Herding Cats

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 →

Quote of the Day

“Nothing is more difficult and, therefore, more precious than to be able to decide.” Napoleon Bonaparte French General and Emperor, 1769-1821 If you're going to decide in the presence of uncertainty, you're going to have to estimate the outcome of... Read more →

Quote of the Day

“Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.” - Niels Bohr Read more →

Cost and Value Management for Software Development

There's a popular notion going around the agile community that says ... we focus on Value and don't need to worry about Cost. This, of course, is a violation of the principles of Managerial Finance and Microeconomics of software development... Read more →

Six Steps of Risk Management

Risk Management has six steps: Planning risk management - decides how to approach and plan the risk management activities for the project. Identifying the Risks - determines with risk are likely to affect the project and documenting the characteristics of... Read more →

3 Questions That Must Be Asked at Every Project Management Meeting

I came across a post on Twitter that led me to the blog post 3 Questions You Need to Ask at Your Next Meeting. Please subscribe to their newsletter The three questions are the foundation for any meeting, but they're... Read more →

Quote of the Day

“I Have Tens of Thousands of Hours of Experience. I’ve made Every Mistake That They're Going to Make.” — ­Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on the importance of putting experienced leaders in Army Futures Command Read more →

Decision Analysis - Ordinal and Cardinal Measures

When we hear of the difficulties of making decisions in the presence of uncertainty, especially about software features and capabilities, there are straightforward ways to solve this problem. Decision Analysis is a principle, technique, and application to address complex decisions... Read more →

Quote of the Day - Plucked by Puffery

To the layperson, puffery seems like a license to lie, which, frankly, isn’t totally wrong. A well-known book on torts by William Prosser and W. Page Keeton stated it this way: “The puffing rule amounts to a seller’s privilege to... Read more →

Decision Making in the Presence of Uncertainty

Making decisions is part of spending other people's money. It's part of Risk Management. It's part of our everyday lives. Many of the decisions we make in our live's are qualitative. When we're spending other people's money, we need to... Read more →

Veterans Day

To all my friends, neighbors, and colleagues, who along with me, served our country and their country, in time of war and time of peace Happy Veterans Day. In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row,... Read more →

Quote of the Day

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and... Read more →

Managing in the Presence of Risk

Information technology project risk often comes from non-technical aspects of the initiative. Assessing the impact of technology on people, management systems and other initiatives is essential to assure project success. "We automate problems" This department slogan was posted on an... Read more →

Quote of the Day

"Uncertainty management is not just about managing perceived threats, opportunities, and their implications; it is about identifying and managing all the many sources of uncertainty that give rise to and shape our perceptions of threats and opportunities. It implies exploring... Read more →

Quote of the Day

For companies where software is important to business operations and to the products that they market, excellence in software is a vital business goal. However, software has long been one of the most troublesome technologies of the 20th century, and... Read more →

Quote of the Day

I am used to thinking three or four months in advance, about what I must do, and I calculate on the worst. If I take so many precautions, it is because it is my custom to leave nothing to chance.... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Strategies are intellectually simple; their execution is not From "The CEO as Coach: An Interview with Allied Signal's Lawrence A. Bossidy," N. M. Tichy and R. Charan, Harvard Business Review, Mar-Apr, 1994, pp. 68-78. Read more →

Why Johnny Can't Do The Math

A previous post, Why Johnny Can't Estimate, mentioned some resources for estimating, the principles of business and technical management that demand estimates be made to make decisions, and background on the sources of uncertainty, that create risk, that require estimating... Read more →