Consider this real world scenario.

Acme Inc. is converting a monolithic COBOL mainframe applicationto J2EE and Oracle. There are massive blocks of COBOL that need tobe rewritten. The development strategy includes an on-shoringelement. A number of contract employees are brought on board forthe duration of the project. The programmers for hire are paidhourly and are expected to work 40-hour weeks with any overtimesanctioned by management.

Bob (a development manager) notices that some of the coders seemto be spending a lot of time getting coffee or going to therestroom. Some of them even appear to be daydreaming or doodling.Bob decides that in order to increase efficiency he is going tochange the way they are paid.

Instead of punching in at the time clock like the other hourlyemployees they will be paid when they log onto to theirworkstations. The workstations will be modified to force a log outduring any period of inactivity after one minute. At the end ofeach shift the workstation logs will be off-loaded and thelog-in/log-out activity will be translated into key clock punches.Up to two five-minute “breaks” will be allowed for each developerper shift. So now Bob has solved the productivity problems heobserved. Right?

Wrong. What Bob has done is use technology to try and do what heas a manager should be doing—and created a lot of unhappydevelopers in the process. I don't know about you but I don't likedisgruntled developers working on my code. Managing people is anart and a skill. Managing developers is even harder.

It would make sense for Bob to create a report comparingkeyboard time versus clock time and use that to help makemanagement decisions. There are always going to be employees whowork the system—clocking in, walking around, chatting whatever.Those employees are management opportunities. A good manager willeither make that employee understand how to manage their timebetter or terminate them. Using a chain gang mentality by payingfor an active keyboard is silly and counter-productive.

Additionally when Bob imposed the new pay rules on the projectdevelopers he created a new class of employee. There are many othertypes of hourly employees at Acme and their time is still recordedat the clock. Different rules for different employees in the samegeneral class (exempt) are foolish.

Managing Developers

I used to manage teams of developers. They were allhighly-skilled salaried employees. They weren't perfect employees.During periods without impending deadlines they tended to goof offa bit. But during major projects I could always count on the teamto deliver on time, on budget, quality code. The firm I was workingfor at that time had salaried employees swipe cards when enteringor leaving the property. The purpose was ostensibly to properlysecure the building but the reality was that HR would spend hoursscanning the badge scan logs. And I was always being called on thecarpet. Mr. Rolich, are you aware that Bill didn't clock in at allyesterday, and that Jane never clocked out for lunch? FurthermoreJane was observed in the parking lot so I know she left thebuilding.

Well, I knew that Bill had worked around the clock the daybefore finishing up a tricky bit of code so I told him to stayhome, and I really didn't care that Jane “piggybacked” on someoneelse's badge swipe. I was managing my staff the way I knew wouldwork. HR wanted me to manage by the clock. Managing by the clockwould have meant missing deadlines. HR could never understand thatbecause they had no deliverables.

Everyone who has spent a significant amount of time writing codeknows that you can't just sit down at keyboard and start bangingout quality code. The employee that Bob observed “doodling” couldvery well have been white-boarding a solution – but Bob neverbothered to check. A good developer probably spends at least twicethe time planning his solution than he does writing code.

Drugs?

There are things we can automate and there are things we canpseudo-automate. The owner of an independent drug store may walkhis shop every morning to make sure product is stocked and that theproperty is clean and ready for business. Other days he may checkthat the fire extinguishers have current tags and that all theproper items are in the hazardous item spill kit.

Now. imagine the manager of a drugstore that is part of anational chain with hundreds or thousands of identical storesacross the country. The manager undoubtedly has astandard checklist that he follows. A checklist developed overyears of experience running identical drug stores.

Now imagine that Bob (you remember Bob) begins work at the chainof drug stores. He was at a store and noticed that the manager didnot actually check the stock of paper towels in the women'slavatory. Bob decides he needs to automate the daily checklist. Thestore manager will no longer walk the store with the paperchecklist—he will walk the store with a tablet computer and checkoff each item on the computer instead of the paper. Once again Bobhas solved a problem with technology. Right?

