Herding Cats

Quote of the Day

When unimpeded by outside forces, we rapidly adapt to circumstances and succeed, but his perfect independence rarely exists - from Agility Language Read more →

Predicting the Unpredictable (A Book Review)

I came to this book with an anticipation of a coherent discussion of estimating on modern software development projects. The subtitle is Pragmatic Approached to Estimating Project Schedule and Cost, says I'd find practical advice on how to estimate software... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Risk is the Effect of Uncertainty on Objectives These uncertainties come in two forms: Reducible (Epistemic) and Irreducible (Aleatory). Managing in the presence requires making estimates of the magnitude and impact of these uncertainties. To conjecture that decisions can be... Read more →

Memorial Day 2019

And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier's tomb, and beauty weeps the brave. - Joseph Rodman Drake Read more →

Quote of the Day

Language is a powerful weapon, and in the hands of a skilled person, it can be used to manipulate others —Julius Caesar Read more →

Quote of the Day

For it is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire. – Thucydides, 404 BC, the Peloponnesian War Read more →

When a Wise Man Points at the Moon, The Fool Looks at the Finger

When we hear any conjecture that a tool or a process, or NOT doing something will fix a recognized problem, I'm reminded of the Chinese phrase to the left, recorded in Chan Buddhist scripture When a Wise Man Points to... Read more →

Quote of the Day

A mob acts out of emotion, absent facts, absent contemplation, mostly absent responsibility. What they get in return is anonymity. Conscience can be exhausting. It'll keep you up at night. Mob's a place where people go to take a break... Read more →

Quote of the Day

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood. — William Howard Taft Read more →

Quote of the Day

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise - Oscar Wilde Read more →

Phrases Used for Technical Performance Measures

All project progress is measured independent of resources expended - Mr. Gary Bliss, Director Performance Assessment and Root Cause Analysis (PARCA), US Department of Defense The phrases used here are the results of research conducted on behalf of PARCA. No... Read more →

What Are Story Points and How Can They Be Used on Agile Projects?

The development of software, using other peoples money (OPM) means - or should mean - that those providing the money have an expectation to know How Much Money, along with When well you be done spending that money and provide... Read more →

Any Effective Process Must ...

Any effective process must provide the following when searching for the Root Cause of the problem the process is trying to fix OR the Beneficial Outcomes the process is trying to maintain. The process must ... Clearly define the problem... Read more →

The Aha! of the Day

I was watching a YouTube on Why Scaling Agile Doesn't Work and How to Fix It when I had my Aha! moment about some in the Agile community that makes statements that don't make sense in my domain. I work... Read more →

Book of the Month

From the preface: The software industry is one of the most successful industries in history and has created numerous billionaires and millionaires as well as given employment to millions of technology workers. Most forms of modern transportation such as automobiles,... Read more →

A Compendium of Risk Management Resources

Risk Management is essential for development and production programs. Information about key project cost, (technical) performance, and schedule attributes is often uncertain or unknown until late in the program. Risk issues that can be identified early in the program, which... Read more →

Velocity in Agile

Velocity is a term used on agile development to assess How Fast are we producing software. Here's one definition from agile glossary Velocity is a measure of the amount of work a Team can tackle during a single Sprint and... Read more →

Agile Development and Safety Critical Software

I grew up writing software for embedded real-time control system software world, out of graduate school working on Radar Systems, Flight Systems, Safety Systems, and Process Control Systems. I moved to enterprise business systems, then to product development, then to... Read more →

Quote of the Day - Business Runs on Estimated Values

You can't run a credible business or even your own household without knowing your cost basis for its operations and the demand for future expenditures. In the presence of uncertainties in the business and for your house for that cost... Read more →

A Compendium of Estimating Resources

This blog page is dedicated to the resources used to estimate software-intensive systems and their related hardware and work processes when applying traditional and agile product development methods. This setting ranges from cost to schedule, to risk, to technical performance... Read more →