Advice for Software Development Managers
© Gerald M. Weinberg, 2004 www.geraldmweinberg.com
给软件开发经理的建议
Software Development Magazine recently interviewed Jerry. Here are some of his answers.
软件研发杂志最近采访了Jerry。以下是部分访谈录。
Q: What’s the most important piece of management-related advice anyone has ever given you?
问：你得到的最重要的一条关于管理的建议是什么？
GW: If you blame your employees, you're a bad manager. You hired them, accepted them, supervised them, and directed their training. You’re responsible. If you don't like what's happening, look to your own behavior. But, if there's credit to be given, it's theirs.
温伯格：如果你抱怨你的员工，那么你是一个不善于管理的经理。你雇佣了他们，接受了他们，监督了他们，并指导他们的培训。你是有责任的。如果你不喜欢他们的表现，审视一下你自己的行为。如果项目成功的话，荣誉是他们的。
Q: What about when a manager has been hired into a group where some or all employees were already hired by someone else?
问：另外一种情况是，公司直接引入一位经理管理一个团队，而这个团队的成员已经存在，并不是由这位经理亲自雇佣的，这种情况怎么办？
GW: You don't take a management job passively. Before you accept the position, you interview everyone in your group, and you get them to sign on with you, or you sign them off -- or you don't take the position. I don't know why managers don't understand that. They take on new assignments like high school kids on their first blind date.
温伯格：你并不是被动的承担了这份管理工作。在你接受这个职务之前，你需要与这个团队的每一位成员进行面谈，让他们签约受雇于你，或者解聘他们——再或者，你放弃这个职位。我不知道为什么许多管理者都不理解这个道理。他们接受新任务，就像高中生盲目地去赴他们的第一次约会。
Q: What if an employee begins to exhibit bad behavior after he or she has been hired -- behavior that wasn't apparent in the interview phase?
问：如果员工在他/她受雇后，表现出了在面试阶段并不明显的不好的行为，怎么办？
GW: Well, that happens, and that's what managers get paid for handling. It can be a setback, but it's your job to take care of it and get the job done. Unfortunately, not many technical managers have any preparation for this, something I've been trying to remedy for years -- so in a sense, I'm to blame, because I've succeeded in only a few cases. Hey, if everything went smoothly all the time, you wouldn't need managers.
温伯格：这种事情时有发生，这也是任何一位管理者拿了薪水要处理的事情。坏事可能会成为好事，你有责任认真处理此事。不幸的是，并没有多少技术管理者对此有所准备，让坏事成为好事，这也是我多年来希望能够做到的事情——因此，从某种意义上而言，应该被抱怨的是我，因为我仅仅在不多的几个案例上获得了成功。毕竟，如果每一件事情一直都进展顺利，就不需要什么管理者了。
Q: If you were to publish a third edition of The Psychology of Computer Programming, what new insights would it include? (Dorset House Publishing released a Silver Anniversary Edition in 1998.)
问：如果你准备出版《程序开发心理学》的第三版，书中会考虑增加哪些新的观点？（Dorset House出版社1998年出版了该书的银年纪念版，该书的中译本也于2003年出版。）
GW: I might add something about how to make yourself so valuable that your work will never be outsourced -- something about the arrogance and overconfidence that has led to the loss of lots of software development jobs, not just to outsourcing, but to development work that's just not being done because the odds of success are so poor.
温伯格：我补充的内容将会提高你的价值，以保证你的工作不会被外包出去，否则的话，不仅很多工作会被外包出去（没你的份），而且你正在进行的开发工作也会失去，因为（如果自负和过度自信的话，）成功的几率实在是太低了。
Q: Is this bad behavior coming from the developers themselves, or do you mean to say the entire industry is to blame for not staying on top of innovation?
问：这种不好的行为是源于开发人员本身，还是您认为整个产业都未能站在革新之巅？
GW: It starts with the developers, and managers, too. But the overall result is, as you suggest, the entire industry getting too involved in navel-watching and competitiveness over the wrong values. For a long time, customers had nowhere else to go for service and had to put up with whatever we gave them. Now they have choices, and they're getting even.
温伯格：始于开发人员，也始于管理者。但是整体的结果，正如你提到的，整个产业都没有找对方向，在一些错误的地方去钻牛角尖。很长时间以来，客户没有办法获得其他服务，因为他们不得不要接受我们为他们提供的服务。现在，他们有了选择，他们也在获得公正。
Q: In Are Your Lights On? (also available from Dorset House), you note that people like to complain. How do good managers draw the line between harmless venting and disruptive pessimism, if such a line needs to be drawn?
