Hidden Intentions

When dealing with dangerous deadlines, tough decisions, and very little time, there are several consequences in the behavior of managers in this case. For the chapter 16, the angry manager is introduced, and the real question about it is, why is he angry?

Mr. Tomkins, investigating this case, found that when a manager is angry, that behavior is contagious. That means that the lower management people will do or try to make the same approach of being abusive or desperate. This is one of the main clues for realizing that an upper level manager is in an angry mode. But why does this happen?

Someone may think that by being aggressive you can motivate better or give a push even stronger for action. The main perspective about this way of management is that the performance will increase if the personal is treated more abusively. But that is just the opposite of it.

By being angry, one loses credibility, and is a sign that there is an inadequacy in the position. The true way of resolving big challenges and motivate others is to stay focused and try to be as transparent as possible, saying the right things, but most important, to say those things in the right way. Being desperate and angry just makes things worse at the end.

This hidden intention also happens with specifications of a software development. It happens in this chapter and Belinda explains the reason for it. There are several times when even though you don’t understand something, you hide the doubt and state that everything is clear and sound. But that just creates unresolved conflicts.

This conflicts stay unresolved because of two or more different ideas not bein debated because of the hidden truths that where not expressed. People will get to the point of blaming themselves if they do not understand a specification because they think that everyone else understood. This is a common mistake which is a consequence of a terrible specification definition.

At the end of the chapter, it is discussed that a good specification must have a complete set of inputs and outputs to understand better the functionality and reduce unresolved conflicts. So, without those requirements, the specification must not be valid.