Prioritization - Not Just For Managers?
Johanna's recent post reminded me of my first day as a new tester in the product group. I had an introductory meeting with our test manager and the one thing he emphasized (and the only thing I remember from that meeting 7 years ago) was that he would give me more work to do than I could possibly handle and it would be my responsibility to learn to prioritize my tasks.
That admonition had a powerful effect on me. Whenever I was assigned a task, I made sure to get enough information to be able to prioritize it along with all my other tasks. Sometimes I didn't have enough information to do this so I had to do some legwork to find out more information about the task. It made me a lot more aware of what the real goals of the organization were and how what I did fit into that picture.
Of course this kind of situation requires a high level of trust between management and individual contributors and a tolerance of mistakes (I have made my share of them, especially in the beginning). But the payoff is in a more effective organization.
11:32:15 AM 
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