Thursday, May 31, 2007

Surfing with J.R.

Adding to my dream gadget list: Cool solar-powered backpacks from Reware and from Voltaic for a couple hundred bucks. (Dunhill offers a more expensive option.) They look good, they keep your devices' batteries charged and, in the case of the Reware products, they're made from recycled pop bottles.

I'm suspicious of Bank of America spokesman Ernesto Anguilla. Reading between the lines of the AP story "Promotional Fax Mistaken for Bomb Threat", I think the AP writer is suspicious, too. Anguilla claims that BofA's Ashland, Mass., branch's fax machine malfunctioned, so they only received the top part of a promotional fax; the part that showed a hand lighting a bomb fuse under the words "The Countdown Begins". He says that the lower part that describe "Small Business Commitment Week" didn't arrive so it was understandable that the branch manager reported a bomb threat, causing police to evacuate a bunch of local businesses for three hours.

I call shenanigans on the malfunctioning fax machine explanation. The more likely explanation is that the complete fax arrived and the branch manager is merely an overreacting idiot who should quit his job and devote himself to keeping the streets of Boston free from Mooninites.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Beneath Microsoft's Surface

Three things spring to mind regarding Microsoft Surface.
  1. Looks cool!
  2. It reminds me of the desk in David Warner's office in Tron.
  3. What's it made outta?
 

Regarding #3, the details are starting to leak out. Here's what I've pieced together (from a Popular Mechanics article, Robert McLaws' post and Robert Scoble's post).

Operating SystemModified version of Windows XP
Graphics LibraryWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
ProcessorCore 2 Duo processor
System RAM2 GB
Graphics card?
Graphics card RAM256 MB
Wireless communicationWiFi and Bluetooth
Display resolution1024 x 768

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Surfing with J.R.

It's been a busy time, but not too busy for a little surfing.

Homework sucks. Amen. Seriously.

I always like xkcd.com, but this last week's 5-part series "Choices" is particularly good.

What do you do when you go all Web 2.0, you ask your customers to write ads for you and the ads are all terrible?

LOLpresidents.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Surfing with J.R.

"Design Patterns are Code Smells" is an interesting critique of design patterns.

My friend Larry Kuhn is right. The tech preview of Photosynth is amazing.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Geocaching: Found a crack pipe

The further adventures of J.R. Jenks, world's worst geocacher.

I've been dabbling in geocaching for a couple of weeks. How am I doing? So far, not so good.

The only two caches I've found have been virtual caches ("GC5165 ORD Layover" and "GCAC5F Monument"), which means that there's no actual prize to be found at the locations. Not even a log book.

Allow me to express my disappointment in virtual geocaches SAT-style:
real geocache :: virtual geocache
toy in cereal box :: mail-in "collect five coupons" coupon on back of cereal box
I've tried to find real geocaches (which geocaching.com calls traditional caches) and although I'm sure I've passed within a few feet of several caches ("GCRR99 Bart: Pleasant Hill Station ", "GC102Y2 Outta The Park!", "GC10TT6 Shop, Shop 'til you drop", "GCV3YK Grate Lake" and "GCJ9WZ Tales From Outside the Crypt") I have yet to find a stupid box with my stupid prize inside. I found an abandoned crack pipe near "GCV3YK Grate Lake", but I'm 99.9% sure that's not the cache.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Things I Learned at the Microsoft Developer Conference

Some notes from the day-long dev conference lead by Marc Schweigert from blogs.msdn.com/publicsector and others.

Jim Newkirk, the guy who created JUnit and NUnit, now works for Microsoft. He's working on their automated test stuff.

Microsoft has a new open source project hosting web site: CodePlex. 1,482 projects so far.

www.SDLCinaBox.com:
The goal of SDLC-in-a-Box is to provide a FREE training kit that our partners and consultants can take, customize and deliver to organizations who want to experience a Software Development Lifecycle walkthrough using Visual Studio Team System & Team Foundation Server. It is intended to get individuals and organizations quickly up-to-speed on the Microsoft SDLC tools platform, provide them with a rapid environment for demonstrating and training others, and offer a set of resources to ensure the experience with Visual Studio Team System is a pleasant and successful one.

