| People with bad communication skills often think they are communicating big estimate, while no one else in the room got it from what they said. It happens. Or they refuse to hear when someone suggests easier solution or change of requirements so that it can be done faster. Nope, showing the code is not enough to explain to other developers, unless we are talking about something extremely clear, simple and small. And yep, developers tend to have different opinions about what is important. The expectation that they will automatically share your concerns is pretty much how developers with lower social skills fail - and why lack of it slows everyone down. (And then they complain about everyone being stupid while the issue is they did not expressed themselves clearly and did not listened to contraarguments). And PM IS interested, good one that is. It helps him to argue to customers/his bosses/other departments. It helps him to trust you. It helps him to distinguish between something that can wait and something that need to be done soon (you had him doing all prioritization and you claimed developer does not need such skill). Software estimates are wrong often enough that good PM won't take them as granted. At minimum she needs a sense of risks. It helps him to change the spec so that new one is doable faster. Have you even consider entry that PM can react to reasons why something take long by changing spec, changing priorities, negotiating more or finding someone more experienced I that are to help you? Good pm do all the above. Which is why they can achieve more if people under them cooperate. On your last point - given that developers with bad communication skills ask badly phrased questions or don't ask anything at all (just generically complain about bad analysis and insult pm - true story), yep it matters. You jumped from "bad social skills" to "average" there. The two are not nearly the same thing. |
I've literally never had this happen once during a planning meeting.
>Nope, showing the code is not enough to explain to other developers
It's always worked for me. I can read code, grasp the structure and spot code smells with a glance. If it's really bad I'll be able to tell.
Usually I will just trust the people I work with if they say "it's bad" though.
>And PM IS interested, good one that is.
Good PMs learn to stay out of technical issues and trust their developers just as good developers learn not to second guess their PMs.
>Have you even consider entry that PM can react to reasons why something take long
Uh, was that English?
>On your last point - given that developers with bad communication skills ask badly phrased questions or don't ask anything at all (just generically complain about bad analysis and insult pm - true story), yep it matters.
As I said before I've worked with several developers who rarely ask questions and just do the work (and do it well). All stellar developers and highly underrated.
>You jumped from "bad social skills" to "average" there.
We were always arguing about whether it was a priority for developers to have especially good (or even above average) soft skills, not whether it was ok to work with developers with cripplingly bad communication problems.