I sent out notes to folks talking about my new situation, and some came back with interesting comments. Here's one from W, a brilliant guy with Big-6 background and plenty of business acumen. However, he (like me) is a coder at heart, and really wants to focus on the technology (not like me). More power to him - but his eMail had a telling statement ... ... this is my 5th month at [BigCo] and all is going well so…
In any organization - if you've been there for a while or are brand new - there aren't many ways you can get away with introducing some change, shaking things up a little, and get away with it. Here are some stealthy, subtle ways to bring in a little healthy anarchy (they get progressively riskier) ... For recurring meetings, make a point of sitting in a different chair every time. People like to maintain the status quo, which often manifests…
I'm not going to recount the history and foundations of open source software, just point out that the word "free" has long been a point of contention when folks talk about "free" software. For clarity, the open-source crowd will refer to ... Free (as in Speech), meaning the user's freedom to run, copy, distribute a piece of software Free (as in Beer), meaning the software is available at no cost BTW, the world is really into their free beer -…
I use a number of euphemisms all the time, in my conversations with folks, trying to balance complete yet brief communications. A common phrase when trying to show that you've seen a similar situation before is ... "In a previous life ..." (IAPL), as in "In a previous life, we did consolidated financials within the ERP ...". I find it's a bit smoother than citing the bigger company you used to work for (sounds condescending) or the smaller company you…
Interesting meetings, discussions from last week; as a former consulting partner once noticed, my calendar in Outlook usually looks like a game of Tetris, with back-to-back meetings, double bookings, etc. It was actually quite energizing for me last week, because the meetings were on wildly divergent topics covering lots of areas. Side note: This scheduling style means I seem to be a few minutes late for each meeting - but then again, so are the other folks, so I guess…
In the early part of the year, we tracked our time as a group using timesheets. We don't use these to justify our payroll or anything, just an exercise to validate that we were properly apportioning our time across multiple demands. Also, we wanted to help explain why it takes more than one week of calendar time to complete one week of effort time. As I was scanning old emails, I came across the summary / findings note that I…
Technical people are often engineers at heart, and really want to see controlled processes in and around their computer systems. We see source code control, configuration management, and process documentation as ways to manage long term maintenance costs and deliver repeatable, reliable results from our systems. In the realm of ERP systems, this would seem to be a common and well-regarded mind set; however, the businesses supported by these systems often demand information transparency, process flexibility, and quick turnaround of…
My blogroll includes tech-focused blogs as well as general business sites (along with some humor). It's an interesting cross section, that allows me to see a wide variety of reactions to news such as MacTel, Office XML, Offshoring, and other things. The variety reminded me of an old thought exercise I led at a previous job, discussing CRM for the pharmaceutical industry and how it had so many meanings within the same relatively small group of people / departments. It's…
Over the last few days, I've been in a few vendor demos, trading partner reviews, product pitches, and project discussions, all reviewing complex systems or processes, and tools / software / services to help out. Some important, common, and somewhat random issues kept popping into my mind, all about trying to have a discussion about complex systems / interactions ... Always be mindful that if something was easy, we probably would have done it already. Be alert for things that…
Rothman suggests we use the term Defect, not Bug - as if Defect is a more honest / real word, and Bug is somehow more evasive, non-descript. Au contraire - my guess is that Ms. Rothman does not have a programming background! When you say to a Programmer that their software has a bug, they typically take great offense; I remember how fast a consultant turned from smooth professional to defensive techno-geek the instant I suggested their work product had…
I'm Jim MacLennan, and I'm glad you had the chance to visit the site.
I'm working on a lot of interesting projects for Maker Turtle,
and I'd like keep in touch.
Can you take a moment to add yourself to our email list?
I will keep you up-to-date when new stuff comes available!