LINQ (.NET Language Integrated Query) is...
...the general-purpose query facilities added to the .NET Framework that apply to all sources of information, not just relational or XML data. (more...)

At one of my previous companies (which was wiped away when the tech bubble burst) we had a saying: Foosball tables are a sign of a company that will be wiped away when the tech bubble bursts. Microsoft has a foosball table in the hallway outside the dev conference. I'm just saying.


Also, this guy would make great desktop wallpaper:


Other cool things: ASP.NET AJAX.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Surfing with J.R.

The further adventures of J.R., who is not a sports person. When I saw the Chicago Tribune headline, "Former Hawkeye Pierce moves to Illinois", I thought, 'Alan Alda or Donald Sutherland?'

The upcoming season of Battlestar Galactica will be the last. Feldercarb!

Worst. Airport logo. Ever.

Just went through San Francisco International Airport were I was met, as usual, by the Worst. Airport logo. Ever.

Is it just me? What graphic designer thought that two intersecting parabolas was a comforting image for an airport? Doesn't SFO have a well-trained crew of air traffic controllers whose job it is to make sure that parabolas don't intersect?!?

Monday, May 7, 2007

Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC

A friend of mine just emailed this to me. It's funny in an if-you-have-to-ask-you'll-never-know sort of way.



That's just #1 in the series. There's also #2, #3 and #4.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Shopping for a cell phone for geocaching

In my last post I considered handheld GPS units for geocaching. Now it's time to think about getting a cell phone that does the same thing and more. In that last post I covered some of the reasons to consider a GPS-enabled cell phone instead of a dedicated handheld GPS but I left out an important one: the redhead needs a cell phone.

Let's start with the software. I like the looks of Geocache Navigator. That limits my choice of cell phones and choice of carriers to these. It's a shame that Cingular isn't on the list since that's the network I use, but oh well.

We'll probably choose Sprint as our carrier, which means our cell phone options are LG (535 and 550 [Fusic]), Motorola (KRZR, RAZR and SLVR), Samsung (A800 and A880) and Sanyo (5600, 6600 [Katana], 7050, 7400, 7500, 8300, 8400, 9000 and M1).

The LG 535 is discontinued. The Sanyo 5600, Samsung A800, Samsung A880, Sanyo 7400, Sanyo 7500 and Sanyo 8300, Sanyo 9000 don't have Bluetooth. The Sanyo 7050 doesn't have a camera. The Samsung 6600 (Katana) and Motorola SLVR have lame cameras.

Which leaves five. Phonescoop.com's product comparison matrix is here. My comparison chart is below.

PhoneMSRPFeatures
Motorola KRZR$399.99-$599.99US64MB RAM, microSD card slot. See video review.
LG 550 (Fusic)$379.99US23MB RAM, changeable faceplates, FM transmitter, stereo Bluetooth, microSD card slot, 2.5 mm headset jack. See video review.
Motorola RAZR$599.99US30MB RAM, microSD card slot
Sanyo SCP-8400$279.99US60MB RAM, microSD card slot, 2.5 mm headset jack, call screening. See video preview.
Sanyo M1$349.99US1GB RAM (but no microSD card slot) 2 megapixel camera (the others have 1 MP), 2.5 mm headset jack, call screening. See video review.

Decision to come, after appropriate consulting with the redhead.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Shopping for a GPS unit for geocaching

The redhead and I have an anniversary coming up and she's had a great idea for a present to ourselves: a handheld GPS unit so we can do some geocaching. Don't you just love her?

(Not familiar with geocaching? Wikipedia to the rescue!
Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little monetary value. Today, well over 350,000 geocaches are currently placed in 222 countries around the world, which are registered on various websites devoted to the sport.
Do you love her now?)

