knownbugs

2010-10-13T13:56:57.630+01:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

In response to Milan, I agree that scaling this ap...

2010-10-13T13:56:32.405+01:00

In response to Milan, I agree that scaling this approach is challenging. However, I would make a few points in response:

Scaling the minimum-day-rate approach may seem "easy" in that it is easy to hire a virtually unlimited number of unskilled developers. There is an "obvious" path to follow, but does it really lead to where we want to be? I think we have all had to deal with the fallout of this approach. I don't think it really scales any better at all. A whole lot of bad code is no better than too little good code. (Substantially worse, I would argue.)

In many organisations, it is actually easier to hire top talent, than it is to get permission to hire them. Sure, there will be a limit to how many top people are on the market at any time, but it would be nice to have the opportunity to explore those limits, once in a while!

We should remember that talent and experience are not the same thing. Talented juniors are valuable team members - and they are essential, if we are to have another generation of senior talent.

The challenge of software development at enterprise scale tends to lie more in governance than in project execution. I have run enough teams in my time to be confident of repeatably producing better (and cheaper) results with small, skilled teams, that will large, unskilled teams. The state of the art is such that, at project scale, skilled developers (and testers, analysts, PM's, etc) can reliably produce good software.

It is the governance and co-ordination of large numbers of teams that is difficult. With skilled teams the challenge moves from "how do we deliver anything?" to "how do we make sure that we deliver the right thing?" Not such a bad problem to have! ;-)

However, isn't the governance of even larger numbers of less skilled people even harder? Perhaps what we need is more skilled governance?

I don't want to downplay the challenges of governing an enterprise scale software house. I doubt I could do it myself. I suspect that enterprise governance technique and philosophy simply hasn't evolved to the same degree as have modern software project execution approaches.

IMHO, John Seddon's "Systems Thinking", which draws heavily on "Lean" philosophy and the model established with the Toyota Production System, sets an example of what good looks like here. Widespread acceptance and understanding of this approach seems to be missing. (By the way - John Seddon is now reasonably famous!)

Milan, I'll pose you a question here: is it really any easier to "scale" with unskilled hoards than with cheaper, better developers? What are the real challenges? Aside from convincing the bean counters, are the challenges of governance not simply added to by poor quality output from unskilled teams?

Aaron, the challenge is how to scale the model you...

2010-10-07T00:44:19.518+01:00

Aaron, the challenge is how to scale the model you propose across the enterprise. If you can figure that out, you will be famous.

Fuly agree! Now the challenge; how to turn around ...

2010-10-06T11:38:26.682+01:00

Fuly agree!
Now the challenge; how to turn around the mindset.... and provide a proof method to convince the people that need to spend the cash?

Point well written.Unfortunately cheap is the way ...

2010-09-17T15:49:06.295+01:00

Point well written.Unfortunately cheap is the way most organizations are going nowadays. Just a matter of time before we realize the folly.

Proactive is better than reactive because we can e...

2010-07-12T17:57:54.009+01:00

Proactive is better than reactive because we can expect some best result and less error with use of it.
-toronto airport escorts

Post with graphical description to know very well ...

2010-07-04T13:21:26.841+01:00

Post with graphical description to know very well about it.
Thanks for share.
-Grant Applications

Today, we are living in an era of the Internet whe...

2010-06-09T07:34:32.565+01:00

Today, we are living in an era of the Internet where online Project Management Software serves as a great tool to help us complete projects on time. Such software is the simplest tool that helps the project managers plan and manage different tasks that are involved in each project.

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2010-03-24T00:32:15.854Z

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There is an interesting book with title a "Th...

2010-03-23T02:33:41.774Z

There is an interesting book with title a "The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management " .. This book talks about various models, client engagement, politics and building software with stealth teams. Whether we build software in waterfall model or an agile/XP model, this book offers a reflection of what typically goes on in a software development organization.

Stu Feldman, creator of "make", makes th...

2010-03-12T15:30:37.895Z

Stu Feldman, creator of "make", makes the following rueful observation about app performance:

"I never worry about a factor of 2.
The problem is that neither do nine of my friends."

(Hint: 2**10 = 1024!)

One option I am thinking about is to pay for a fas...

2010-03-06T23:27:59.709Z

One option I am thinking about is to pay for a fast dsl/fibre connection and host my own server vs paying someone a monthly charge for hosting.

Hi Milan: It’s nice to see you back. I am a real ...

2010-02-26T09:13:43.957Z

Hi Milan:

It’s nice to see you back. I am a real fan of your blogs.

Requirements should be based on the business / service benefits and hence they could be "barely sufficient" if the benefits can be met. I will quote an example but the issue needs to be addressed at a more fundamental level.

However, almost all the time they are not. The requirements are quite often a mash-up of business benefits and the "wish" of the originator. There has to be ways that can capture requirements in such a way that the business problems are "first" addressed and then address the wish list.

The "wish" factors are important from the customer experience perspective but for the techies, they are not as important as the cost, quality, time, performance, scalability and other goodness factors.

Just to cite an example from the automobile industry. The design, engineering and assembly are important for the design and tech team. Those should be decided by the design and engineering community after studying what the market wants (Not the customer). They are the best to do that job. Then comes the configuration bit - color, upholstery, music system etc. Those are similar to the "wish list". Those can be decided by the customer experience or sales teams along with the customer.

