Category: z_GS2009Review

selective listening

Posted on by tiger40490
(For your reading pleasure… No need to reply me…)
 
During year-end performance review, one of the minor feedback items is my “selective listening” and other listening skills.
 
My manager gave an example — During a long technical design meeting, our senior manager said errors should be saved to a log table, not just to log files. I felt My team lead didn't fully agree but nobody objected. I thought my team lead might give me detailed instructions how he wants to implement it, or even postpone this feature, so I didn't act on this decision.
 
In a subsequent meeting, when managers asked me about this feature, I said there was no such decision. This was cited as forgetting/ignoring an important agreement of an important meeting.

Re: performance review this Friday

Posted on by tiger40490

My managers gave me about 20 – 40 pieces of advice…

My Plan#1 — follow 20% of their advice — the simple ones — and ….

However, Just to maintain my current level of productivity (which is below their expectation), I need to push myself to my max which is barely below self-torture. This so-called 80% level is still a painful workload though.

Now, to follow their simple advice, i need to follow up more, write more careful emails, do more professional documentation … requiring an x% additional effort. Remember 80% was already my max… Once I start my Plan #1 some managers will probably complain about my productivity drop, but I know what i have to do — i will tell them “i already gave my best shot.”

project management

Posted on by tiger40490
During my year-end performance review, one important area is project management esp. written specifications. We call them “functional spec” and “tech spec”.
 
I was expected to run the project FOR my managers and present them a set of control documents such as requirement spec, design spec, time line etc. They would read these from time to time and get an idea of where things stand.
 
I did a lot of these “quick-and-dirty” documentations for myself primarily and also made them readable by others. I used several “wiki” pages, which are not consolidated into one document. My managers didn't like these documentation. I think they prefer a consolidated MS-Word document. Due to this and other factors, they perceived that i failed to meet their expectations on project management, planning and organization. It also affected (to a lesser extent) my ratings in communications, initiatives.
 
Throughout my career, I pay more attention than colleagues to (early) planning, self-organization, documenting things, preventive initiatives… These are my strong areas, as many classmates, clients and colleagues told me. I feel my project management performance was average, with some strengths and also, due to the drive for speed, some weaknesses. My managers considered it below-average.

2nd review — #bigger setbacks in my life

Posted on by tiger40490
Don’t spend too much time on this.

* frequent failures and bad luck at dating and flirting.
* 2 years delay entering U
* conceiving
* role: presales
* role: general marketing and sales
* role: self-employment
* failed to get 保送;

Also:
* dean’s list;
* HCJC — i had to drop one of the 4 subjects to concentrate on getting into university.
* S’pore GCE A-level scholarships.

Re: communications issues

Posted on by tiger40490
(published on my blog) i would put in some sugar coating (“diplomacy”) if i had known such an “implicit custom” about system designs and personal vacations. 
 
I made that mistake because i remembered other experienced GS people did mention personal vacations during other project timeline discussions.
 
An example of insensitivity. Something i do or say has an obviouis connotation but my antenna ignores the signal. What's more interesting is my reasoning — my antenna tunes out because a prior experience steers my perception in another direction. [1] “Perception” is an academic jargon but the most accurate word to describe my problem with my managers. Their perceptions are more in line with other GS people's perceptions; my perceptions are sometimes off. However, my perceptions are never groundless; they are part of my thinking pattern, and hard to change. If i question my logical thinking, then i don't know what reasoning is valid and what needs adjustment.
 
[1] David Thoureau said if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
 

Hi Victor,  

Your manager is right and I think he is giving you a tip so please take it in a positive way.

When situation like this happens, you need to appear to have the team objective in mind rather than a personal one. What I would have said is that the two weeks detailed design will commit more resources and time and looking at availability of your team, you don’t think there are enough resources time can be allocated to this. A simpler design should still provide the end user similar level of satisfaction therefore the cost of achieving that additional 10% more satisfaction is not justified.

imperfect Team Lead

Posted on by tiger40490
TL is not that familiar enough with the details of requirement and the existing system. TL can design a basic framework, but should let the developer have the freedom to modify details. TL should not keep questioning every change, as if TL knows the details best. Questioning take a toll on the developer’s productivity. Developer would simply decide to take the easy route and stick to the non-ideal design and not bother to improve it.
If I see a lot of code duplication and want to refactor, I worry about
* TL may not like how I refactor
* TL may not appreciate the improvement and my effort may lead to a delay. A lot of my quality improvments are things colleagues don’t do. My initiaitive was mostly unappreciated.
TL treats experienced developers just like fresh graduates.
TL keeps the final vote on every decision, and won’t delegate to even experienced developers.

[09]Roland discussion

Posted on by tiger40490

* scrutiny, code review, “change-requests” (below) fall more on non-IC java modules than perl, proc or IC java modules.

* No written warning. No grace period. It’s possible that firm decides to cut head count by a number. They identify the individuals and deliver the decision — no need for warning or grace period.

* decision maker must be M
* All the layoff workers he knows have since found jobs. Many are now consultants.
* Sugg: attend iviews during lunch breaks. I think 90min is ok.
* If you judge a developer’s performance by the project delays, it’s unfair because TL is partly responsible. R’s departure was possibly unfair to some extent. In my case, my design would have lower LOE and perhaps works better in production.
* Given the pressure and distress over his 9 months, his departure from this firm was a good outcome.
* TL sometimes asked R to rework a finished codebase, and gave very little time.