I'm don't think we need the fanciest handheld because I've already got two GPS devices that serve me well. I use the GPS navigation built into my Prius when I'm driving near my home and I connect my laptop to an Earthmate GPS-LT-20 via USB when I'm driving a rental car. (I think that Earthmate GPS-LT-20 is a must-have for anyone who carries a laptop and rents cars in the States. It's bundled with Street Atlas for $99.95US MSRP.)

We're "car campers" and not hikers, so the handheld GPS would probably just augment the car-based GPSes we already use. I picture that we'll drive most of the way to a location using the car's GPS and then use the handheld for the last parts of the approach.

Some of the places I've visited during my research:
Shopping comparison chart
GPS unitReview(s)MSRPFeatures
Magellan Meridian Goldgpsinformation.us Aug 2004$329.99US12 channels, IPX7 (submersible to one meter for 30 minutes), floats
Magellan Meridian Platinumgpsinformation.us Aug 2004$399.99USSame as gold plus 3-axis compass, barometer, and temperature sensor.
DeLorme Earthmate GPS PN-20gpsreview.net Jan 2007, backpackgeartest.org Apr 2007Basic: $369.95US
Travel bundle: $409.95US
Deluxe bundle: $449.95US
Topographic maps (sample) but can be pricey to purchase large areas (according to comments here).
Garmin GPS 60 $192.84USGrayscale display, up to 28 hr battery life, 1 MB RAM, serial and USB interface, 500 waypoints, geocaching mode (see video), IPX7
Garmin GPSMAP 60 $249.99USSame as GPS 60 but 24MB RAM, basemap, can add maps, turn by turn routing on roads
Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx $428.56USSame as GPSMAP 60 but color display, shorter (18 hr) battery life, "high-sensitivity receiver", no built-in memory but accepts microSD cards (64MB card included), 1000 waypoints, custom POIs
Garmin GPSMAP 60CSxgpsinformation.us 2006$482.13USSame as GPSMAP 60Cx plus electronic compass, barometric altimeter
Garmin GPS 76 $179.99USGrayscale display, 1 MB RAM, serial interface, 500 waypoints
Garmin GPSMAP 76 $199.99USSame as GPS 76 but 8 MB RAM, can add maps, 1000 waypoints
Garmin GPSMAP 76Sgpsinformation.us 2006(?)$249.99USSame as GPSMAP 76 but 24 MB RAM, electronic compass, barometric altimeter
Garmin GPSMAP 76Cx $428.56USColor display, microSD card slot, 128 MB microSD card, geocaching mode (see video), serial and USB interface. (Might be able to do topo maps through Google Earth + TerraServer [for topo] for free; I need to check.)
Garmin GPSMAP 76CSxgpsreview.net Nov 2005$482.13USSame as 76Cx plus electronic compass and barometric altimeter
Decision

After all that research, what did I decide to get?

Trick question, as it turns out. Once I saw how much money a really good GPS would cost I realized that I wasn't looking broadly enough. I've decided not to get any of the above right now and to research the alternatives to a dedicated GPS handheld. I'll cover that in a another post, soon.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Cutter Summit 2007: Tuesday Miscellany

Miscellaneous gems from Tuesday's (5/1/2007) conversations at the Cutter Consortium's Summit 2007:

Pope John Paul II smelled like flowers. No perfume; it was just the way he was. This was according to Julio César Margáin, who'd once shown J.P. II around town.

There's a web service out there, somewhere, that accepts a human language choice and will provide you with curse words and phrases in that language. A prankster/instructor used it when he taught SOAP development. One time he had a colleague visiting from Finland when an important business document, written in Finnish, arrived. He used the curse generator to sprinkle Finnish obscenities throughout the document, then he asked his Finnish visitor for help translating. Hilarity ensued. (Note to self: I must find that web service.)

I'm really pleased that I've been listening to Jason Watt's History Podcast. There were a bunch of folks from Mexico at the summit and the conversation drifted at one point into a discussion of the Mexican Civil War (circa 1930). I was so happy to be able to particpate in the conversation! (We really don't cover that war in the U.S. schools.)

