The Secret to My Success

One of my old bosses noted that I was quite successful in every department I worked for. He asked me:

"What key items do you think contributed to your being able to keep technically and product-wise up to date, manage customers to the level of minimal/no complaints and able to deliver projects with scope creep or similar priorities on time?."

Here's how I answered. I don't remember who Dr. Berger was.

Oh man, that's tough. 'The secret to my success.' Now that you got me thinking, it's hard to concentrate on my work! One of the work habits I've gotten into is to answer email as soon as I read it so it doesn't stick in the back of my mind and occupy space I need to devote to my real work. This has the added benefit of allowing me to get in a better focused dialog with the emailer before the emailer loses the thought that led to the email. The emailer also percieves me in a positive light when I respond quickly. People are more willing to give a little when the relationship is good.

Dr Berger has the right idea. People are not objects. This is at the heart of christianity: love others as you love yourself. If you treat customers and fellow employees equally with respect, the focus turns on the product rather than the relationship. People are much more reasonable and willing to bend if the respect is mutual.

This also means that I, myself, must be willing to bend. Things change, especially in the software industry. There is no 'right' way to do anything. My ideas are just that: ideas. They don't define me and if they don't fit the situation, I'm ready to drop them and move on. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I don't assume I know best.

I have a terrible memory. Therefore, every problem or project is totally new. I question assumptions - especially my own. I concentrate on the facts. I don't jump to conclusions. Not only do I keep notes but I edit them too. I focus on the problem until the solution becomes clear. That moment of clarity sometimes comes to me only after I write down and order the facts. I write as if I need to explain it to someone else (and consequently have the explanation ready if someone asks for it).

I experiment. I play with our products and the tools we use. I educate myself and go deep - but only in the area that pertains to the task at hand because everything changes too fast to be applicable later. I try to predict where scope creep is most likely to occur by listening to the customer's reasoning behind what their overall goal is. If I play with our software with an eye toward their goal, sometimes the limitations stand out and it becomes clear that either scope creep is inevitable, or the goal needs deflected (the earlier this is realized, the easier it is to implement either way).

I try to keep up on the latest trends of thought in the software industry. I read magazines and internet ramblings. Having a bad memory helps filter out unimportant stuff. A lot of the most popular items in the software press are temporary but the trends have a direction and it helps that I've been watching this industry closely for years. I have a pretty solid foundation on which to build an understanding of any architecture I need to support.

My wife and I have always been considered the best workers whereever we worked (at least by the people that mattered, which is not always the same people that are in charge). We don't like to chit-chat or beat dead horses. We think that most meetings are a waste of time. There is usually too much focus on the process and not the product. One of Deb's bosses (in an aerospace company) was famous for saying "Get the plane in the air - worry about the paperwork later."

Perhaps the underlying theme is 'focus'. I don't know. I got new glasses, so that popped into my head pretty fast. You can go to seminars and read books, but they all boil down to the same thing everyone's been telling you since you were young: work hard, ask questions and be real.