My latest article Management Anti-Patterns, or “My Manager Thinks I’m Holding Her Hostage” is available on Stickyminds.

A couple of years ago, I was the technical editor for a Linda Hayes article called “Held Hostage by Coders”. I was working with a team performing a technical audit when the article was published. Linda’s piece was timely and appropriate for the team to read, but there wasn’t anything for managers to look at to improve their work. In fact, a technical lead admitted that the technical team were exhibiting the behavior described in Linda’s article, but said: “What about the managers? They aren’t behaving that well either. Do you have something for us?” I developed three management anti-patterns based on my own experiences and observation in the software industry and presented them to the team. They loved the concepts, and management and technical people felt there was a balance. I’ve brought up these anti-patterns in other organizations, and it seems to strike a chord. If you look at one set of behaviors (management or technical) be sure to look at the other side as well. I hope you find it useful.