multiple ways. The phrase "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit" also applies to software organizations. Point out problems with the project. Suggest alternatives. Let the people running the project adopt them as their own. You might not get the credit, but the project will be closer to back on track. After all, a career marked by project success will tend to speak for itself.
In the end, if feedback is viewed as career-self-destruction, and nothing changes when feedback is offered, you may have to hit the silk. Do you honestly want to work in that organization, anyway?
If you are a leader, the implication is clear: Don't shoot the messenger. Instead, seek out the dissenting opinion so you can achieve success. As Victor Stone put it in his article "The Rubber Stamp":
"Don't you know that a VP can get any 10 monkeys in this company together to rubber stamp just about any crazy idea? But if you want real consensus you have to dig for the opposing view because if you don't seek it early, it will find you later."
Perhaps that's a better quote to keep in mind when it comes to software projects.
Acknowledgements: Michael Kotman and Dennis Elmhirst made significant contributions to this article.
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About the author
Matthew Heusser is a consulting software tester and software process naturalist, who has spent his entire adult life developing, testing, and managing software projects. He has served as the lead organizer of the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference, organized a workshop on technical debt, and taught information systems at Calvin College. Matthew blogs at Creative Chaos, is a contributing editor to Software Test & Quality Assurance magazine, and is on the board of directors of the Association for Software Testing. Matthew recently served as lead editor for How to Reduce the Cost of Software Testing (Taylor and Francis, 2011). Follow Matthew on Twitter at @mheusser or email him at matt@xndev.com.
