Herding Cats

Compendium of Works to Increase Probability of Project Success

This collection of presentations, briefings, journal and conference papers, essays, and book content has been used to increase the Probability of Project Success (PoPS) written and applied over my career in the software-intensive system of systems and other business and... Read more →

Quote of the Day

The more progress physical sciences make, the more they tend to enter the domain of mathematics, which is a kind of centre to which they all converge. We may even judge of the degree of perfection to which a science... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Repeated luck is never luck - Salvor’s Father, in Foundation Read more →

Quote of the Day

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. – Soren Kierkegaard Read more →

Quote of the Day

At the bidding of a Peter the Hermit millions of men hurled themselves against the East; the word of an hallucinated enthusiast such as Mahomet created a force capable of triumphing over the Graeco-Roman world; and obscure monk like Luther... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Clay is molded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing... Thus taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not ― Tao Te Ching, Chapter... Read more →

A Compendium of Risk Management Resources

This blog page is dedicated to the resources used to manage the risk encountered on a software-intensive system of systems (SISoS) using traditional and agile development methods. Let's start with a critical understanding of the purpose of managing risk on... Read more →

Quote of the Day

There are as many nights as there are days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose... Read more →

Quote of the Day

It is counterproductive to have an agile development process if you don’t have an agile product architecture - Rick Dove, Parshift.com Read more →

Quote of the Day

Do not like some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and rocky way to heaven, While, like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And heeds not his own counsel. ― Hamlet Read more →

Quote of the Day

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use - Soren Kierkegaard Read more →

Book of the Month

Darwin's dangerous idea is the belief that evolution, a mindless, mechanistic, purposeless process, gave rise to the single, branching tree of life and, further, that this process eliminates the need for invoking an intelligent God as the source of the... Read more →

Quote of the Day

"You cannot have an execution culture without robust dialog – one that brings reality to the surface through openness, candor, and informality. Intense debate brings up all sides of an issue, even if it makes people uncomfortable." ... from ―... Read more →

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

Here, Cleanthes, I find myself at ease in my argument. Here I triumph. Formerly, when we argued concerning the natural attributes of intelligence and design, I needed all my skeptical and metaphysical subtlety to elude your grasp. In many views... Read more →

A Compendium of Blog Posts on Earned Value Management

Earned Value Management is a project management technique for measuring project performance and progress in an objective manner. This objective manner starts with defining the planned Physical Percent Complete for a product or service, at a planned time, with the... Read more →

Quote of the Day

The person who gets the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The Sure-thing Boat never gets far from the shore ― Dale Carnegie Read more →

A Compendium of Blog Posts on Project Management

Project management is a collection of techniques for proposing, planning, implementing, managing, and evaluating projects, combined with the management of the people executing the project. It is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of... Read more →

Compendium of Blog Posts on Agile Software Development

In software development, agile is a set of practices intended to improve the effectiveness of software development professionals, teams, and organizations. It involves discovering requirements and developing solutions through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer/end... Read more →

A Compendium of Monte Carlo Simulation Resources

Estimation of cost, duration, and technical performance activities is one of the most difficult aspects of project management. Monte Carlo simulations are based on the manipulation of random numbers to evaluate probable outcomes, with applicability in a variety of different... Read more →