问：在《你的灯亮着吗？》一书中，您指出，人们喜欢抱怨。优秀的管理者如何区分无害的情绪发泄和具有破坏性的悲观主义，如果需要划分这种界限的话？
GW: "Drawing the line" is probably not the most useful metaphor. The approach I like most is to listen to the complaint for a reasonable amount of time, then say, "And what do you propose to do about this?" Depending on the reaction you get, take it from there.
温伯格：“划分界限”也许并不是最有用比喻说法。我最喜欢的方法是在合理的时间内聆听他们的抱怨，然后对他们说，“那么你打算怎么办？”根据你得到的反馈，可以做出一些推断。
Q: You once said, "If you can’t manage yourself, you have no business managing others." Could you elaborate on that? What does it mean to manage one's self?
问：您曾经说过，“如果你不能管理你自己，你就用不着去管理其他人。”您能解释一下这句话吗？管理你自己是指？
GW: Well, perhaps you can look at Kipling's famous poem,"If." It starts:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
Most of this poem is still pretty good advice about what it means to manage yourself (except, unlike in Kipling's day, it now applies to women, too).
温伯格：哦，也许你可以看一下吉卜林的著名诗歌“如果”。诗中是这样写的：
如果在众人六神无主之时，
你能镇定自若而不是人云亦云；
如果在被众人猜忌怀疑之日，
你能自信如常而不去妄加辩论； [i]
这首诗里面的大部分都可以帮助你理解什么是“管理你自己”（但不像吉卜林时代，这首诗现在也针对女人。）
Q: In your opinion, why do so many software projects go over budget or fail to meet their original requirements?
问：在您看来，为什么那么多软件项目最后超出预算，或者不能达到最初的要求？
GW: There's no single reason, but here are probably the top three:
1. The original budget, schedule and requirements were totally unrealistic, due to the inability of people to speak truth to power.
2. The original budget, schedule and requirements were totally unrealistic, due to the inability of people to understand and acknowledge their own limitations (which we all have).
3. Even in those rare cases that people pass those first two hurdles, they lose emotional control during the project when something goes wrong -- and something ALWAYS goes wrong. In 50 years, I've never seen a project where something didn't go wrong. When it does, the project’s success is determined by the leaders' ability to manage themselves emotionally.
温伯格：原因不是单一的，下面列出了最重要的三条原因：
1．最初的预算、计划和要求是完全不切合实际的，因为人们不能把事实真相告诉控制项目的人。
2．最初的预算、计划和要求是完全不切合实际的，因为人们不能理解和承认他们自身的局限（我们都会有自身的局限）。
3．即便在很少时候，人们跨过了最初的两个障碍，当项目推进过程中出了问题（问题总是会出现），他们就会情绪失控。50年来，我从来没有遇到过一个没有出过问题的项目。如果出现了问题，项目领导者管理他们自己情绪的能力，将决定项目最终是否能够取得成功。
Q: If you were to find yourself on a development team, reporting to a project manager, what qualities would you want that manager to have?
问：如果你在一个开发团队，需要对项目经理负责，你希望你的项目经理具有哪些品质？
GW: I'd want that manager to be a congruent, adult human being, capable of learning from others and his or her own mistakes. A good place to start honing these attributes is the AYE Conference.
温伯格：我希望这位经理言行一致、成熟，能够向他人学习，从他/她的错误中吸取教训。开始学习这些优良品质的一个好去处，就是AYE会议。
版权声明：
本文出处：http://www.ayeconference.com （9/13/04）
原作者：Gerald M. Weinberg
WeinbergCN翻译整理（Shiningxyy翻译，Yuanfeng审校）
未经许可，不得商业使用。
①诗歌全文：
《如果……》
如果在众人六神无主之时，
你能镇定自若而不是人云亦云；
如果在被众人猜忌怀疑之日，
你能自信如常而不去妄加辩论；
如果你有梦想又能不迷失自我，
如果你有神思，又不至走火入魔；
如果你在成功之中能不得意忘形，
而在灾难之后也勇于咀嚼苦果；
如果听到自己说出的奥妙，
被无赖歪曲成面目全非的魔术而不怨艾；
如果你辛苦劳作，已是功成名就，
还是冒险一搏，哪怕功名成乌有，
即使惨遭失败，也要从头开始；
如果你跟村夫交谈而不离谦恭之态，
和王侯散步而不露谄媚之颜；
如果他人的爱憎左右不了你的正气；
如果你与任何人为伍都能卓然独立，
那么你的修养就会如天地般博大——
而你，就是真正的男子汉了。
我的朋友！
‘If’……
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are loosing theirs, and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream…and not make dreams your master;
If you can think… and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet both triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stop and build ‘em up again with worn out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them; “HOLD ON”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings…nor loose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the earth and all that is in it,
And…what is more…you’ll be a man, my son!
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