In 1986, computer software development pioneer Fred Brooks wrote a paper called “No Silver Bullet”. In this paper, he asserts, “there is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order of magnitude improvement…” (Brooks, Frederick P. (1986). “No Silver Bullet—Essence and Accident in Software Engineering” (PDF). Proceedings […]
I was going to write a blog post on a classical project management concept, namely, the idea of up-front costs versus total cost of ownership (TCO). This is the idea that paying more for quality and the foundationals up front actually saves you more in the long run, because cutting those costs in the beginning […]
Have you ever seen someone around you run a red light? Have YOU ever run a red light? This is an interesting litmus test for understanding shared values. You probably think one of a few things: either “Yeah, I can see why they ran that red light, it made sense given the situation.” Or maybe, […]
“Transparency” is a term that is tossed around a lot as a positive thing. I’ve heard many leaders talk about how they believe in transparency and it is core to their values. At a high level, this makes sense. Transparency can provide valuable information to drive better decision making, and also can contribute to a […]
This is my planned 30-day check-in on this post. So far, my goal is met and my outcome is achieved; I have consistently posted once a week since I made that commitment. Go me! As we follow a standard “project-management-like” playbook here, what’s the next step? Let’s do an after action review. I can tell […]
I spend a lot of my time in design reviews or business reviews. Either highly technical and engineering-focused, or strategic and business-focused. The goal of these review meetings is for me (as one of a group) to look at the document, artifact, plan, or whatever, and decide whether the quality is sufficient for it to […]
I remember reading an article one time about how business leaders spend their days, and I remember a high percentage of the time was “reading”. I tried to find the article and I never found it, but I saw anywhere from 15% to 30% of their time is spent in reading and reviews. But what […]
Want to hear a trick that might reduce your stress? I’ve both read the book and seen the movie The Martian, and I think both are great! But there’s one part that really stands out, that really resonates with me. At one point the protagonist is talking about solving problems, and says something along the […]
Lately, I’ve found that I’ve been using a particular analogy a lot. The analogy is, let’s say your customers are race car teams. NASCAR, Formula One, Monster Truck, whatever. But the point is, a race car team, at the enterprise scale, needs many things working together. A race car team is not just a car. […]
Have you heard of the Hawthorne Effect? It’s based on a study done at the Hawthorne Works factory in the 1920s and 1930s, where researchers tried making changes to workers’ environments to try and increase productivity. Things like making lights brighter or dimmer, making it hotter or colder, etc. What they found was there was […]
Knuggets of Knowledge 