Often, in software development, it is very difficult to differentiate between the real requirements and the "wish" and hence teams land up with a lot in their plate.

MJ

I found this site using [url=http://google.com]goo...

2009-11-10T19:48:40.831Z

I found this site using [url=http://google.com]google.com[/url] And i want to thank you for your work. You have done really very good site. Great work, great site! Thank you!

Sorry for offtopic

Yes, totally agree with you. I think this is more ...

2009-11-07T07:45:17.176Z

Yes, totally agree with you. I think this is more of an attitude thing that needs correction (and my guess is, this will naturally get corrected as the scene evolves). As the saying goes, "Specialization is for insects":-)

I agree completely. Having left BT and now working...

2009-11-03T10:53:27.103Z

I agree completely. Having left BT and now working for a company whose sole purpose is to ensure organisations are fully prepared if their inbound telecoms are disrupted, you would think that this would be satisfying. But what amazes me most is the apathy that companies have about preparation rather than cure, willing to pay through the nose when things go wrong but not equipping themselves adequately in the first place.

Perhaps a good way to judge the effectiveness of a...

2009-10-04T00:36:35.021+01:00

Perhaps a good way to judge the effectiveness of an SDK is to review how 'messy' the client code needs to be ? I think you are touching on what is the crucial intellectual issue behind designing a good SOA framework.

Thanks for the information about the broadband spe...

2009-08-18T06:57:16.425+01:00

Thanks for the information about the broadband speed.I check my internet speed in the site www.ip-details.com.But from this article I know the more information about the broadband speed.Really its very useful to me.

Well, I would say it is just one side of the story...

2009-04-03T00:05:00.000+01:00

Well, I would say it is just one side of the story.

In the last fifteen years, I have executed multiple IT projects in various capacities. The most standing out ones were done from multiple location - in one case the team split across three continents - Asia, Australia and North America!

My experience makes be believe that what matters more is efficient communication among the team members and right resources. Each person should have a well defined role, well defined work item, and a well defined schedule. There should be an orchestrator to synchronize. There should be daily calls for a few minutes- stand up or sit down, does not matter. There should be a quick communication channel - an Instant Messenger! And there should be a challenging goal to achieve.

You will see
1. Reduced number of meetings
2. Reduction in meeting duration
3. No long coffee breaks
4. No time waste in chatting

One of my team member once mentioned that he work hard because he think others are working hard - of course on a light note :)

I would rather say any model will work if you have the right team!

BTW, Are you co-located with the co-located team?

Hi Milan, Thanks for such useful posts. Please pro...

2009-03-19T19:15:00.000Z

Hi Milan, Thanks for such useful posts. Please provide some guidelines which can help me resolve business critical tickets.

Ashish

Good words.

2008-10-27T14:45:00.000Z

Good words.

Hello Milan

Interesting write up. I am more...

2008-09-11T02:10:00.000+01:00

Hello Milan

Interesting write up. I am more keen to know how IT Top Talent search works.

To be precise, what it takes to get the authority to remove red tapes in an organization, which I believe is the key contributor (another being decision making) to detoriate any progress.

Can you please guide me?

Excellent Article

Cheers
Deepak

2008-08-22T17:28:00.000+01:00
Excellent Article

Cheers
Deepak
PECATS

Very true Milan. This hampers Customer experience ...

2008-08-15T13:09:00.000+01:00

Very true Milan. This hampers Customer experience to a large extent and i guess some mechanism should be in place to penalize the system owners if things are not done right first time.

Good thoughts. I'd agree that strip charts (li...

2008-05-22T03:00:00.000+01:00

Good thoughts. I'd agree that strip charts (like MRTG) are invaluable when troubleshooting. We have automatic MRTG charting of CPU, I/O, TCP connections, disk space & a few other variables for all servers.

We overlay multiple strip charts for CPU, I/O etc. to correlate events. (High CPU + high I/O)

The historical data presented by a simple MRTG strip chart is very valuable for troubleshooting and trend detection.

knownbugs

In response to Milan, I agree that scaling this ap...

Aaron, the challenge is how to scale the model you...

Fuly agree! Now the challenge; how to turn around ...

Point well written.Unfortunately cheap is the way ...

Proactive is better than reactive because we can e...

Post with graphical description to know very well ...

Today, we are living in an era of the Internet whe...

Differences are often deactivated to limit the cas...

There is an interesting book with title a "Th...

Stu Feldman, creator of "make", makes th...

One option I am thinking about is to pay for a fas...

Hi Milan: It’s nice to see you back. I am a real ...

I found this site using [url=http://google.com]goo...

Yes, totally agree with you. I think this is more ...

I agree completely. Having left BT and now working...

Perhaps a good way to judge the effectiveness of a...

Thanks for the information about the broadband spe...

Well, I would say it is just one side of the story...

Hi Milan, Thanks for such useful posts. Please pro...

Good words.

Hello MilanInteresting write up. I am more...

Excellent ArticleCheersDeepak 2008-08-22T17:28:00.000+01:00 Excellent ArticleCheersDeepakPECATS

Very true Milan. This hampers Customer experience ...

Good thoughts. I'd agree that strip charts (li...

Hello Milan

Interesting write up. I am more...

Excellent Article

Cheers
Deepak

2008-08-22T17:28:00.000+01:00
Excellent Article

Cheers
Deepak
PECATS