Insourcing
I received an e-mail recently from someone that had taken a requirements course with me in the past. He was looking for wording to use for an RFP to bring in some external consultant to wrangle the requirements of one of their systems together. Expectations were in the 2-6 person-months range, likely a contract that would entice some of the big players to bid on the proposal. I had no suggestions that directly addressed his needs, but did have some thoughts on what could be more effective. Read more
Stepping on Toes
I spend a lot of my time in front of a classroom of adults, or presenting on topics to a group of often seasoned practitioners. Over the years, I have come to form a number of opinions that, shall we say, deviate slightly from the commonly accepted way of thinking. Put these two together, and I am finding that I sometimes step on a few toes. Read more
An Outdated Investment Model
For a number of reasons, I believe that the model used by many venture capital firms is in dire need of a retread. While the model has shown to be profitable in the past, this appears to be more a lucky, accidental result of circumstances rather than through proactive application of sound business principles. These thoughts here are based on my somewhat limited exposure to working with venture capital firms, certainly talking to others and following the news, but also sitting down with a couple of VC’s and walking through this. Read more
Driven to Distraction
From what I have seen, many ‘process improvement’ initiatives have failed to live up to expectations, and some have definitely done more harm than good. Perhaps this is because even the term ‘process improvement’ implies a distraction from the real point of the exercise. Read more
Teaching Software Process
One of the many lists that I lurk on, the Agile Leadership Yahoo Group, became active a few days ago, with a thread that ranged from quite thoughtful to somewhat disrespectful, as these threads often do (which is why I generally only lurk). At one point, a question was posed: if you were teaching in, say, the Masters program at Carnegie Mellon, how much time would you dedicate to teaching about the past and how much about the processes for the future? I took a bite, here’s a paraphrasing of what I had to say. Read more
What's In a Name?
One of the products I offer that has been in most demand is software requirements training. A great course to deliver, with lots of information about the things that you could do (if the situation warranted) in software projects. Certainly not dogmatic or pitching a particular approach, one of the key messages is to consider your product, culture and environment, and choose accordingly. Over the years, though, I would sometimes get some pushback along the lines of “we do hardware (or firmware, or drivers…), this isn’t relevant for us”. I disagree. Read more
Cultural Vital Signs
Once in a while, I get the opportunity to work with a great team, in a company that ‘gets it’. Read more
Deciding to Be Agile – Or Not
There have been a large number of companies that have decided to adopt one of the Agile Approaches to software development over the past few years. Indeed, some of these have been quite successful in making the transition, but there are some that have not, for a variety of reasons. Read more
Technological Heart Attack
Whirr-click…whirr-click…barely perceptible. I wouldn’t have noticed it at all, except for the fact that I was starting to wonder whether my computer was going to wake up at all. Read more
The Procedures That Ate Manhattan
Pretty early on in life, I came to the conclusion that large creatures move more slowly (relative to their size) than small ones. Bees appear to be perpetually caffeinated, elephants just lumber along. More mass, more inertia, that sort of thing. Read more
