Herding Cats

Quote of the Day

W. Edwards Deming Read more →

Showing Up On Time, On Budget, With Needed Capabilities

Software development ranges from straight forward, with small a team with a continuous improvement effort. Say a web site or warehouse management application were the customer is happy to just keep the improvements coming. Every improvement or new feature can... Read more →

Cost is KING, No Way Out Of It

Cost is KING is a familiar word in business. Overrun our product development cost, ROI on that development is reduced. So here's an immutable principle of all business: For a business to stay in business it must manage its costs.... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Software intensive project work is indeterminate. Many times, customers don't know what they really want until they see something working. Development's capacity for work is not well understood early in the project. Technology emerges and impacts the effectiveness of the... Read more →

8 Reasons Why Estimates Are Too Low

The post 8 Reasons Estmates are too Low, is one of those pieces of material that on the surface seems plausible but has series flaws. First is the restating bad management practices and then arguing against them. This seems all... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. - Marcus Aurelius Read more →

How Not To Develop What "Done" Looks Like

The common picture of requirements elicitation looks like this. Which of course is an example of doing stupid things on purpose. When this picture is used as an example of not doing something because it doesn't turn out right, is... Read more →

Project Management and the Three Body Problem

Projects are composed of three fundamental elements. Cost, Schedule, and Technical outcomes. The Technical Outcomes go far beyond the PMI-style scope terms. In this paradigm, the technical outcomes are at the end of a chain. Here's examples of that chain... Read more →

A Seat At The Table

In a conversation on Twitter with Sridhar, there was mention that product development software projects are different than internal IT projects. And that how they are run is much different as well. This may be the case. It's not been... Read more →

Seven Immutable Activities of Project Success

There are Principles, Practices, and Processes of project success. I have a book coming that describes them. These are independent of any method, any domain, any favorite tool, buzz words, or personal paradigm. Much research on Root Causes of project... Read more →

Elements of Project Success

There are three key elements of every project on the planet - Cost, Schedule, and the performance of the product or service produced by the project. Each of these has drivers. The connections between Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance are... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell them that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist - Stephen Hawking. Courtesy Don Yeager's daily posts Read more →

Quote of the Day

The only certainty is uncertainty - Pliny the Elder (Gauus Plinus Secundus) (Natural History) When the cost of a future state is considered the decision makers ask What is the chance the system's cost will exceed a particular amount? Or... Read more →

Resources for Moving Beyond the "Estimating Fallacy"

A Fallacy of Estimation piece has an interesting phrase. The post goes on to say... Here's an ongoing collection of fallacy of estimating commentary, some useful, some misinformed, some not even right let alone wrong. Moving beyond the personal opinion... Read more →

Financial Accounting Versus Project Acounting

Let's Start With End In Mind If you work on projects and get paid for that work, someone is paying for you. That can be a direct customer if you're working on a external project. Or it can be the... Read more →

Project Accounting

The separation of Project Accounting from Financial Accounting is common in many firms. Finanical Acounting is the domain of the CFO or equivalent and the finance and accounting department, where payments of invoices to customers and from suppliers ae processed.... Read more →

Project Maxims

It is popular to make a list of maxims for developing products, managing projects, or managing business processes. Some are based on experience, some based on surveys, some based on principles and practices of a profession. Here's mine based on... Read more →