How Ron Lichty Manages the Unmanageable: Topics on Software Management, Agile Processes, and Making Software Hum

QuantLayer Podcast

Software Consultant Ron Lichty joins us to talk about all things software management. Ron has a treasure trove of experience helping teams accelerate and amplify their software practices. We look at the history of waterfall-style projects transitioning to Agile projects. We talk about his time as a product manager at Apple and his work with Charles Schwab at the time they launched their electronic trading platform. Ron articulates his views on the different types of developers out there and how to motivate them. We finish up with a couple areas Ron is excited about: Blockchain and Virtual Reality.

Topics:

• Ron's background
• History of waterfall-style projects transitioning to Agile projects
• Charles Schwab interactive tools
• Talking about Extreme Programming
• On Scrum
• Software development is a team sport
• Differences between this notion of "being agile" versus "doing agile"
• Case of estimating
• Talking about Brooke's law
• On being a good managers
• Motivators versus de-motivators
• Effective management at different stages of companies
• Some interesting technologies and trends that he's optimistic about

Links:

• Ron Lichty's website - https://ronlichty.com/
• Managing the Unmanageable: The Book - http://managingtheunmanageable.net/
• Managing the Unmanageable: Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Unmanageable-Insights-Software-People-ebook/dp/B009CFV8BY
• Waterfall Software Development - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model
• Agile Software Development - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
• RUP - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_Unified_Process
• Harvard Business Review case study on motivating employees - https://hbr.org/2003/01/one-more-time-how-do-you-motivate-employees
• Drive by Daniel H. Pink - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P1JDJO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1