20 August 04 - 09:28Technology, sweet and sour

So I'm typing this off a WiFi connection at the airport, on my way to Amsterdam. Sweet.

But then I have time to be writing this because my plane is delayed 30 min. Sour.

At least I will make the flight - I got there late and was worried I'd miss it. I ran like hell. The lady at the check-in desk told me I would too late - I must have looked crestfallen. But then she said it would be OK. Sweet.

In order to get on the Net so I could warn Willem who's expecting me for a chat and coffee halfway between Amsterdam and Enschede, I had to purchase a 20-minute WiFi ticket for 5€. That's what "service" means today for the Aeroports de Paris. Sour.

Then again, it was sweet to pay for the ticket by sending an SMS from my phone, getting an access code back in seconds. It's Once And Only Once - my phone company knows my credit card number, so the airport (well, their WiFi partner) asks them instead of asking me. Sweet.

Today, then, starts with mixed feelings. Hope the rest of the week-end doesn't all run like that. :)

- The Universe And Everything - two comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

17 August 04 - 12:11Project Management Reformers

Hal Macomber shares my suspicion that the PMI definition of "project" is close to useless, and with other authors is calling for a revision of the theory of management which underlies this flawed understanding of "projects". In the following weeks Hal will be commenting on several relevant papers from IGLC, a conference on Lean Construction - and will be introducing the authors of these papers to his readers. Check out his commentaries here.

- Management - No comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

16 August 04 - 19:01EuroFoo

Friday morning I will be heading for the Netherlands, there to join EuroFoo, the european Foo Camp - an informal geek conference organized by Tim O'Reilly. EuroFoo has a lot that appeals to me. Plenty of smart folk to meet up with - I loved the quip about the original Foo Camp, to the effect that the most frequently heard comment by attendees was "I have no idea what I'm doing here - everyone here is so much smarter than me." I almost feel that way - my concern was more that my own interests - in agile development, effective software management, team dynamics, etc. - would be quite peripheral to the smart crowd of "alpha geeks" at EuroFoo. The concern was, fortunately, belied by the pre-conference conversations on the EuroFoo wiki: I hope to take a part - more or less active - in sessions about Situated Software, Worth-Based Development, Better Books Now, Social Tools for the Enterprise, and Open Source Usability. There are also a few "technical" sessions I figure I might well enjoy.

- The Universe And Everything - No comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

05 August 04 - 17:48Heisenberg principle of projects

This came up in conversation with a client today - the problem with projects is the equivalent of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The more control you want on their status (or position), the less you have over their velocity. Pick one of the two - and pick wisely.

- Management - three comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

03 August 04 - 16:42Problem-picking patterns

In complex situations, such as software projects and the teams that work on them, there's never such a thing as "the problem". The sense that something is wrong may be the start of a break with routine - the start of a problem-solving process.

In the course of such a process, you will end up with an inventory of things that work well (say, the team socializes well, and has no excessive schedule pressure imposed on it), things that don't work that well (estimation accuracy isn't so great, coding standards are rarely complied with, and you get too many bugs for your liking), and things that really worry you (losing customers, say).

There are a variety of opinions as to where you should start. These are what I call problem-picking patterns. Off the top of my head:

• Low Hanging Fruit, aka Small Wins: start with the easiest problems to solve. Pros: boosts morale, starts a cycle of action and reflection. Cons: may not address core issues.


• Dedication Test: often the underlying problem is that people don't want to change. Change something, anything, even if it doesn't actually solve a problem. Pros: detects resistance to change. Cons: detects resistance to change (you may not want to face the realization that people don't actually want your help).


• Vital Few, aka Worst Problem First: usually, one or two big problems out of a hundred are at the root of most of the team's troubles. Pick those for greatest effect. Pros: highest possible impact. Cons: it may not be easy to determine which problem is actually the worst, especially in crises where everybody will be making lots of noise about every problem.


• N Birds With One Stone: problems form a complex web; any given thing you can do (more testing, more teamwork, etc.) is a solution to many problems. Pick whatever is a solution to the greatest number of problems. Pros: quicker to partially solve some of the problems. Cons: solving a little bit of every problem might not be what the situation requires - sometimes you need to nail down a few, completely.


• Reinforce What Works: don't focus on problems at all, but find out what the team knows that works, and get them to do more of that. The behaviours that cause the problem will fade in the background. Pros: nobody likes a critic. Cons: requires great skill at facilitation.

Are there others ?

- The Universe And Everything - six comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

02 August 04 - 15:14On "Gang of Four"

"I didn't really get OO design until I read the Go4 book." -- Steve Lott, in a conversation on Jim Bullock's bloki.

Hmm, now that's a thought. My experience might have been the same. I say "might" because that was long enough ago that I can't precisely remember/reconstruct the experience (it's an interesting topic in its own right how hard it is to remember not knowing something you now know - can you recall what it was like not to be able to read, for instance). But I do remember that I was all fired up when I read the book, seeing the world of objects in a new way. I think many readers had that experience, and irrespective of how pragmatically useful the patterns themselves were, that's what made the book a powerful experience.

- Object Lessons - seven comments / No trackbacks - § ¶