Some advice dealing with team-members

[Pho3nix]

Hi all,

Have a bit of a situation of sort. We are currently on project, that is has been delay(clients issue) but it seems the one of seniors is taking his time with his portion of the code. Me and the other dev have done our parts but unfortunetly because the entire solution isn't stable, it looks like we sit all day twidling our thumbs. Spoken to my manager but the big boss doesn't seem to get it.

Any thoughts on this? Don't like my job being held hostage

 

[Beachless]

Have you asked him if he could delegate some of the functionality to you guys?

Even if its crap work like testing and cleanup at least you will make progress.

 

[Pho3nix]

Have you asked him if he could delegate some of the functionality to you guys?

Even if its crap work like testing and cleanup at least you will make progress.

It's integration work and he is the "master" at such. Especially seeing as how the entire solution was designed around the functionality/method he said would be quicker to implement.

 

[Beachless]

It's integration work and he is the "master" at such. Especially seeing as how the entire solution was designed around the functionality/method he said would be quicker to implement.

Its a tough one because its probably a control thing, not many devs especially senior ones are able to let go of that control and have a team all work together implementing their solution.

All I can suggest is that you wear him down by constantly offering to do any grunt work and winging in his ear.
At some point he will either tell you to go fly a kite or give you some tasks.
Just dont make it personal or care if they flip out at you for being annoying.

 

[chan0o]

Arrange a sit down meeting with the team, including the person that is causing the delay.
Write down the minutes of meeting, specifically noting deadlines. Ask if there is trouble and what is required to meet the deadline.
The minutes can hold the outstanding work accountable to someone.

It's essentially a sneaky way to pressure the team about deadline and point out the slacker(s).

 

[zippy]

I'm not sure successful that kind of a meeting will be with other developers asking those questions in that kind of a meeting. Either your manager is dealing with the senior dev and doesn't want crap him out in front of everyone, or your manager is weak and unfortunately that will reflect on the team. If try to do your managers job and make him look an idiot(even though he is), then be prepared for very hostile working env where the person you pissed off is the one who does your reviews.

You may very well end up being the first casualty. Remember your manager is reporting to someone as well. And unless you can talk to that person, you don't really have any options.

Time to move on. If they ask why, tell them. That's what the exit interview is for.

 

[Hamster]

Is this guy a "new" team lead?

The reason I ask, and this is just for a different perspective, is that when you start in a TL role you often get criticised for not letting your devs do enough (or pressure them enough) and just do everything yourself. Then you hold back (a bit too much) and the devs complain that you aren't doing enough. So for a new TL it takes some time and a lot of frustration to get into the role and doing it well.

 

[Pho3nix]

I'm not sure successful that kind of a meeting will be with other developers asking those questions in that kind of a meeting. Either your manager is dealing with the senior dev and doesn't want crap him out in front of everyone, or your manager is weak and unfortunately that will reflect on the team. If try to do your managers job and make him look an idiot(even though he is), then be prepared for very hostile working env where the person you pissed off is the one who does your reviews.

You may very well end up being the first casualty. Remember your manager is reporting to someone as well. And unless you can talk to that person, you don't really have any options.

Time to move on. If they ask why, tell them. That's what the exit interview is for.

I can approach my managers manager but feel like a tattle tail and word is going to come down that I snitched which is going to make for a even more k@k work environment. Manager knows the situation aswell but I don't know what issue is with this getting sorted out is.

For the interim I've asked my manager to move me to another project since this is "on-hold" so hopefully this doesn't make me look bad.
It's a contract gig and at this point, no sure where I stand regarding a possible renewal because of this rubbish.

Is this guy a "new" team lead?

The reason I ask, and this is just for a different perspective, is that when you start in a TL role you often get criticised for not letting your devs do enough (or pressure them enough) and just do everything yourself. Then you hold back (a bit too much) and the devs complain that you aren't doing enough. So for a new TL it takes some time and a lot of frustration to get into the role and doing it well.

No, the team has been together for almost a year and for the most part we get along fine.

 

[zippy]

I can approach my managers manager but feel like a tattle tail and word is going to come down that I snitched which is going to make for a even more k@k work environment. Manager knows the situation aswell but I don't know what issue is with this getting sorted out is.

For the interim I've asked my manager to move me to another project since this is "on-hold" so hopefully this doesn't make me look bad.
It's a contract gig and at this point, no sure where I stand regarding a possible renewal because of this rubbish.



No, the team has been together for almost a year and for the most part we get along fine.

I also wouldn't go to his boss. We get told that we can, but I agree with you on that.

You either trust your manager or you don't. If you don't, then start looking for another job. If you do, let him deal with it. It's his job. You just get on with yours and make sure you have emails that make it clear that he is happy with what you are doing. Email your concerns to your manager, but do not cc or blind cc anyone. All you need is a record.

 

[gkm]

In my experience, using Scrum or Kanban in a project can often drive out these kinds of bottlenecks, since it gets hard to explain each morning at standup why a sticky does not move. You are however likely to get resistance to introducing Scrum from people that do not like the project moving forward or want to hide problems of some kind, so might be tough to get it introduced in a case like this.

 

[Pho3nix]

I also wouldn't go to his boss. We get told that we can, but I agree with you on that.

You either trust your manager or you don't. If you don't, then start looking for another job. If you do, let him deal with it. It's his job. You just get on with yours and make sure you have emails that make it clear that he is happy with what you are doing. Email your concerns to your manager, but do not cc or blind cc anyone. All you need is a record.

Might try this. Thanks

In my experience, using Scrum or Kanban in a project can often drive out these kinds of bottlenecks, since it gets hard to explain each morning at standup why a sticky does not move. You are however likely to get resistance to introducing Scrum from people that do not like the project moving forward or want to hide problems of some kind, so might be tough to get it introduced in a case like this.

We have a scrum meeting every Tuesday and Thursday morning but this hasn't been adhered to for the past 3 months because of deadlines and other issues.

 

[gkm]

We have a scrum meeting every Tuesday and Thursday morning but this hasn't been adhered to for the past 3 months because of deadlines and other issues.

Sorry to be harsh, but: Unless you do daily standups with a scrum board of some kind, with tasks being moved on the board etc, you are not really doing Scrum. You are just following some random process, which as you are calling Scrum. Scrum only helps a development process if some of it fundamentals around continuous feedback and process correction and improvement is being followed.

I suspect this is part of the reason why your project is going south. Maybe you can push for introducing proper Scrum into the project if you want to see progress.

 

[Gnome]

We have a scrum meeting every Tuesday and Thursday morning but this hasn't been adhered to for the past 3 months because of deadlines and other issues.

If you aren't doing a task board with stories and tasks combined with morning stand-ups, then there is no point pretending you are doing scrum.

EDIT: LOL, gkm beat me to it

 

[Pho3nix]

If you aren't doing a task board with stories and tasks combined with morning stand-ups, then there is no point pretending you are doing scrum.

We were doing this but as mentioned stopped for the most part for the past 3 months
This is the 4th company/team that goes things Rambo. No specs, no actual timelines(gentlemans agreements) and no one knows how to close off a project as I've recently discovered :wtf:

Going to start job-hunting some time soon.