General principles when thinking about roles

Derived from my old blog back in 2013.

“What is the right thing to do?” NOT “Is this part of my job?”

Authority-focus vs Responsbility-focus

Reference: John Shook on responsibility-focus versus authority-focus; see Managing to Learn.

“If we fail, then I fail”

Sure glad that hole isn’t at our end.

Less people (via combined roles) means less communication overhead

# of people vs # of communication paths

Reference: Steve McConnell on team size and communication paths

Prefer T-shaped people

Specialists vs generalists vs generalising specialists

References: Why T-shaped people?. A T-shaped person is capable in many… | by Jason Yip | Medium

Adjust the roles to fit the people NOT adjust the people to fit the roles

People don’t perfectly look like role descriptions