At the restaurant (Legal Seafood, which had a good vegetarian pasta primavera), the folks visiting from Poland commented on the large portions at American restaurants. I recalled that Rob Austin had said in a Monday session that China has more honor students than the U.S. has students. So when the topic inevitably turned to American obesity I said, "There's something we've got more of than China. Obese people!" So there.

Cutter Summit 2007: Contracting Agile Development

A by-the-bullets summary of the Cutter Summit 2007 interactive breakfast roundtable: "Contracting Agile Development – Thoughts and Experience Around the World", conducted by Jens Coldewey.

Bullets
  • Contracting agile projects is a big problem for which Jens admits he doesn't have a complete solution.
  • It's an even bigger problem in Germany.
    • There are 4 or 5 contract structures defined by civil law, 2 of which may apply.
      1. The delivery contract. What your contract has to deliver, when it is to be delivered and how much it will cost? Basically: what, when and cost. This is one of the reasons that waterfall is popular. Perceived as very friendly to the recipient of the services, but Jens disagrees and thinks it causes the recipient trouble by forcing people to stick to a contract even when the contract no longer makes sense.
      2. Service contract. Goes back to the ancient Romans. Marcus Classus(sp?) (Julis Caesar buddy) and fire brigade. Half of Caesar's fortune. This contract specifies help and money. Perceived as being very friendly to contractor.
  • Business views this as an IT problem, which it isn't. (See Jens' chart.)
  • Example of a contract someone's done (in U.S.): Service contract, it's not T&M per se. We define the number of patches and the number of hours we'll work. Customer can add a patch if they'd like (which will need more hours).
  • Example: Master contract that defines process, payment terms, warranty and such.
  • Fixed price contracting goes to the best liar.
  • Litigation is big in America. Contrast with Poland, where people just don't sue each other. There's not as much risk of litigation.
  • Approach: Discovery phase. Refuse to fixed bid a project. Difficulty here is that you've got to be willing to walk away from the business.
  • Two participants work for a state government. They do a lot of T&M. But are under tremedous pressure to do fixed scope, fixed price.
  • It's often not about the value delivered, it's about the game. "I win, you lose, I get the promotion."
  • Cites Poppendieck study of percentage of functionality that's often used.
  • Caps.
  • Mary Poppendieck's chapter in the book on contracting. All of the examples come from auto manufacturing.
  • Vendor relationship management systems. Doesn't work: Price and willingness to go down on price. Works: Value, efficiency, flexibility.
  • Some discussion of shared responsibility approaches.
  • The last word: Use a master services agreement at the high level and keep the specificity in short-term agreements.

Cutter Summit 2007: Sunday Miscellany

Sunday (4/29/2007) miscellany from conversations at the Cutter Consortium's Summit 2007:

There was a great at-least-an-hour-long conversation about the English temperament, with participants hailing from Mexico (Julio César Margáin), the U.S. (me, Bart Perkins and Tim Hughes), India (Mehmood Kahn) and England (Paul Robertson). Paul recommendeded Kate Fox' book "Watching the English" so strongly that I've just got to get it now. Mehmood related one of the tidbits from the book: "The English are the only people who would form a one-person queue." See what I mean?

John Tibbets recommended a web site: workflowpatterns.com

Another book recommendation: Bob Charette recommended "In Over Our Heads" by (Cagan?)

Bob Charette has a new book on risk management directed at parents. It'll be coming out in a few months and it's called "Decision Empowerment: A Parent's Guide to Raising Good Decision Makers".

Bob, Ed Yourdon and I were discussing the military's risk management and I recalled a 2001 Washington Monthly cover story by Eric Umansky, "Studs and Duds". (Subtitle: "In Afghanistan, the Navy has weapons that work. So why don't the Army and Air Force?") I've used this article as an example of the benefits of testing early and often. I recommend it to other agilists. (Note to self: Find the link and send it to Bob.) (Update: Found and sent. It's http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0112.umansky.html.)