Wrong again. The manager who manually checks all the ticks onthe paper form will probably just check all the ticks on theelectronic form. Some good things have been accomplished but theproblem of the bad store manager has not been remedied. Bob did agood thing when he replaced paper with electrons—and he may havedone another good thing because now we can save all thoseelectronics ticks in a database and report on that. Reporting isnice for management but unless that reporting is meaningful it isuseless. We need to instill integrity and a desire to do the rightthing in our employees, not create reports that may or may notreflect the truth.

Good Fast Food?

We may not all admit to eating at McDonald's but if you havedone much traveling with your family by car you have surely noticedhow some MickeyD's are clean and pleasant and actually serve you aburger that looks something like the picture. There are others thatmake you swear to never frequent one again.

There is a fast food restaurant in the middle of Tennessee thatjust happens to be the only meal available for about 30 miles andwhich for some reason hits right at the peak of my hunger zone.Every time I stop I have a terrible experience and bad food. Nowthis could be a good use case for managing by technology: Disablemy car from exiting the interstate at that bump in the road. I knowthat would improve my quality of life (but back to the “good”McDonald's.) We don't speculate that they must have some greatcomputer systems in place at that location, we say, “This is areally well managed restaurant.” And that is really thepoint—managers manage. Technology can assist the manager, but itcan't replace her.

What the . . .?

Another outfit I worked for made some unique managementdecisions. In order to save on physical office space they setemployees up with a home office and provided them the opportunityto actually travel to a corporate property and work in a hotel cubewhen they felt the need. In my experience there have been aboutfive or six individuals that I really believed would consistentlyprovide full days of useful work from home.

The rest of us may do well for a few days but then one day youlook at the window and since it is such a nice day you decide totake the dogs for a walk. The next week you decide to hike over tothe convenience store for a Slurpee. The next week you devote yourentire Wednesday to re-mulching your flowerbeds. Thiswork-from-home-friendly company used “technology” to ensure thatall those people sitting around their home offices in pajamas werereally working by insisting that they all log on to Sametime whenthey were working. What a great strategy! Not.

Someone forgot that you can log on Sametime and set yourself to“busy do not disturb” all day long and that you can answer emailsfrom your Blackberry. There were legends born from that policy.Those of us who actually went into an office would speak in awed,hushed tones about employees who actually had “other” jobs theyperformed during their work from home hours.

As much as I have enjoyed working from home at different timesin my career I think that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer got it right.Google gets it. They design their campuses and building so thattheir employees can easily collaborate and work together. Softwareengineers work best in small groups. And that doesn't mean workfrom home. Creative solutions require collaboration. Unless yourjob description is like Jabez Wilson's in the Red HeadedLeague (copying the Encyclopedia Britannica), you probablyneed to work with others.

Managing

I was once a 21-year-old ensign on my first tour of duty in theNavy. I was assigned as the main propulsion assistant on an olddestroyer escort. All the men assigned to me were boilertechnicians in charge of the ships boilers. The boilers wereancient scary machines generating superheated steam for the shipspropulsion systems and generators. It was hot, dirty, dangerouswork. My men ranged in age from 17 to 35.

I could have stayed in the safety and cleanliness of officers'quarters and managed by checking the PMS reports. PMS (PlannedMaintenance System) was a new system that the Navy was using toensure that ships were properly maintained. The system consisted ofpage after page of checklists of things to be done. Today thissystem would use a computer form for the checklist; back then weused paper.

On the advice of an old (to me) chief petty officer, I put on myoveralls and crawled down into the fire room with the guys. Side byside we went through these endless checklists. I soon learned (likethey already had) that you couldn't run a boiler room by tickingoff little squares on a sheet of paper. We never did complete allthose PMS checklists, but I began to learn how to be a manager—notby forcing arbitrary rules around sailors but by learning whatthose guys really did to keep the ship running and helping them besuccessful. Their success was reflected in my success and thesuccessful operation of the ship.

I am not saying I have all the answers but I know this one thing– you can't manage by technology. Managing is a people skill, not acomputer skill.

Please address comments, complaints, and suggestions to theauthor at [email protected].