Herding Cats

Making Decisions in the Presence of Uncertainty

All project work is uncertain. This uncertainty comes in two forms - Aleatory and Epistemic. Aleatory Uncertainty is irreducible, Epistemic uncertainty is reducible. More can be found on this in Both Aleatory and Epistemic Uncertainty Create Risk. But now what... Read more →

Estimating on Non-Trivial Software Projects

A nice conversation on twitter about estimates on software brought up the topic of estimates as commitments. The #NoEstimates advocates see estimates as making commitments. Yes, commitments are made when we estimate. But that commitment is not a promise. A... Read more →

The Myth That Research Can't Be Managed

There is a popular myth that ... some software development projects are research and aren't subject to normal business management processes I'm here to tell you this ain't true. I've managed several pure and applied research projects in my life,... Read more →