Monday, January 25, 2010

Creativity

XP says that these values are important: Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage, Respect, Rules of Engagement.

Sometimes I envision stuff and after fully understanding it I realize how over complicated my initial expectations were. Have you experienced that sometimes ? Did these wild things end up simpler at the end?

How can one avoid over complications ? Are there people who are less mature but can be creative? Children for example? Maybe them? Maybe you sometime ago? Do you remember when you were a child and how creative you were?

There is a quote about children:

“Democracy cannot survive without the guidance of a creative minority.” -Harlan Stone

Information vs. Understanding

Information. We are living in an Information Age. There is a lot of data that we eat every day. Social Networks, TV, PlayStations, Radio, more medias.

What would be the next Age ? Understanding Age?

aha moments

My aha moments or things that I wanted to remember from Alistair’s training.

“Why TRUST?”. In business one can setup relationship to take out human factor out.

“Programming is a mapping of Theory1 to Theory2”. Theory1 is product theory, Theory2 is programmer’s Theory.

“SCRUM Framework is for surfacing problems”. No surprises during project development.

“SCRUM Master is Oil and Glue”.  You need someone who is running around programmers, marketing and other stakeholders, resolves issues, connects, translates that with this and brings it back to engineers. So programmers keep coding useful stuff and stay clear when doing it.

Gravity

I picked up this comparison from Alistair. He says that he trusts Gravity. There are physical rules that happen in software projects. When these rules of Gravity are not respected, then projects fall.

Alistair

Just passed 3 day training for SCRUM with Alistair Cockburn.

If you want to learn to be more effective learn it from Alistair.

Salt Lake City University:

Friday, January 15, 2010

Is Smart Work important ?

How would you know ?

Maybe the hard work that you just did was a smart work. So you are achieving at maximum capabilities. You should feel good then. Feeling good is important. When you feel good you can work even harder, longer and smarter.

But how would you know if you can do things more efficiently, faster and simpler ?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

looking for Problems

When looking for problems, you usually find them. You fix problems and look again for problems. You find new problems, and fix them also.

See more for diligence.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Believing in Hard Work

Do you believe in a hard work ? Do you think that it takes a lot of efforts to accomplish a goal?

Software Technologies catch up with software needs and software philosophies catch up with business’s needs. One could expect that there is less and less hard work remains. Technologies combined with philosophies enable emphasis on coordination type of work. Software Developer develops less, instead manages more. Requirements and coordinating technological approaches become major part of the work.

Where is the balance between Hard Work and Smart Work?

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Clutter

What is Clutter in software project.

Clutter is result of efforts that does not directly accomplish a valuable goal for Users.

How to avoid Clutter?

Trying to accomplish Simpler ways of achieving goals by doing a Smart Work.

Smart Work

What is a Smart Work ?

Here is how one could define a “Smart Work”: minimal amount of efforts for a goal. If there is another way with less efforts, than the smart work is this another way and the prior way becomes the hard work.

How to enable Smart Work? Is Smart Work an Easy Work ? 

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

perspective, frame, a box

How do we change our perspective on subjects ? Do we change it ? How ? Why ?

How many are there perspectives on any single subject ? Mine? Maybe Yours will be different ? How about her’s ? What he has to say on it ? And should we ask the others ?

How do we learn about different frames ? Ask ? What if other perspective is worse than mine ? What if better ?

Can you think outside the box ? Can you expand your box ?

Sunday, December 27, 2009

knowing, not knowing

 
• Some people think that they know everything
 
• Some people think that they know nothing
 
• Some people think that they know something

How you do you know what you don’t know.

Where is the border between knowing and not knowing. How do you realize this is what I know.

How do you control level of certainty in what you think you know ?

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Believing Nobody, Nothing

“There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything.

Both ways save us from thinking.” - Alfred Korzybski

Do you believe in believes when doing software development ?

How is it working out for you ? How would you know how is it working for you ?

Why do you believe if you do believe?

Friday, December 18, 2009

Conflict: Earth is Flat. Round ?

Recently I’ve learned that it is a common believe that Earth is round. Probably this notion became more popular after Google’s Earth application and NASA pictures. It’s understandable that roundish representations are beautiful. Where did the myth of earth being round started with ? Who cares.

Earth is Flat.

Have you been to Grand Canyon ? That’s the edge.

Here is a clear evidence, see it yourself:

Don’t believe it ?

Try it yourself, go out of your house and take a walk: do you feel the flatness?

What is Earth then ? Round ? Flat ?

Do you trust your believes or your eyes ?

Common Knowledge

What is it ? Maybe it is a common sense shared among small team.

And Maybe it is a Frame of Reference to which team became aligned with.

And Maybe it is prioritized Values to which team became accustomed to.

And Maybe it is awareness of common Goals, Objectives.

And Maybe it is a shared same context.