Back from Boston

It's Friday and I'm in my office for the first time this week. I've got a lot of posts on my hard drive from the Cutter Consortium's Summit 2007 and I'll be uploading them as time permits.

Lots of catching up to do.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Cutter Summit 2007: Managing IT Priorities

Rogelio Oliva's "Case Study: Managing IT Priorities at Volkswagen of America" at the Cutter Summit 2007 was an intense experience. We discussed things in a fashion that was so fast and furious that I couldn't possibly keep up.

So I thought I'd try a Web 2.0 trick and create a cloud of the group discussion.
accountable accurate addressing align alignment allocate america applications arbitrary argue argument bandage base beginning being benefits better blah board bonus brings budget business care case category ceo chain choices chose cio classified column commitment company compensated complex complicated congress consolidation constraint continued core corporate costs create creation customer debate decisions defined demand dependencies detect didn different discretionary discussion don elbows employment enterprise erp executive fair federal federalist fight financials fix flawed flow force free functional fund future game generate gets global goals going governance government growth guy happen head heavy helping id idea important inclusive infinite information infrastructure infrequent interesting investment isolation issue larger leaders leadership leeway level list loyalty managers mandate mandatory map mapping marketing million missing model moment money necessarily night number objectives organization overhead people phase platform pot priorities prioritize problem process profit programming projects proposal question ranking re really resources result return revenue risk roi room sale sales sap satisfaction seems sequence settling sham share shift sixty specific speed spend sponsor stable stay stayed story strategy stuff submit supply supposed system table tax technology things threw throw tie top total trump trust type unit unrealistic vague value volkswagen wait whatever willing wiped wish worth wrong year
created at TagCrowd.com
To create the input for the cloud generator I listened closely to the discussion and captured every significant word that I could possibly type.

Cutter Summit 2007: Innovation and Risk Entrepreneurship

In progress

A by-the-bullets summary of Bob Charette's keynote "Innovation and Risk Entrepreneurship: Learning How to Profit from Risk" and the associated panel discussion at the Cutter Summit 2007.

Keynote bullets
  • To be innovative you have to have really good decision processes.
  • Innovation has been a buzz word in that last three years.
  • Cites Robert Hanson (whom he calls really controversial but really, really smart): "The innovations that matter most are the millions of small changes we constantly make to our billions of daily procedures and arrangements."
  • Cites Michael Schrage: "It's not what innovators innovate, it's what customers want."
  • Cites Adam Smith: "Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society, which he has in view."
  • Cites J. B. Say
  • Cites Ludwig von Mises
  • Cites Joseph Schumpeter
  • Cites Frank Knight
  • Cites Peter Drucker
  • Cites Milton Friedman
  • Cites himself: "The exchange of goods and services is an exchange of risk and opportunity."
  • New York telephone book had to limit the names of plumbers to no more than six A's at the beginning.
  • (He offers to provide reference for his list of three choices: 1. Industrial efficiency, 2. Network services, and 3. Knowledge intensive.
  • A decision has not been made unless we have commited some resources that we cannot call back without some cost.
  • Cites Rockwell Collins founder Arthur Collins: "I want to employ methods which are capable of giving performance greater than is necessary for the needs of the moment."
  • Notes today's news about Microsoft, AT&T and software patents. This could be a huge change in the risk environment around patents.
  • Walks us through four distinct stages in the history of Collins Radio Company and Rockwell Collins.
    1. The rise of Arthur Collins:
      • 1930s: Collins Radio Company
      • 1950s diversification
      • 1960s move into the digital age. Plays the "one giant leap for mankind quote" and notes that it was made over a Collins radio. (Doesn't note that the words got mixed up, which would have muted his point but is kinda funny.)
      • 1970s purchase by Rockwell International
    2. The fall of Arthur Collins:
      • Overinvested in created the wondrous C-System for communications & computing convergence
      • Ross Perot threatened to buy the company, which forced a hard look at the financials
      • William Rockwell bought Arthur Collins out
      • So What Happened?
        • Too Far Ahead of Customers
        • Heroic Hubris
        • Violated Own Principles
        • Overwhelming Complexity
        • Better Became Enemy of Good Enough
    3. Rentrenchment after the fall:
      • Didn't make many staffing changes; only two people left when Collins did.
      • Created a "engineer's paradise"
      • Successful for a time, but...
      • Cloaked in Virtue
        • Loss of Major Contract
        • Technical Problems in Two Major Programs
        • Engineering Arrogance
        • Lack of Process Discipline
        • Technology Changes
        • Lack of R&D Focus/ROI (although lots of R&D investment)
        • Ignorance of Business Risk. The feeling was that if you solved an engineering problem you solved a financial problem.
    4. New Disciplines, linked by a huge overhaul of their risk management (which is when our speaker, Bob Charette, was brought in)
      • Compressed 40 financial systems into one (SAP)
  • Plays Tower of Power's "What is Hip?"
  • Plug for his the book (out in July 2007): Decisions Empowerment

