I’ve been working on improving my writing for about 20 years. When I was inside organizations, I asked some of my colleagues to review my memos and reports. I gained valuable insights. (“A verb, JR, a verb. Please.”) But once I started my consulting business 11 years ago, I needed more help with my writing.
I changed ISPs last Friday. At some point Friday, my ISP bounced my email with a strange (to me) message. This is the same ISP that had problems just a few months ago, so I was done. I need email up virtually 100% of the time. And if I can’t receive email, I need
I’ve been attempting to clean up my office since I moved into it. I had some luck a while ago, using emergent design techniques for cleaning up. But that wasn’t enough. I was ready for an office redesign. So that’s what I did this weekend. Here is one before picture: The rest of the
I’ve been working with some companies who do hardware/software systems. Most often, they have some embedded code too, just to make life interesting. To be honest, I don’t know how to do implementation by feature for a whole brand new system. Here’s what I’ve been suggesting: Prototype the software architecture as early as possible,
One of the scheduling tips I discuss in my project management workshops is “Plan to refactor.” I explain that if you’re using a lifecycle other than Agile, where the integration and testing is built into every iteration, you’re going to have to refactor at the end, when you do integrate and test. At one
I’m in Israel now (for workshops). I was traveling through Newark yesterday, and had to change terminals between the domestic flight that got me to Newark and the international flight that was going to leave from Newark. Turns out, a bunch of other people had to change terminals too. The signs are so bad,
When I teach project management, I teach people to know what success means, and to know what done means (release criteria). One of my students recently emailed me: At work recently, we’ve come upon a scenario where we have no success criteria (or more accurately, success criteria that we can measure in any way).
I’m working with a group of people who are new to iterative development. They’re doing more of a staged delivery lifecycle than an agile lifecycle, but they are releasing about once a month. They don’t like it, because they say they’re releasing too frequently. The problem is that their planning and releasing take too
I have an opportunity to review process documentation (actual and proposed) from many organizations. I admit, I have a prejudice for more Agile techniques (integrated into any lifecycle). But non-Agile techniques work too. Here’s what I find doesn’t work: making the process dependent on the personalities of the people who have to carry out
I teach a class called “Software Methodology” at The Gordon Institute. My goal is for the students to be able to recognize if a software project is not being managed properly, and to give them a feel for what a software project might be like. So, I have them organize themselves into teams and