Chapter15.Signing Up
Chapter 15. Signing UpMost software development projects have aggressive plans and schedules. Rare is the project that is not attempting something new or otherwise ambitious. Management always wants it as quickly as possible, and the risk element is ever-present. And most developers have previously worked on at least one project that has failed; some of them have been involved in projects that almost immediately fell behind and then seemed to painfully go on forever. So whenever a new project is proposed, developers and their managers are wary; what will be different this time? Because a scared team is an ineffective one, it is important to overcome this initial trepidation. The wrong way to do it is to order special t-shirts and have a party. The right way to do it is to put together a reasonable plan with lots of input from the team, and then to go around to the various sub-teams and discuss it with them. Getting the entire team in a room and giving them a PowerPoint presentation of the plan is basically useless. This kind of dog-and-pony show will cut no ice with them; they want to talk about details and reality, and you can only do that in informal, small-group settings. At the end of each of these smaller team meetings, you have to look around the table and ask each and every person to sign up. It is not sufficient that the group leader sign up; no, you need everyone on board. After you have discussed the plan with all the constituent groups and have them sign up, you can legitimately say that the entire team is on board. If anyone thought the plan was crazy, he had his day in court to say so. And, if he or she wouldn't sign up, you now have to make the decision as to whether that person should go forward with the rest of you. But what does it really mean to "sign up"? The key notion here is one of commitment. In this chapter, we once again get the insights of Roscoe Leroy on the subject.[1]
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