On motivation and management
Well, it's been a while since starting this blog and drafting 5 posts that I've never finished! This is the first proper post and I expect it to be a bit rough and ready as I get used to writing again. Recently I've been thinking about motivation, more specifically in keeping morale up and motivating a small but busy support team, staffed by junior graduate and student devs. These are talented people with degrees related to their field of work. I'm mindful however that the environment can be high pressure and the learning curve of joining the team steep. I think that true motivation comes from within, but how to unlock it? Reading Simon Baker's blog on having a goal today sparked something in my brain, a memory lodged there from one of my Master's courses on managing software development. So looking over my notes I find that Humphrey (1997, p. vii) lists the following elements for successful management of technical staff: 1. a challe