“All Models Are Wrong, But Some Are Useful”. Psychological Models In Software Team Management

Sergey Arkhipenkov

In Russia, software projects managers quite often have technical background. The first problem they face is that software developers are not software or hardware, which can be easily controlled. The behavior of people is non-computable and hardly predictable. All people are different. Their behavior at any moment depends on many factors: the chosen role, motivation, environment, experience, upbringing, and finally, intelligence and personality type. Sometimes, it takes years to learn how to understand people and interact effectively with them. There are hundreds of human behavior psychological models. George E. P. Box says: “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful”. The report considers psychological models that have proved their usefulness in the author’s systematizing of his long-term experience in software developers management. The main themes of the report are an emotional intelligence, Mayrs-Briggs Type Indicators, temperaments, the team roles of M. Belbinu, humanistic theory of motivation, conflict management, effective communication. The author illustrates the application of psychological models by examples of practical experience.

Sergey Arkhipenkov

Bio

Sergey Arkhipenkov. The expert in software project management, PMP PMI. In software development for over 30 years. Created simulations of complex space systems for the Russian Space Mission Control Center. Managed business software development and SEPI projects for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Luxoft, CBOSS. Served projects commissioned by the European Space Agency, «Daimler-Benz Aerospace», «Boeing», Bank of Russia, OAO «Gazprom».

Sergey is an author of 5 books, about 100 articles, numerous reports and training courses on information technology and software project management. He holds MS in CS from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University.