On 7/16/07, Stuart Buchanan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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
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