joeysmith's Journal: Beware the guy in a room

I found it really interesting to read Microsoft's 21 points of shipping great software the other day. Most interesting to me was the warning mentioned in the subject.

I find it interesting because I'm a guy in a room. That is my modus operandi. I have no problem giving status updates, or working as part of a team, but when a deadline looms, and people start to realize that some deadline or another just can't be hit at our current level of production, I've always been one of those guys who takes on the responsibility of finishing someone else's work.

And it's worked just fine. Admittedly, none of the software companies I've worked for have yet to be a shining example of success, but then, I've known Microsoft to miss a release date here and there as well.

So I'm enabling comments on this journal to hear what others think. Is "a guy in a room" always a bad thing, or is this an over-generalize principle?

guy in a room

[dragoncortez]

It's a bad thing for the long term growth of a company. It can certainly be good in the short term.