Meetings

Preventing Crisis: How to go from scapegoat to rock star

Andy Lester

Tuesday March 22nd 2005 at 7:00pm
Wheaton, Illinois Institute of Technology - Rice Campus, Room 103

Abstract

Embarrassing bugs, late-night phone calls and impossible schedules are all crises no one wants, but are all too common. Don't accept them as inevitable: Prevent them! Learn how to change from scapegoat to rock star, and bring back the joy of development.

Crisis is always bad, even when you manage to solve the problem. Crisis always reflects poorly on you and your department.

It's almost a truism that development crises happen, but you don't have to work in a Dilbertesque hellhole. Crisis prevention must be an integral part of everything you and your department do. You'll learn how to:

* Keep management off your back so you can get real work done.

* Make honest schedules everyone can live with.

* Track your progress effectively to avoid 11th hour rushes.

* Stop your project from stalling, or sliding backwards.

* Handle change requests without stress.

* Go from scapegoats to rock stars.

These techniques have all been proven under fire, and draw from a number of methodologies.

Speaker Bio

Andy Lester has been a professional programmer for eighteen years and a Perl evangelist for a decade. By day, he manages programmers for Follett Library Resources in McHenry, IL. By night, he spreads the gospel of automated testing and maintains over a dozen CPAN modules. Andy also writes for The Perl Journal, and three of his hacks have been published in Spidering Hacks by O'Reilly.

Getting to the meeting

The next General meeting of UniForum Chicago will be:

        IIT Rice Campus
        Room 103
        201 East Loop Road
        Wheaton, IL 60187-8489

Directions to IIT - Rice Campus in Wheaton
The 19-acre campus is located just northeast of the intersection of Naperville and Butterfield roads in sou th Wheaton's Danada development. The campus is three miles west of the Butterfield Road interchange of the N orth-South Tollway (I-355) and two miles north of the Naperville Road interchange of the East-West Tollway ( I-88).

From the North or South: From I-355 (North-South Tollway), exit westbound at Rt.56/Butterfield Road and proceed west 3 1/2 miles on B utterfield Road to East Loop Road. Turn right onto East Loop Road (Phillip's 66 Gas Station on the corner); the campus will be on your right about a block north of Butterfield Road, behind Cozymel's. Park in the Student parking lot behind the building. Room 103 is the first room inside the north enterance.

From the I-294 (Tri-State Tollway), take the I-88 (East-West Tollway) westbound and follow directions "From the East or West" below.

From the East or West: From I-88 (East-West Tollway), take the Naperville Road exit. At the traffic light, turn left onto Naperville Road and continue north for 1\275 miles to Rt. 56/Butterfield Road. Turn right onto Rt. 56/Butterfield Road and proceed 1/4 mile to the first traffic light (East Loop Road). Turn left on to East Loop Road, ( Phillip's 66 Gas station on the corner); the campus will be on your right about a block north of Butterfield Road, behind Cozymel's. Park in the Student parking lot behind the building.

Room 103 is the first room inside the north enterance.