchanged.

Back in 2003, Web Services implied static html pages with a front end web form talking to a backend database or data repository. The Web and Web Services have evolved since 2003 into more than just static pages, embracing a more open social approach to communication that has been labeled Web 2.0. However, in my mind, the Web Services documented by Joe and Sean in 2003 is closer to an Architectural strategy encompassing Service Oriented Architecture than a social Web 2.0 strategy.

I know that there has been a lot of debate surrounding the differences and strategies between Web 2.0. SOA, and Enterprise 2.0 however, Businesses and large Enterprises take a guarded approach to sharing and manipulating data and that is why I see Web Services as more of an architectural strategy aligned with SOA as opposed to a social open strategy aligned with Web 2.0. I do think that the front end components of SOA could incorporate Web 2.0 characteristics and see Web 2.0 as a part of SOA and not a seperate entity.

In 2003, Joe and Sean identified Web Services as a revolutionary breakthrough technology. After talking with Joe this past week he mentioned that Web Services and SOA is an evolutionary technology.

I agree with Joe.

Initial phases of new SOA deployment

Most of the industry publications, sites and blogs are talking about SOA, trying to describe it and telling folks the best manner to implement a Service Oriented Architecture. I certainly noticed this trend and started digging into SOA and all the technologies surrounding SOA. We were recently acquired, and after the initial gap analysis of all of our applications and processes, Senior Management agreed to invest in rewriting our primary applications. The architecture team has started the process of taking a closer look at a Service Oriented Architecture, and has started the necessary investigative work to determine what works and what does not.

Given my role on the infrastructure deployment/support side of the business, I have little influence over new architecture decisions, but that does not stop me from talking with the architecture folks on a regular basis. I have always had a good understanding of the Front-end delivery side of applications (portals, clients, and web pages) along with the Back-end database servers and repository side, however the area that I need to focus on is the apps/workflow section that is between the portal resources and the database resources in a SOA type architecture.

Senior Management has beefed up the infrastructure team and has started the first phase of investigating products in the SOA space. I have been approached to deliver sandbox type resources (intel and unix servers) to assist the architects in their initial investigation of SOA type products, and I know that this is the opportunity that I have been looking for. I have shared my thoughts, my blog and limited knowledge of SOA, BPM and ESB with the architects who have been extremely open with information and in particular, have shared resources and pointed me to a couple of great resources that I am still investigating.

Over the next few months, I will share with you the resources that we use, keeping everyone up to date on the build-out of the sandbox environment, and communicate our experiences from a first person - ground floor approach.