Herding Cats

Fallacy of the Week

You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there. —Yogi Berra The notion of some in the agile community that Planning is a waste, just start coding and you'll discover the... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Most Risk Management, starting with PMI's paradigm, is focused on what if. Instead, Risk Management must focus on If Then and work to reduce or remove the IF before focusing on the THEN. This is the Pre-Mortem paradigm of Risk... Read more →

DDSTOP The Saga Continues

There's been a rash of conjectures about all kinds of bad business, project, and software development (agile and traditional) management ideas of late. Time to update the Don't Do Stupid Things on Purpose (DDSTOP) post. “There’s nothing more dangerous than... Read more →

Beyond the Risk Register

Risk Management starts with a collection of risks. Their probability of occurrence, the probability the risk will unfavorably impact the project. Then some risk handling process is needed to reduce the impact of the risk, or reduce the probability that... Read more →

Quote of the Day

It all comes down to the ability to go up and down the ladder of abstraction, and being able to see both the big picture and the operational implications - Loizos Heracleous in "Strategic Thinking or Strategic Planning," in Long... Read more →

Project Success

There is an endless discussion on what it means to have project success. Here's a simple and actionable definition The delivery of agreed-upon business, technical, and operational capabilities within established resource (funding, schedule, facilities) constraints. Read more →

Quote of the Day

“Software is so vital to military systems that, without it, most could not operate at all. Its importance to overall system performance and the generally accepted notion that software is always inadequate makes software the highest risk item and must... Read more →

Quote of the Day

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated... Read more →

Quote of the Day

If a profession is to sharpen its skills, to develop new skills and applications, and to gain increasing respect and credibility, then their and practices must be closely related -- Martin Shrub Read more →

Quote of the Day

Without Metrics you're just another guy with an opinion - Stephan Leschka, Hewlett Packard Read more →

Quote of the Day

We are reminded by the work of Dr. W. E. Deming, the father of modern quality management, in which he demonstrated that the vast majority of quality problems are rooted in processes—ignored, flawed, or misunderstood by the worker, not in... Read more →

Quote of the Day

When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; and when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection which if we find outweighs ability, What do... Read more →

Quote of the Day

... suddenly a White Rabit with pink eyes ran close by her. There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself "Oh... Read more →

Process First Then Outcomes

A 12.12.18 Fast Company article speaks about outcomes resulting from process and the focus on outcomes actually reducing the probability that the outcomes will appear. I've written about this before in Process is King and Process is King Part 2.... Read more →

glen.alleman@niwotridge.com

My work, which I've done for a long time, was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more than in most other men.... Read more →

Quote of the Day

You must not fight too often with one enemy or you will teach him all your art of war - Napoleon Bonaparte Read more →

Quote of the Day

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: For thereby some have entertained angels unawares - Heb 13:2 The painted quote surrounding the recessed ceiling in our dining room, where friends and family have come for the holidays Read more →

Quote of the Day

"For God's sake, Mane, do not strike at what you are looking but at what you intend to hit" - Nikola Tesla's father admonition to his cross-eyed helper while chopping wood on the farm, My Inventions, Nikola Tesla, published in... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Our first endeavors are purely instinctive, promptings of an imagination vivid and undisciplined. As we grow older reason asserts itself and we become more and more systematic and designing ‒Nikola Tesla, My Inventions, 6 part series in Electrical Experimenter, Feb-Jun... Read more →

Quote of the Day

I've studied now Philosophy And Jurisprudence, Medicine, And even, alas! Theology All through and through with ardour keen! Here now I stand, poor fool, and see I'm just as wise as formerly. Goethe (1808) Read more →