Customer Reviews

The Manager Pool: Patterns for Radical Leadership (Software Patterns Series)

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A novel idea for the construction of software development teams is that all potential managers are placed in a pool and the developers choose the manager that they want for the project. At first glance, this may appear to introduce an additional and unnecessary layer of politics into the planning structure. However, after thinking the matter through, it makes sense and the (un) prefix can be removed. Study after study has indicated that the weakest point in the software development cycle is at the mid-level manager point, which is the one that developers interact with on a daily basis. By allowing a reasonable choice to be made early in the process, many festering political problems can be reduced or eliminated. This is only one of the many sensible strategies put forward in this book.
The management of software projects is an exercise in effective psychology, applied to a group that sometimes behaves as a mob, other times as a professional organization and sometimes as a kindergarten class. Therefore, the behavior of a manager cannot be consistent, but must be adjusted to reflect what is happening at the time. The patterns for managerial behavior reflect these many possibilities. The patterns range from simply keeping their attention, (kindergarten class), to offering rewards, (professional) and even to surviving when the group is turning on you (mob). There is a great deal of wisdom in these suggestions, which often sound like something Benjamin Franklin would have written.
I disagree with the title to the extent that it includes the word "radical" leadership. There is nothing radical at all about the approach, in fact many of the points bring back memories I have of the managers I have worked under. Some were good some of the time, others good most of the time and some were good none of the time. When they were good, they were often following the principles in this book and when they were bad, it was as if they had read a point and made a conscious decision to do the opposite.
Developers are generally a very talented group, but they drift without effective leadership. One way to obtain the necessary direction is to have the managers get together and be selected in a draft, much like that done by sports teams. However, before that is done, make this book required reading and have them interview for the job. It sounds radical, but isn't that the way we select the best new people for our companies?

The Manager Pool is a provocative book on development team leadership, written by a developer and an ex-developer manager. Having been in the trenches myself, I greatly appreciated just about all the leadership techniques (expressed in pattern form) espoused in the book. An example and particular favorite is Shameless Ignoramus, which recommends that managers should avoid the temptation to try and know all the technical details.

I'm certain that this book will rankle many feathers, and probably be dismissed out-of-hand as a couple of developers trying to stir the pot. So be it. I suspect that it'll end up being one of those books that states the obvious to those who read it, and those who need it won't read it.

I'd like to see perhaps more patterns, and a bit more detail on how the patterns actually produced the highly touted results as claimed by the authors.

The book's presentation was excellent. Well-edited and well-written. It was a very quick read (each of the "patterns" are three or four pages), and looks to act as a good reference as well.

Or how I learned to love my manager and stop worrying.

I am a software engineer with over twenty years in the trenches. I was recently placed in a managerial position at gunpoint. I suspect that this makes me the living anti-thesis of this book, wherein developers choose a manager for thier team from a pool of available managers. I read this book a few months ago. I found myself today presenting an argument to our Higher up Management addressing why mandatory overtime is a bad idea. I found the lucid writing of the authors rolling off my tongue and to my surprise and utter disbelief they agreed. Too bad there was no chapter addressing higher salaries and less responsibility. At any rate it worked. I would like to thank the authors in this review.

I was somewhat disappointed by the use of Radical in the title. As a baby boomer I was geared up to read an accompaniment to Jerry Rueben, "Steel this Book", but alas are there any radicals left amongst us. The book is a funny read, and in many ways conjured both visual and practical similarities to The Mythical Man Month. Can the "Mythical Radical Corporate Manager" be far behind.

Good book !

I have to admit, what initially attracted me to this book was the cover - I just happened to see it and picked it up. But once I started reading I was pleasantly surprised. Oh, if only every manager and manager wannabe could be given this book! It is not a technical treatise on management, with all the little tricks of the trade. It's more about the soul of a manager, and even if other reviewers don't think this is radical, it seems radical to me.

The format is very appealing - easy to skim through, but also quite readable in a linear way. Each chapter, or pattern, is short and most are very entertaining. The authors draw on a really wide collection of sources and that helps keep it from being just another dry how-to book. How many management books quote Hamlet? There is something really uplifting about it, too, in the way it sort of speaks to the reader of the possibility of
really making a difference through courage and conviction.

Some of it could be called fluff, I suppose, and some is going to anger some people. Most of it, I think though, is going to entertain and even enlighten a lot of folks. It's like a license to act on what you secretly believe. It's also damned funny in many places, and I think that managers and their employees alike will find a lot to laugh about in here. It's worth reading just for the entertainment value. It's also the only management book you'll read that discusses the importance of good coffee in the workplace.

