Herding Cats

This Does Not Scale

Here's a thought about the #NoEstimates conversation. One of the phrases in the early days of the internet - yes I was there. I was a user of Archie to find file content and move those files using ARPANet from... Read more →

How NOT to Estimate Anything

The #NoEstimates discussion now has soemthing to talk about. There is a presentation titled Re-Estimating the Value of Estimating. While there little here that is applicable in our software intensive world, I had a smile when I cam to this... Read more →

How Long Should Tasks Be?

Ray Stratton's news letter just arrived. There he speaks to the "44 Day Rule," for the duration of work activities. Some places use that for the duration of a Work Package. Other places use that as the duration of a... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Without execution, the breakthrough thinking breaks down, learning adds no value, people don’t meet their goals, and the revolution stops dead in its tracks. - Larry Bossidy When I hear people talk about investigating dysfunction and exploring solutions I wonder... Read more →

What's Gonna Cost and When Will We Be Done?

What's it gonna cost and when will you be done? And oh yea, ...it will work enough to meet my mission success criteria right? You've heard this before right? If not, you're not traveling in the right crowd. Projects that... Read more →

Who pays?

The #NoEstimates paradigm has now reached a new high. There is a suggestion that to do #NoEstimates, find customers that don't want estimates. What a wonderful idea. I know let's find customers that will let us spend their money without... Read more →

The Irony of this Month's Editon

With NSA and Swoden, the irony of this month's edition of Cyber Security. BTW Good article on Agile and Systems Engineering in this edition. Read more →

Reference Design Concept

Long ago in graduate school, we had a concept for software development that turns out to have been just like the hardware guys do today - reference design. This was the era of the ACM Algorithm Handbook. The contents of... Read more →

No More #NoEstimates Discussion

I've made the mistake of engaging the #NoEstimates crowd in questions about the usefulness of their idea. Not a group that likes to get questions, by the way. They use the old Ron Jeffries approach (which has since passed for... Read more →

All Models Are Wrong

There is a quote from George Box that is used - misused actually - by many populist blogers and authors that goes like this... All models are, some are useful Of course this quote is used to avoid asking and... Read more →

The Last #NoEstimates Post

I've concluded the #NoEstimates advocates have difficulty stating the domain and context in which their exploration is applicable. Without a Domain and a Context in that Domain, it's difficult to have a conversation about the merits of the idea. Can... Read more →

PMP or Not To PMP

Shim has asked a question - a recurring question - about having a PMP. Since everyone is selling all the time - it's part of being human. There are those in the community that encourage a PMP. There are those... Read more →

Why Estimating Is Mandatory

The #NoEstimates notion has merit in the right domain. If you're looking for motivation for estimates outside of the domain where the customer doesn't really care about the final cost, just the final product developed inside a "level of effort"... Read more →

Why the Triple Constraint Notion is a Bad Idea

PMI and most other project management educators use the notion of the Triple Constraint - Cost, Schedule, and Scope. This is sometimes called the Iron Triangle. It is call Iron because when you change one thing, the other two change... Read more →

Want to be a credible scheduler?

Here is a handbook for developing credible Integrated Master Schedules. There are many suggestions but this one comes from the place where schedules are critical. Once you have your credible Integrated Master Schedule, you're going to want to keep it... Read more →

Models ...

There is a popular quote from George Box about all models are wrong, but some models are useful. This quote is many times used by people suggesting some new or innovative approach to a problem that has been around long... Read more →

Quote of the Day

The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature - Albert Einstein,... Read more →

Quote of the Day

I was presenting at the College of Performance Management conference in Florida this week. The topic of credible estimating is always at the top of the list. Here's a phrase that says it all for anyone thinking twice about estimating,... Read more →