Greatest Reward

Question

As a developer what is the best reward that a Project Manager can give when a project is complete.

One thing per answer, please.

Answer 1

Seeing the product for sale in a magazine.

Answer 2

Getting a day off.

Answer 3

I enjoy watching people's eyes light up when they begin using the product.

Answer 4

The satisfaction of the clients with respect to the project successfully addressing their business needs.

Answer 5

Our "Project Completion Award" (PCA) always refers to the company sponsored lunch at the best sushi place in town. And, it is always placed on the schedule right after FAI and OQA.

Answer 6

A new "fun" project!

Answer 7

Take time to go see everybody and tell them that they have been a great part of this success. I think a sincerely thanks is always welcome.

Answer 8

Hearing about how the client/user/company not only saved $xxx,xxx due to use of the software, but did so in a way the sup

Real life example: a large manufacturer had expensive electronics equipment sitting on a shelf gathering dust. The supplier gave only crappy software unsuitable for safety-critical operation. I asked the boss if i could borrow a unit and have a hack at it. Just a few months later we were happily using the all the equipment which had many advantages over the previous arrangement.

Answer 9

Perhaps Beer?

Answer 10

I've got to say cash on the barrel-head or time off. All the other things people have described here are nice, but they're the natural out-flow of work well done, not an actual recognition by management, which was at the core of the question.

Even if it's something as simple as pointing out that the achievement will "look good at bonus time" (and following through on the applied promise,) it goes a long way.

Answer 11

Astonishing others by showing them what we did - achieving the "impossible" or something they didn't want to attempt. Like when an engineer from a supplier was visiting and said something resembling "Wow, what you guys did is... amazing beyond anything we ever imagined doing with our product"

That frustrating grunt-work job became my favorite ever after that.

Answer 12

Listening and acknowledging feedback in how to improve how projects are managed in the future. This includes saying what did work well, what didn't work well, and what suggestions a developer may have. Being heard and knowing that it isn't just going in one ear and out the other can be a great reward as it can improve the whole environment which can be very nice.

Answer 13

Some nice extra (5-10%) on the monthly pay check after hard work has worked well on me.

Answer 14

ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

Yes, Mr. Bigglesworth.

Answer 15

Recognition. Not just recognition of the quality of the work under the difficult circumstances, but recognition of what was learned along the way.

At the end of a project there should always be a post-mortem. The team(s) should think about, discuss and document what they learned and what they can do to make the next project easier, then implement what they learned. For example:

• "We shouldn't do daily builds because QA spend 10% their time either waiting for the next build or running smoke tests. Instead, we should do a weekly release to QA packaged with a set of relatively formal release notes."
• "When QA file a bug they should follow a provided template listing the build number, the server name where the behavior observed, steps to reproduce, expected behavior, actual behavior, notes and relevant samples from the logfile showing logged errors."
• "When a developer files a bug they should include the build number the fix is in, a description of the fix and steps to verify the fix."
• "All dev machines should run the same software versions that are to be used on the live site, specifically Apache version X, JDK version Y and MySQL version Z."

The final step of the process is the hardest part: putting it into effect. At the end of a project there should be some down time before the next one hits. During this time the teams should document things, clean up and repair infrastructure, polish tools and implement whatever they learned along the way.

Answer 16

MONEY - $$!

Answer 17

the free hours your PM promise you

Answer 18

Some personal selected present. Nothing expensiv just something that shows that the manager sat down thought about it, put some knowledge about myself in it.

Answer 19

I got a Wii (and this was Christmas 2006) and a guitar amp and a bottle of champagne once. It didn't quite make up for the poor pay though...