Herding Cats

A Compendium of Root Cause Analysis Resources

When mistakes occur, blame the process, not people. Root Cause Analysis is the means to fix the cause, rather than treat the symptom. • What allowed the mistake to happen? • What will prevent mistakes from occurring in the future?... Read more →

Quote of the Day

We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done. - Alan Turing Read more →

Quote of the Day

The last 10 percent of the technical performance development generates one-third of the cost and two-thirds of the of problems - Norm Augistines 15th Law Using the NASA definition, Margin is the difference between the maximum possible value and the... Read more →

Quote of the Day

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history — George Orwell Read more →

Quote of the Day

Some people make careers out of being self-proclaimed experts (or even being over-enthusiastic amateurs); some of us have careers clearing up after them. - John Sprigs, Product and Service Assurance Professional Read more →

Quote of the Day

If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion - Robert Heinlein Any conjecture, that any fix, for some claimed problem or dysfunction, without numbers to support the claim a fix for the dysfunction will... Read more →

Value Theory for Projects and Estimating

No Value can be determined without knowing something about the cost to produce that Value and the Time that Value will be arriving. † In the presence of uncertainty, this knowing must be estimated to some acceptable level of confidence.... Read more →

Quote of the Day

No systems can survive that doesn't serve a useful purpose - Harry Hillaker, Chief architect, General Dynamics, F-16, in Systems Architecting lecture, USC, November 1989 The classic architecting paradigm in technology projects is not the only way to create and... Read more →

Quote of the Day

If speculative ideas cannot be tested against established principles to assess their validity, they are not credible. They don't even rise to the level of being wrong - Wolfgang Pauli Read more →

Quote of the Day

“Anyone who expects a quick and easy solution to the multifaceted problem of resource estimation is going to be disappointed.” 1968, Alfred M. Pietrasanta at IBM System Research Institute Read more →

Quote of the Day

Just exactly what is it we manage on projects if not risks? Project management IS risk management. The risk-aware manager can show you a substantial list of causal risks. He/she can tell you the likely cost in time or money... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Accountability is a cultural attribute - Apollo Mission Program Manager Read more →

The Profession of Risk Management and it's Value to Project Success

I've had an engagement on social media recently, where it was blatantly clear there is a low level of understanding of how managing in the presence of uncertainty is sorely missing in the agile development community, where the focus is... Read more →

Quote of the Day

When unimpeded by outside forces, we rapidly adapt to circumstances and succeed, but his perfect independence rarely exists - from Agility Language Read more →

Predicting the Unpredictable (A Book Review)

I came to this book with an anticipation of a coherent discussion of estimating on modern software development projects. The subtitle is Pragmatic Approached to Estimating Project Schedule and Cost, says I'd find practical advice on how to estimate software... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Risk is the Effect of Uncertainty on Objectives These uncertainties come in two forms: Reducible (Epistemic) and Irreducible (Aleatory). Managing in the presence requires making estimates of the magnitude and impact of these uncertainties. To conjecture that decisions can be... Read more →

Memorial Day 2019

And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier's tomb, and beauty weeps the brave. - Joseph Rodman Drake Read more →

Quote of the Day

Language is a powerful weapon, and in the hands of a skilled person, it can be used to manipulate others —Julius Caesar Read more →

Quote of the Day

For it is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire. – Thucydides, 404 BC, the Peloponnesian War Read more →

When a Wise Man Points at the Moon, The Fool Looks at the Finger

When we hear any conjecture that a tool or a process, or NOT doing something will fix a recognized problem, I'm reminded of the Chinese phrase to the left, recorded in Chan Buddhist scripture When a Wise Man Points to... Read more →