raganwald
(This is a snapshot of my old weblog. New posts and selected republished essays can be found at raganwald.com.)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007
  Words I will take to heart


Be discreet with constructive criticism. A developer is much more likely to be accept casual suggestions and quiet leading questions than they are if the same is emailed to the entire group. Widening the audience is more likely to yield defensiveness and retribution. The team is always considering what your motives are, and you will be called on it and exiled if you degrade the work of others for self-promotion.
—Dennis Forbes,
Effectively Integrating Into Software Development Teams

(via Jeff Atwood, Leading by Example)


I hearby name this Forbes’ Seventh Law:

The constructiveness of your criticism is in inverse exponential proportion to the size of the audience.
 

Comments on “Words I will take to heart:
Actually, Jeff was quoting that from Dennis Forbes: http://www.yafla.com/dennisforbes/Effectively-Integrating-Into-Software-Development-Teams/Effectively-Integrating-Into-Software-Development-Teams.html
 
In this direction, here we practice the face to face meeting when possible. Actually, we go to the coffee machine to speak freely.

the communication means are privileged in this order :
- face to face meeting
- telephone
- mail
 




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Reg Braithwaite


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