Herding Cats

Book of the Month

I got a book management application for Christmas from our daughter. Book Buddy. Going through the ~1,000 books in the house (I'm the son of a University Librarian) I came across this book. I got this book from my High... Read more →

Principles of Cost and Schedule Estimating

One of the 4 summary root causes of project performance failures is Unrealistic Cost and Schedule Estimates based on inadequate risk-adjusted growth models. This assessment comes from research at the Institute for Defense Analyses (www.ida.org), where I sometimes work as... Read more →

Wilo's Law and Mature Communications Processes

A popular quote in the agile community is Wilo's Law. It's one that states hey it's not my fault no one understands me, Wilo's Law says... How all human communication fails, except by accident Wilo claims human communication fails because... Read more →

Fallacy of the Day

Estimation is pretentious rationalism, where rationalism does not serve us well (extremistan)(sic) Take only risks you can survive. Pretentious rationalism is defined as a type of ultimate explanation—announced at one time as final truth—which is termed a system. This is... Read more →

Fallacy of the Day

One of the core concepts of #NoEstimates. Probability is input to decision making. Even a small probability of being late must drive the decision to cut scope. In the absence of a software development context, this statement has some merit.... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true - Francis Bacon Read more →

Quote of the Day

Uncertainty is the state where a decision-maker cannot accurately or precisely) predict the outcome of an event. Uncertainty is categorized into aleatory (random) and epistemic (probabilistic) processes. The first type is due to variability, which is an intrinsic property of... Read more →

Fallacy of the Day

Forecasting ≠ Estimating In the book on #NoEstimates, it is stated the difference between estimating and forecasting using a Merriam Webster dictionary. This book states estimating is "giving a general idea about the value, size, or cost of something". Forecasting,... Read more →

Quote of the Day

I'll see it when I believe it - Slip of the tongue by psychologist Than Pittman Read more →

Quote of the Day

They still cling stubbornly to the idea that the only good answer is a "yes" answer. If they say, "Is the number between 5,000 and 10,000" and I say "yes", they cheer; if I say "no", they groan, even though... Read more →

Quote of the Day

The concept of risk and risk assessments has a long history. More than 2,400 years ago the Athenians offered their capacity of assessing risks before making decisions. From the Pericle's Funeral Oration in Thurcydidas' ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ (started... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Human understanding supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds; and although many things in nature be sui generis and irregular, will yet invest parallels and conjugates and relatives where no such thing is... Read more →

Quote of the Day

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim — Elie Wiesel Read more →

Quote of the Day

It ain't so much the things we don't know that gets us into trouble. It's the things we know that just ain't so - Artemus Ward Read more →

Quote of the Day

Madness in individuals is something rare; 
but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule. –Friedrich Nietzsche Read more →

Basis of Estimating Software Development

The estimating of software development is both straightforward and complex. When it is suggested that estimating is hard, of no value, and unnecessary, always ask what principle is used to support that claim? Don't hear one? Then it's likely just... Read more →

Fallacy of the Day

Understand one thing before jumping into #NoEstimates debate: product and software development for *real* use is a DISCOVERY problem, not a delivery problem. Estimation focus on delivery, not DISCOVERY To discover anything we need to pay for that discovery. How... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Trust is built through effective commitments. Trust is lost through inconsistent behavior on matters of importance. If trust has been cultivated and grown over time … the project will be highly resilient to problems. - Scott Berkun, The Art of... Read more →

Separation of Concerns and Agile Development

Here's a notion that is popular in the agile community from the @agilefant tweeter feed. This notion appears when corporate governance is not part of the conversation. The role of governance is to define the decision rights of the participants... Read more →

Quote of the Day

“Anyone who expects a quick and easy solution to the multifaceted problem of resource estimation is going to be disappointed.” 1968, Alfred M. Pietrasanta, at IBM System Research Institute Read more →