  • Panelists
    Bob CharetteLou MazzucchelliBart PerkinsMaria Pardee

    Panel bullets
    • "You can't innovate your way out of a forest fire."
    • An interesting (to me) example of innovation: The BT Home Hub - BT's home network management system.
      • BT was at risk of not being significant
      • Took the approach of opening up the network to allow their consumers to get to the services they need.
      • Realized that not all innovation comes from within BP, so the key is to enable the connections between their customers and the innovation providers.
      • Tom DeMarco notes that this is a different BT from the one that used to have their customers arrested for using savings tricks on cross-Atlantic calls. (Need a link for this; it sounds funny.)
    • Discussion of Lou's CASE tool project. (Are they talking about Cadre Technologies?)
      • Found its success, unexpectedly, in government work where the tool allowed adherence to (an acquisition?) process.
    • Ways that Bart manages risk when investing in companies:
      • Does the entrepreneur have personal wealth tied up in the company? (Got to have skin in the game.)
      • Will the entrepreneur be reasonable when it comes to ceding control when necessary?
      • Does the business plan make sense? (Entrepreneurs are optimistic by nature.)
    • Lou: Skin cells versus neurons. You slough skin cells all the time and that's healthy, but you don't want to lose neurons. That's how Web 2.0, for example, will fall out.
    • On HP:
      • Bob: HP said in the 1990s that 90% of their revenues come from products that are less than three years old.
      • Lou: The problem with HP is that they carved off the agile part and left behind something that wasn't recognizable as HP.
    • The problem of innovation at all companies.
      • Bob asks how many people feel that they can take a we-must-change-180-degrees message all the way to the top of the company? (I was one of only two that raised hands and Bob noted that we both own our own companies. Hee.)
      • Lou says that it's got to start at the top, citing the example of Apple radically ditching most of its product line as they were figuring things out (which eventually meant the creation of the iMac).
    • Question: Is crisis required for change?
      • Bob has never seen a company seriously take on risk management unless it could see the noose.
    • Maria: The key risk mitigator is agile software development. Very hard to do because finance and marketeers aren't comfortable
    • Risk management as a daily decision-making process.
    • Lou gives example of (faxman?), the billion dollar project that would have allowed consumers to easily sent faxes through a local (UPS?) office. On time, on budget. Failed because, by the time it was available, Japan was shipping affordable fax machines.
    • Bob: Good decisions don't mean good outcomes. (Oh, I love that one!)
    • JP asks: Are we creating problems by ensuring that projects don't fail? It's rare that we'll take projects that are good projects that nonetheless deserve do die and will actually kill that.
      • Example of Iridium: Why didn't the project planners spot the lack of the available market?
      • Lou: When the potential market becomes smaller than the cost of development, shoot that sucker!
    • Concerning the advice to carry extra capabilities and resources. For this most profound, unknowable risk, what do you do?
      • Bob's short answer: Spend a little money.
      • Bob's longer answer: You've got to be able to name the thing. And (important!) you need to be able to change the name!
      • Lou: The Boy Scouts have it. "Be prepared."
      • Maria: Agile development and flexible enterprise architecture.
    • Two suggestions. 1) The gold rush metaphor is dangerous. You can see the bones of the businesses that provided the coal miners. Having lived through Katrina, I can say not "Let's look at all the causes" but "let's look at all the outcomes". The event might be a hurricane or an atomic bomb, but the outcome is the same.
      • Bart: After Katrina, the CIO of the ARC realized they weren't going to be able to reach people and he called a huge meeting of suppliers. By Saturday were able to . The lesson was, be prepared. Tell them the objectives and let them figure out how to respond. ARC came under fire. Truth is they aren't allowed to come in unless they're asked to come in. They were told, Don't come you're not welcome. In Raleigh and other areas.
    • Question cites (get this from Christine Davis. Sales turbulence was highest in (?). Assertion 1, IT matters. Assertion 2, the risk is that if you are in a high IT industry and you're not agile you have tremendous risks. So the slower you are the higher your risk.
      • Bart: Lesson from the startups: Fail fast. Keep the resources limited.
    • Audience member says: In American companies you're not allowed to fail.
      • Maria: Allow for safe failure. I have a regular meeting to applaud failure and you have to come to my meeting with something that's failed or something you've cut off.
      • Tom cautions the panel not to mistake that for a question; says it's a statement and that it's true.
      • Lou: As the CEO you want someone who's had some scar tissues and who has failed.

