From: Curtis O. <cur...@gm...> - 2007-07-16 18:24:22
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On 7/16/07, Stuart Buchanan <stu...@ya...> wrote: > > I don't think we're realistically going to be able to raise funds to > support of full or part time manager, and as you note, it is very unlikely > that a company would pay for management as opposed to specific development. > Do we manage to even cover our hosting costs with DVD world scenery sales? > > A far better approach is to look at how we can make our processes more > efficient so that the management (of which you are the CEO) can make better > use of their time. I think what is required is more delegation. > > Martin Spott mentioned on the list problems with getting the web-site > updated promptly, presumably because you are the sole maintainer of the > site, and have too much on your plate. I don't feel that the web-site is > something that has to be maintained by the CEO - it could easily be > delegated. > > Similarly, John Denker recently commented on the huge proportion of > checkins made by Melchior Franz. Melchior does a quite incredible job ensure > that the data tree in particular is kept in good order, and committing huge > numbers of contributions. However, I'm sure his life would be much easier if > more aircraft maintainers have commit permissions. The ocassional bug might > fall through, but most maintainers have enough pride in their work to fix > bugs, and Melchior would still have commit permissions... > > The Manual is a prime example of where delegation has worked extremely > well. Martin and I both have commit permissions and have made significant > changes without any need to bother anyone. > > Therefore, I think it would be a good idea for you to look at what can be > delegated from your workload onto other people and suggest appropriate roles > to the list. > > Of course, good delegation is one of the signs of good management :) I don't disagree with anything you've said, but delegation is a lot harder than it looks. I need to find (a) someone qualified to do the work and (b) someone who can do it consistantly and isn't going to get overwhelmed after the first month and drop out of the picture. I've had several past delegation efforts derailed because things just didn't work out. Tasks are always harder and take a lot more time than you think at first. Things that look effortless when I do it might be a result of years of trial and error and experience to come up with a method or sequence of steps that work well. Something that looks easy from the outside, might turn out to be actually very difficult and time consuming and people just don't realize that until they volunteer to take over the task, but often that's the point where the delegation effort starts to fizzle. I probably shouldn't say things that are potentially inflamatory here, and I'm definitely not referring to you, and also I am not trying to minimize the efforts and energy that various talented people have put into our project ... but there are a few people involved in the list that have grown into perpetual whiners and can't seem to make any post at all without taking a direct or indirect jab at someone or some aspect of the project. Personally, I just don't have the time to counter all their claims or try to put their exagerations back into proper context, and after a while I'm just not able to respond to their messages in a useful way even if there is occassionally a valid point or a piece of good content in them. I'm reminded of the story about the boy who cried wolf ... And for whatever it's worth, personally the way I am wired, I don't respond well to negative motivation unless it's coming from someone who signs my paycheck where I have no choice... it's something that just doesn't work well with me, even if there is a valid point or need. For the record, 20 different people have commit access to various portions of the FlightGear repository. Addressing the specific case of the web site. The web site is in cvs. I'm not the only one that is authorized to make changes. However, I am the only one that can upload those changes to the actual server. Unfortunately, giving access to this last step of uploading content would involve personal passwords and the ability to affect my paypal account and a few other things that I'm somewhat nervous about handing off. Deligation is one of the main tasks of a paid manager with paid employees. Deligation is needed to get the overall job done as efficiently as possible. But in a context where a volunteer manager is dealing with volunteer developers, none of whom can devote 40-80 hours a week to the project, delegation becomes much harder. Actually, you can't even really call it delegation. What do you think would happen if I started picking names and assigning tasks and deadlines and demanding weekly reports?!? Instead I have to resort to trickery, mind games, and reverse logic to convince people who are already very busy that they should take on additional tasks ... and most of you are smarter than me and able to successfully defend against my best attempts. :-) Regards, Curt. -- Curtis Olson - University of Minnesota - FlightGear Project http://baron.flightgear.org/~curt/ http://www.humanfirst.umn.edu/ http://www.flightgear.org Unique text: 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d |