When does the CTO appoint project managers and engineering managers?

Описание: We have Kathy Keating and Matt Ferguson discussing the nuances of project management and program management.

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Here's a snippet from this chat:

So I wear both hats, right? I wear with the product hat I wear the CTO hat. I think I wear the project hat and, one of my small organizations and some seeing all of that in current But I think one of the things that serve me we didn't talk about earlier is just this concept of estimations. I love

and this was something that, the person who brought this to the team the question up was struggling with was they weren't getting, estimates and just the, their project manager was falling down in not being able to gather the, these details. And we talked about the questions they were asking, and I feel very strongly that, the engineers should be delivering estimates because the estimates tell you where there's risks and that's project management is identification of risk.

And if you can identify the right. You can manage the risk. You can squash the risk. You can unblock people. It's one of the most important parts of project management. I think you get to it by asking a simple question. How long is it going to take? And when they say, I don't know you better not be starting it cause I'm not buying.

I don't know. I'm buying it gets done in a week. I've gotten. I'm not even going to, you could even be a non estimates person and still ask the question. What's the estimate. I'm not going to hold you accountable, but I want to know if you know what you're doing. And the only way I know is if you can do it in that particular timeframe.

And that's the hardest thing for a project manager to realize, that's the only question they should have that. But it's also the most difficult one because they get a pushback, right? They're like, whoa, you're a hold me accountable to that. Oh wait. Or I'm going to fluff that part that estimate by a ton because I think I'll get it done then, because I think I'm really held accountable to it.

But if you can break that ice and say, listen, I'm asking you because I want to know. I'm here to help you with this question. Tell me what you really think this is going to take. And if you tell me four hours and you're confident, that's a very different thing than maybe a day or two. I've never done this before.

Oh, that's what I wanted to know. You've never done this before. Should I have somebody else help you? Should I have somebody else altogether? Do I want to make an investment in teaching you how to do this? Or do I just want to get it? Now I have a decision right. That I can make. And I got there from one question, the estimate,

dude, you look so scary when you ask those questions.