I set up a meeting with the team for the next day, and explained, "I can't give you testers; I have no one to give you. I can't do the testing myself—I still have my management work to do. But I can offer you my services as a project manager, especially if you need someone to run interference and remove the other obstacles that will arise."

This was my first meeting with the team. I'd known these guys for a while—some for more than 10 years socially. Here's how I remember that meeting.

Dan, one of the longtime team members and one of the original developers, said, "Well, Johanna's OK as a tester and better as a project manager, but we really need more testers, not another manager. Sorry, Johanna." Dan gave me that lazy smile and leaned back in his chair.

Fred agreed: "JR, it's nice of you to offer, but we really need testers." Fred was also one of the original team members. He drummed his fingers on the table and his knee-thumping kicked up a notch. Fred was a great developer, and had a few nervous habits.

"Well, I can't give you testers. I have no one available, and no money to hire more people. I offered to be the project manager not because I think you need management, but to help you with ideas about how to work differently than you're accustomed to. It's clear to me that the team had a great process that worked before. But that process depended on the testers. I can't give them to you."

Clyde asked, "Why? What's the problem?"

I pulled out the testing assignment sheet from my conversation with the VP and explained how the other projects needed the testers and that this project, while important, was lower priority than the others.

Dan frowned: "That's just stupid."

I leaned forward. "I already checked with the VP and Big Cheese. This project is number six on the list, and I have testers for only five projects. I am not trying to make your lives miserable. I know it sounds like 'I'm from the IRS and I'm here to help.' Except that I'm from management.

"But you guys know me. You know that I know a lot about projects and that I don't want to tell you how to do development. I can help you think of alternative ways to do this project. But only if you want me."

Dan leaned back in his chair and exhaled loudly. "OK. Why don't you go away for a while and we'll discuss it?"

"OK, I'll be back in my office. Call me there."

I received a call about fifteen minutes later and returned to the conference room.

Fred said, "JR, the team discussed it, and we'll take you. But you better have some good ideas. Not everyone is convinced we need you."

"That's fine. If you don't need me, fire me. Well, not really fire me, just tell me you don't want me, and I'll stop helping. OK?" I asked.

Everyone nodded or said OK.

We talked about how they wanted to work and how I could help. I had a few tasks, including setting up a standard meeting time, helping them get conference rooms for reviews, and seeing whether I could get a few cycles from the testers who'd worked on previous projects to see if they could fix the regression test scripts.

"How did the regression test scripts break?" I wanted to know what had happened, so I could understand how much time the testers needed to provide, to see whether this was even a possibility. One of the more junior members, Sam, blushed, and explained that he had improved a global class, and now several things didn't work. He had looked at the regression tests, but he didn't understand how a couple of them worked.

"So, maybe I should see if the testers could spend an hour explaining how the regressions are set up for the whole team. And then spend some time with you, unraveling this problem."

"Yeah, that would probably work."