tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post8159389086781760414..comments2024-03-15T16:44:45.322+01:00Comments on Ziobrando's Lair: Doing Agile in ItalyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00568728817611163214noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post-58307137664364976202007-07-02T20:30:00.000+02:002007-07-02T20:30:00.000+02:00My reply was more directed to the employer view of...My reply was more directed to the employer view of things.<BR/><BR/>As a team leader i also found myself having to deal with other companies programmers that are just plain incompetent or not motivated. As you, i found that for the not motivated folks providing something "cool" for them to work on or giving them a more active role on the project does the job. As for the incompetent ones, well, when i can't get rid of them i just assign the simplest tasks to them and double check everything they do.Hugohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08307424420683518239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post-38134983816577558692007-07-02T12:28:00.000+02:002007-07-02T12:28:00.000+02:00Hi Alberto, It's interesting that you put the qu...Hi Alberto,<BR/> It's interesting that you put the question about recruitment in the context of Agile development.<BR/><BR/>In Ireland we have a seller's market for development skills - there are more places than people. This means that we have to bid for the best people available. Money, while important, is far from being <I>the</I> deciding factor. What attracts good developers is a good development environment and interesting work. Most developers are attracted to an Agile/Code-Centric development shop. And of course the better the group of developers you have, the easier it is to be code-centric.<BR/><BR/>In Italy it's a buyer's market so in theory it should be easier to find skilled developers. My guess is that it's also a more conservative and cautious labour market and therefore less mobile. Perhaps those who already have contract positions don't want to risk losing them (a lot of Italian developers that I have met work, or have worked, under these temporary contracts, renewed year after year).<BR/><BR/>All in all, the Italian software labour market seems badly distorted, which is a great shame considering the huge pool of talent that is clearly available there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post-68873093403644841162007-07-01T23:20:00.000+02:002007-07-01T23:20:00.000+02:00Hi, Hugo!Thanks for the link about recruiting, int...Hi, Hugo!<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the link about recruiting, interesting, and not so far away from my personal perpective on the topic. When I am involved in recruiting people for my employing company I think pretty in the same way (I am the three hour all-round interview type of guy).<BR/><BR/>Anyway, let me clarify my normal context: as a consultant, I normally join a team (ina customer company) whose dynamics are out of my scope, so a can't influence neither selection nor contracts. Most of the teams are anyway formed following the scheme I described. This happens both in software houses and in IT departments of large enterprises.<BR/><BR/>Temporary contracts are an available option, but only in certain specific situations, and (I have to admit I don't know why) it's seldom used in software projects (maybe because you're putting on the contract the expected delivery date, and this might lead you into trouble, if you're late... ).<BR/><BR/>When managing a team, the restult is that you can't leverage people selection that much (which is one of the top factors), and money is more powerful as a negative factor than as a positive one. Often, the best option left to improve team motivation is to give everybody an evident chance to learn someting new. This makes things a little more challenging and interesting.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00568728817611163214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post-69359976741120102682007-06-29T14:12:00.000+02:002007-06-29T14:12:00.000+02:00I'm not aware of the employment laws in Italy, but...I'm not aware of the employment laws in Italy, but we usually solve the "problem programmers" issue by:<BR/><BR/>- Careful selection. There are of course lots of papers describing different ways of achieving this. Still, i found <A HREF="http://blogs.atlassian.com/rebelutionary/archives/2007/03/life_is_a_hire_way_5_tips_for_startup_hi.html" REL="nofollow">this</A> to be a really interesting approach to recruitment.<BR/><BR/>- Add a time clause to the contract where you can fire the employee without having to go through all the legal stuff. We usually use a 6 months period, what this means is that during those 6 months we can fire the employee without any legal trouble.<BR/><BR/>Of course this doesn't always work and some "problem programmer" still pass the net. But we found that we can reduce by a big margin the probability of having a "problem programmer" in our team.Hugohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08307424420683518239noreply@blogger.com