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Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior

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Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior

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Description

  • Copyright 2014
  • Edition: 1st
  • eBook (Watermarked)
  • ISBN-10: 0-13-349208-7
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-13-349208-8

This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 2008).

Adrenaline junkies, dead fish, project sluts, true believers, Lewis and Clark, template zombies . . .

Most developers, testers, and managers on IT projects are pretty good at recognizing patterns of behavior and gut-level hunches, as in, “I sense that this project is headed for disaster.”

But it has always been more difficult to transform these patterns and hunches into a usable form, something a team can debate, refine, and use. Until now.

In Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies, the six principal consultants of The Atlantic Systems Guild present the patterns of behavior they most often observe at the dozens of IT firms they transform each year, around the world.

The result is a quick-read guide to identifying nearly ninety typical scenarios, drawing on a combined one-hundred-and-fifty years of project management experience. Project by project, you’ll improve the accuracy of your hunches and your ability to act on them.

The patterns are presented in an easy-reference format, with names designed to ease communication with your teammates. In just a few words, you can describe what’s happening on your project. Citing the patterns of behavior can help you quickly move those above and below you to the next step on your project. You’ll find classic patterns such as these: 

  • News Improvement
  • Management by Mood Ring
  • Piling On
  • Rattle Yer Dags
  • Natural Authority
  • Food++
  • Fridge Door
  • and more than eighty more! 

Not every pattern will be evident in your organization, and not every pattern is necessarily good or bad. However, you’ll find many patterns that will apply to your current and future assignments, even in the most ambiguous circumstances. When you assess your situation and follow your next hunch, you'll have the collective wisdom of six world-class consultants at your side.

Sample Content

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1: Adrenaline Junkies 6

2: Rattle Yer Dags 9

3: Dead Fish 12

4: Happy Clappy Meetings 14

5: Nanny 16

6: Referred Pain 19

7: Mañana 22

8: Eye Contact 25

9: Management By Mood Ring 28

10: True Believer 32

11: Lease Your Soul 34

12: System Development Lemming Cycle 36

13: No Bench 38

14: Face Time 40

15: I Gave You a Chisel. Why Aren’t You Michelangelo? 43

16: Dashboards 45

17: Endless Huddle 49

18: Young Pups and Old Dogs 52

19: Film Critics 55

20: One Throat to Choke 58

Interlude: Project-Speak 61

21: Soviet Style 63

22: Natural Authority 66

23: The Too-Quiet Office 68

24: The White Line 69

25: Silence Gives Consent 72

26: Straw Man 74

27: Counterfeit Urgency 77

28: Time Removes Cards from Your Hand 79

29: Lewis & Clark 82

30: Short Pencil 85

31: Rhythm 87

32: The Overtime Predictor 89

33: Poker Night 92

34: False Quality Gates 95

35: Testing Before Testing 99

36: Cider House Rules 101

37: Talk Then Write 104

38: Project Sluts 107

39: Atlas 109

40: Everyone Wears Clothes for a Reason 112

41: Peer Preview 114

42: Snorkeling and Scuba Diving 117

43: It’s Always the Goddamned Interfaces 120

44: The Blue Zone 122

45: News Improvement 124

46: Telling the Truth Slowly 127

47: Practicing Endgame 130

48: The Music Makers 133

49: Journalists 136

50: The Empty Chair 138

51: My Cousin Vinny 140

52: Feature Soup 143

53: Data Qualty 146

54: Ben 148

55: Miss Manners 150

56: Undivided Attention 152

57: “There’s No Crying in Baseball!” 155

58: Cool Hand Luke 157

59: Shipping On-Time, Every Time 159

60: Food++ 161

61: Orphaned Deliverables 163

62: Hidden Beauty 166

63: I Don’t Know 169

64: Children of Lake Wobegon 172

65: Co-Education 176

66: Seelenverwandtschaft 179

67: Phillips Head 182

68: Predicting Innovation 184

69: Marilyn Munster 187

Interlude: The Cutting Room Floor 190

70: Brownie in Motion 192

71: Loud and Clear 194

72: Safety Valve 197

73: Babel 200

74: Surprise! 202

75: Fridge Door 204

76: The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow 207

77: Piling On 211

78: Seasons for Change 213

79: Paper Mill 216

80: Offshore Follies 218

81: War Rooms 221

82: What Smell? 223

83: Lessons Unlearned 225

84: Sanctity of the Half-Baked Idea 228

85: Leakage 230

86: Template Zombies 233

Photo Credits 235

Pattern Index 237

About the Guild 240

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