    Cutter Summit 2007: Contracting Agile Development

    A by-the-bullets summary of the Cutter Summit 2007 interactive breakfast roundtable: "Contracting Agile Development – Thoughts and Experience Around the World", conducted by Jens Coldewey.

    Bullets
    • Contracting agile projects is a big problem for which Jens admits he doesn't have a complete solution.
    • It's an even bigger problem in Germany.
      • There are 4 or 5 contract structures defined by civil law, 2 of which may apply.
        1. The delivery contract. What your contract has to deliver, when it is to be delivered and how much it will cost? Basically: what, when and cost. This is one of the reasons that waterfall is popular. Perceived as very friendly to the recipient of the services, but Jens disagrees and thinks it causes the recipient trouble by forcing people to stick to a contract even when the contract no longer makes sense.
        2. Service contract. Goes back to the ancient Romans. Marcus Classus(sp?) (Julis Caesar buddy) and fire brigade. Half of Caesar's fortune. This contract specifies help and money. Perceived as being very friendly to contractor.
    • Business views this as an IT problem, which it isn't. (See Jens' chart.)
    • Example of a contract someone's done (in U.S.): Service contract, it's not T&M per se. We define the number of patches and the number of hours we'll work. Customer can add a patch if they'd like (which will need more hours).
    • Example: Master contract that defines process, payment terms, warranty and such.
    • Fixed price contracting goes to the best liar.
    • Litigation is big in America. Contrast with Poland, where people just don't sue each other. There's not as much risk of litigation.
    • Approach: Discovery phase. Refuse to fixed bid a project. Difficulty here is that you've got to be willing to walk away from the business.
    • Two participants work for a state government. They do a lot of T&M. But are under tremedous pressure to do fixed scope, fixed price.
    • It's often not about the value delivered, it's about the game. "I win, you lose, I get the promotion."
    • Cites Poppendieck study of percentage of functionality that's often used.
    • Caps.
    • Mary Poppendieck's chapter in the book on contracting. All of the examples come from auto manufacturing.
    • Vendor relationship management systems. Doesn't work: Price and willingness to go down on price. Works: Value, efficiency, flexibility.
    • Some discussion of shared responsibility approaches.
    • The last word: Use a master services agreement at the high level and keep the specificity in short-term agreements.