Overall, The Manager Pool is a good book - worth reading yourself and even, if you dare, worth giving to your boss to read. And if you have any friends contemplating the management track, get them to read it too. In some way it could make a lot of difference.

They draw a tree of all their patterns with their titles. However, with 60+ patterns it is very easy to forget what a particular one means. A one sentance reminder of the pattern point would help one go back over the set from time to time as a reminder of what to be doing.

This book is everything its cracked up to be and if you do not believe that business need subjugate itself to the happiness of the people practitioning it. Consider yourself warned, for depression and failure await you.

They are not all useful, and they are written by developers about management, but many of them are very good to keep in mind and its an easy entertaining read.

This book will help you and your team be more effective and happier through simple practical suggestions based on real effective experience.

The format and presentation make it an easy,entertaining read. However, there is some great insight that can be harvested and used in a very practical way. It provides a clear understanding of the drivers behind some of the typical behaviors we see every day. It's a huge advantage to be able to understand and anticipate how groups interact.

I would recommend it to anyone in the IT trenches.

I have over twenty years in the software industry with half of that in management. The Manager Pool patterns are right on the mark. There is a lesson learned with each pattern. The interwoven, point-making humor is extremely refreshing and direct. It is present in the pictures, ingenious chapter titles and throughout the text. Once I started on the book, I had a hard time keeping myself from looking ahead to get a glimpse at the next pattern. The patterns are appropriately organized into categories such as strategic or behavioral which allows a person to focus in on what may be most applicable to their environment. If you're looking for a different perspective to managing software projects, away from the mundane mounds of leadership literature, then this book is for you.

First of all, this is a funny book, and a literate one. It doesn't break things down into bite-sized pieces or give you formulas or anything like that. If you're looking for some quick fixes to your management problems, this isn't going to be a book for you. But if you really care about what employees think a great manager should be, then The Manager Pool is a very good book to read.

Some chapters really stick in my mind, like "Overtime Detox" and "Train Hard, Fight Easy" because they address real problems in the workplace as I see it. The first one emphasizes the futility of using overtime as a substitute for bad planning and also as a CYA mechanism, and it also contains a song written about overtime that is downright hilarious. The second one, "Train Hard, Fight Easy" makes the case for training teams as a unit in order to build team cohesion and trust. This is important stuff to say at a time when companies are slashing budgets for training and trying to contain costs by making fewer and fewer people do more and more.

It's too bad this book didn't come out a couple of years ago when everything was going great in the software industry because it might have had more impact as competition for skilled employees was really intense. But even during this downturn, I think that the smart managers will learn some lessons that are in The Manager Pool so that they are ready when the economy turns around and fighting for good developers heats up. I agree
with the authors that it won't be money that matters as much as the environment that people want to work in, and it will be the managers who can shape that environment who will be the most successful because they will get the best to come and work for them.

Yet another good basic book for managing software projects. Should be required reading for first time software managers, and again when they are promoted once more. By then if they haven't got these techniques down, they should go back to development.

It's a good compilment to the patterns of "failed project" etc. at the pattern language web page.

BTW what is often called "Radical" is only applying what should have been known at the time, and is now considered common practice. (Which is also an oxymoron as common practice often isn't.)

I was recently promoted to Team Lead after 5 years as a Software Developer, and I was looking for books that could give me some advice. This was one of my choices, and I was not disappointed with it. I was drawn to this book because of its ties to the Software Patters Series because I was interested in patters as a developer. It is questionable whether or not this book belongs in a patterns series, and the authors even admit that some of their patters are theorized rather than observed. This does not make it a poor text, but it probably does not belong in this series. Be that as it may, the book is broken down into five categories of patterns: Psychological and Retentive, Behavioral and Expulsive, Strategic, Tactical, and Environmental patterns.

While I do not agree with everything that the authors have to say, everything in the book is good food for thought. Many of the patterns are common sense, such as "21. Get A Guru". Nothing makes a manager's life easier than having an expert. "23. Overtime Detox" should be common sense, but it speaks of the state of software development when most software management books have to speak out against manditory overtime. One pattern that I really question is "24. Defense de Pisser". This pattern suggests that drug tests in the work place should be completely done away with. Even if I didn't agree with this in principle, it is not practal. Many companies are in the defense or transportation industry where employees are required by the government to pass drug tests.

I could go on for quite a while on what the authors have written, but I'll stop at giving you a peek at the book. While I don't agree with everything that the authors wrote, it was still worthwhile to read it from cover to cover. For each issue they present, I suggest first deciding whether or not you agree with them. Then answer the deeper question of why or why not. You will be better off for your efforts if you do.