How can programmers work harmoniously with project managers?

As a programmer: Are you often required to complete multiple deadlines at the same time? Are you often asked to do tasks unrelated to your major? Or are you asked to quickly get started with other software businesses?

In this process of falling in love and killing each other, conflicts and misunderstandings will inevitably occur. So, how do programmers deal with the relationship with the project manager? The following suggestions may be helpful to you:

adjust your mindset

No matter how broken and desperate you are, as long as you don’t plan to quit this job now, then you need to adjust your mentality:

1. If you are doing all the work, it means the company needs you very much. If you die one day, the company's business will be over.
2. If you often work overtime until late or even on weekends, it means that your current work rhythm is abnormal, because your work efficiency will be very low. If you work the right number of hours each day, you're likely to be more productive.
3. If the project manager proposes an unreasonable goal plan to you, but you finally try your best to complete it. In this process, you not only completed the work tasks, but more importantly, you completed tasks that ordinary people cannot complete. You learned new things and improved your abilities.
4. If you think your leader should reward you for your hard work, then please don’t believe the saying “there is hard work without credit”. Hard work does not necessarily lead to success. There is still a lot you need to think about.
5. If you can't complete the task on time, which of the following ideas do you think is worse:
   • a) You accept the task as if you are facing an enemy, work like a devil, and then cringe to admit that you cannot complete it on time;
   • b) You calmly tell the manager at the beginning that this cannot be completed within the specified time, and propose a reasonable completion time, and then complete the task smoothly and smoothly within the proposed time.

In short, the most important thing is to adjust your mentality and remember that your first job is to complete the task, not to mediate with the project manager.

Learn to say "no"

If you are indeed valuable to the company and the company needs you very much, your departure will definitely bring losses to the company. Since the company needs you to work for it, you should also have the right to make suggestions about your work and reject unreasonable arrangements.

You can use a Gantt chart to display the progress of your current project, to indicate when tasks are scheduled to be carried out, and the difference between actual progress and planned requirements. Use facts to prove the difficulty of your work and say "no" to the project manager with confidence.

If you really can't communicate, you can also choose to update your resume and start looking for other jobs.

Improve work efficiency

I am often urged by project managers, on the one hand because the project manager does not understand technology, and on the other hand because his work efficiency is not high. Therefore, it is very important to improve work efficiency.

The following tips can be used to improve work efficiency:

1. Use documents to record all your work. Take it seriously and take the time to do it, even if it's on deadline.
2. Regularly revise the development schedule. Once a week, spend half an hour revising each time, pointing out what you think is unreasonable in the plan and the reasons for the problems.
3. Make bug tracking and schedule. Quantify how you spend your time, how much time is spent on project work that is not what you want and how much code outsourcing causes problems.
4. Prioritize work. Divide the current work, which ones are priorities and which ones can be slowed down, and complete the important work first

Learn to communicate

If you find it difficult to explain things clearly to your project manager, there are two possible reasons: the first reason is that your project manager is stupid, and the second reason is that you explained things in a lame way.

Just imagine, if you can provide a clear and easy-to-understand schedule, the project manager will not pester you too much about slow progress. If you can explain that the current deadline has affected the quality of your work, the project manager will not repeatedly advance the deadline. If you politely indicate that you need to be compensated for the work you've done, the project manager will avoid misassessing your performance.

So, you need to learn to communicate and tell them your ideas and needs in a correct and reasonable way. Don't complain, at least explain it and believe that an experienced project manager will understand you. You need to know that if you cannot properly solve the communication problems that exist in the current task, then your problems will continue to exist in the next tasks, eventually forming a vicious cycle.

Thinking in someone else’s shoes

Many conflicts arise from a lack of understanding of the work of both parties. The project manager needs to understand the hard work of the programmer, and the programmer also needs to understand the difficulty of the project manager's work.

As the top leader of the project team, the project manager will be ultimately responsible for any problems in the project. Therefore, project managers have great management pressure and need to be responsible for every aspect of the project. If you can understand the responsibilities of the project manager, then you can also understand why the project manager keeps urging you to work.

Project managers need to face pressure from customers, leaders, users, team members, etc., and often end up losing their jobs because of a mistake in one link. Therefore, what a programmer can do is to do the job at hand as well as possible, so that the entire project can proceed in an orderly manner.

If you can stand in the other party's perspective and think about the problem in their shoes, many conflicts can be resolved. Of course, if you encounter an unreasonable and bossy project manager, then you can consider changing teams or jobs.

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