Well I *do* have a better suggestion -- or at least a strong need for one.

If I'm writing for CIOs and top managers, I need them to know that this article
has
credibility. That means I need real names and a real context. It doesn't mean
that you have
to say, "My name is Jo Jones and my client Foo Inc is the stupidest company on
the planet"
(even if it's true). But a manager has to have some sense that the comments are
real, that
they come from people whose opinions and experiences are relevant, or she won't
pay
enough attention to them.

What's wrong with saying, "Steven Gordon, a SCRUM/XP coach"? or "Jo Jones, who
has been
consulting for 10 years and specializes in Java development"? Do you think
they'll really
fail to give you work because you were quoted? (The sad fact is that bad
managers never
recognize themselves in these anecdotes.)

As an example, I'll post something I might write if my own consulting
experiences were
permissible in the article:

Esther Schindler spent 15 years as a computer consultant, often as a contractor
at
software companies. Her pet peeve was IT managers who gave consultants more
credit
than they gave their own staff. At one minicomputer company (which is,
thankfully, long
gone), she was asked to evaluate the QA system for the firm's many language
compilers.
All she did was ask the employees for their input, who were happy to share their
wishlists;
she also did some technical analysis of the process, but that was minor.
However, when
Schindler presented the "here's what needs to change" data to the managers, they
acted as
though she had discovered fire. When the information was available to them all
along.

I don't actually have to mention that it was Prime Computers; the point is the
same.

(And those managers may burn in hell, for all I care. But that's because of a
contract issue,
which is another story entirely.)


--- In agile-testing@yahoogroups.com, "Steven Gordon" <sgordonphd@...> wrote:
>
> E,
>
> Anonymous Scrum/XP Coach, unless you have a better suggestion.
>
> S
>
> On 7/27/07, estherschindler <esther@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hey, why be tactful? It's often most useful to whack an exec on the
> > side of the head. And it's one reason that this sort of article can be
> > useful... it isn't YOU worrying that if you speak your mind, you'll
> > lose your gig.
> >
> > But as a reminder: folks, please give me some way to refer to you in
> > the article! (We can discuss it privately if necessary.)
> >
> > E
> >
> > --- In agile-testing@yahoogroups.com <agile-testing%40yahoogroups.com>,
> > "Steven Gordon" <sgordonphd@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > I would wish that upper management would be more open to the
> > possiblity that
> > > sometimes they are part of the problem.
> > >
> > > In other words, when upper management sees a software development
> > problem,
> > > assumes that the problems must be due to how the software developers and
> > > their immediate managers are doing their job, and calls in
> > consultants to
> > > help them do their jobs better, sometimes the problem is not in the
> > > development sphere. If upper management cannot conceive that they
> > might be
> > > doing the things that are causing some of their problems, there is
> > no way to
> > > fix the problems.
> > >
> > > Given your skills, I hope you can find a more tactfully way to
> > express this.
> > >
> > > Steve
> >
> >
> >
>