Ron Jefferies, Ann Anderson, Chet Hendrickson
Addison-Wesley
Chapters 19-21:
In these chapters we find out all about steering a project and how it can drastically affect the outcome as well has having someone who helps with gathering results of a project and making sure everyone is on track. As you go through a project you want to be sure to have a tracker and make sure that the tracker is keeping tabs on everyone and where they are on their comitments. The person wants to be personable and easy to talk to and not be threatening or make people feel like they're not doing well. You want to do this regualarly to make sure that everyone is staying on track and steering the project when necessary. You also want to be sure to steer the iteration and the release in the same way. You want to be sure to get your most important stories done first and make sure that you have as many components of your release ready as possible. You might want to also be sure to contact the customer and inform him of any delays that you might have. The authors emphasize that understanding that each set back is the entire teams problem and not one persons problem is a big help here and making sure that each person is working towards the goal at all times is key. You as the manager want to make sure that everyone is on task and that you can help as many people at once as possible and steer the project.
I think that these chapters are only useful at all if you are the manager. IF you are an average working on the project it is a good idea to understand what is going on but you might not be interacting with people a whole lot. The biggest thing they cover here is the idea of steering and making sure that you get the things out that need to be out. The tracker is a good idea but in some groups this will be difficult for someone to do. You need to make sure you have the right kind of person and that the person is not intimidating anyone. You also need to be sure that if something isn't going as planned that you do make sure you keep the project on track and see what you can do to keep it going. If someone has gotten behind you might even have to do some programming yourself but this is all for the good of the team. I would definitely want to keep these things in mind if I ever manage a programming team and remember that it is an entire team practice and that no one is taking on more or less than anyone else.
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