SCRUM doesn't keep a history, so you have no way of checking to see if your estimates are historically too high, too low, or all of the above, and so there's no way to see if you're going to hit things on time.
WTF? Just because Scrum doesn't keep a history doesn't mean you shouldn't.
The best indicator that the project will fail is how dogmatically a methodology is being adhered to, irrespective of what the actual methodology is.
Methodologies are recipes. If one of your guests come into your kitchen clutching their throat saying: "You knew about my nut allergies!" are you going to say: "Yes, but that's what the book told me to do"?
C'mon! There's common sense and experience that prevent you from applying the wrong advice or advice that is just unsuitable.
I've always found Agile Methodologies great but like any tool in your technical arsenal, you use the right one for the right job and modify it a little to suit your needs.
But the sad truth is that authorities often allow disasters to happen. A couple of examples in American history alone that I can think of off the top of my head:
There is evidence to suggest Roosevelt knew about the Japanese plans to attack prior to Pearl Harbour to unite the wavering American people in entering World War II. Though this is still somewhat contentious, it is undeniable that he was certainly forcing Japan to attack by refusing to sell them fuel (for example). A sharp operator like FDR would have easily forseen the outcome of that.
The incident that is generally considered the start of the Vietnam War were two alleged attacks on the US in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The first involved a single bullet hitting an American boat. The second both sides now agree never happened. At best it was over-eager sailors. At worst, an attempt by the US Military to entangle America in a "proper" war against communism. It depends on your interpretation. But what is surprising is if the banal, first explanation is true, one would have thought there would have been some due diligence before committing the lives of 58 000 Americans to a war the US ultimately lost...
I'm sure many other countries have acted in a similar manner.
"Some of the lousiest managers and executives are techies."
Some of the lousiest managers and executives are managers and executives.
Techies are no better nor worse at managing than professional managers. Off the top of my head, look at techies who have managed brilliantly: Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Google founders Brin and Page etc etc. You might not like some of their business practises but you cannot deny their success.
Look at who turned around IBM from another dinosaur to be to what it is today... Lou Gerstner came from non other than Nabisco
Well, Lou took a lot of the credit for the IBM's reversal of fortune when a lot of it was due to the dot-com boom...
I've just given up working for The Man and started my own consultancy. I'm heading to make twice as much money this year.
I saw the light when asked in front of my entire team whether we could meet some impossible deadlines, I replied: "I think the estimates are somewhat bullish". Despite continued management cajoling, I refused to agree with their rose-tinted views. The next thing I know, I'm pulled into an office to talk about my "communication issues". This was despite the finger-in-the-air-and-feel-good deadlines that management estimated at being only a few weeks eventually turned out to be the four months the development team had estimated. And, yes, we were working flat-out already.
No more of that for me. Want to believe those deadlines are going to be met in a few weeks? Go ahead. I know it's going to be a few months and that you have no choice but to pay me for those months.
The really bizarre thing is that now I am charging far more money, I'm getting far more respect.
I guess people are not paid well because they are well respected - but that they are well respected because they are paid well.
Do you really think they should just hire any random joe of the street? Or should they do a bit if discrimination and determine who is best for the job.
Sure you need to discriminate. But if you're a manage whose only important metric is dress-sense, then you're probably in the wrong job.
There's no guarantee that listening to these advisors would have stopped 9/11. But if 'Mr Bush was on a month-long "working holiday" at his Texas ranch' at the time, it's not unfair to say that perhaps he wasn't taking the threats seriously.
Stealing source code is irrelevent for all but the most complex algorithms.
Generally, production code is not of excellent quality since there is no time in the real World of business to make it super-duper. What is really important is something you can't steal: the knowledge and experience in your employees head.
Anybody who has had to maintain other people's code knows that often it is easier just to re-write it (or large chunks of it) anyway.
As for getting somebody reputable like Ernst and Young: be careful. If they have a division that can pitch for the work, they will.
Beware of conflicting interests. The IT business is generally run by cowboys and cut-throats and few business people understand the conflicting interests in technology.
The one thing I've never heard an argument against is this line of thought (stick with it - there are a few steps but it's worth it):
If engineers are responsible for the success or failure of projects then clearly there should be a greater spread in their wages. The best should earn big bucks and sit on the project board, the worst get paid jack and are threatened with offshoring. However, the reality is that engineers are all roughly paid the same and when management offshore they tend to unthinkingly offshore the whole team.
If engineers are not responsible for the success or failure of the projects, then why aren't we hiring global management talent? 80% of all IT projects are late or canned. Clearly, we need better managers.
Incidentally, has anybody else noticed fewer stories about offshoring these days? I think it's biting the market less than it used to - and I speak as a member of management as well as an engineer. The reasons my company doesn't offshore include:
The increased management costs more than absorb any savings due to offshoring.
Communicating with the tech dude sitting next to me can be hard (engineering is difficult, ya know). Communicating difficult concepts with a dude half way around the World is next to impossible.
We don't have time and time is money.
I want to be able to say: "Dan! Can you run those stress tests again please?" to the guy next to me. Despite the fact it's not really his job, he is a friend who will do that for me. I really can't afford to explain why we need them to some guy half way around the World who says it's not his job and that I must talk to his manager.
If corporations really wanted to save money, they'd have offshored middle management years ago.
Having said that, I think R&D will be offshored, I think large projects will be offshored and I think major mutlinationals will offshore by default. However, most IT projects are not R&D, are done by 10 developers or less and done at companies that are not major multinationals.
Toxoplasma, will respond to drugs like haloperidol; the growth of the parasite stops. Haloperidol is an antipsychotic, used to treat schizophrenia.
I'm no doctor, but haloperidol is used not just for schizophrenia but a number of conditions, including Tourette's (see Oliver Sack's excellent An Anthropologist on Mars where he uses it with a patient only for the patient to say he prefers his Tourette's as it often gives the patient excellent reflexes).
To draw a conclusions from nothing more than the same drug being used to treat two different conditions seems like bad science to me...
Re:No credibility
on
The New Boom
·
· Score: 2, Informative
they're actually stating that this bubble/boom/bulge/b... is on steadier footing but is being fueled by Googles ascent? My, what short memories we have... [it] appears to be more of an aftershock, related to it's predecessor, just to a lessor degree, but the same root causes and issues.
No, people are not saying there is a tech boom because of Google but because technology and engineers are now becoming important. Note:
There was NO tech boom in the late nineties and early 2000s
There was, however, a marketing boom.
Apart from a handful of innovations, there wasn't much that was technically new in the late 90s. There was just a lot of men in suits selling stuff like dog food online and a bunch of credulous investors willing to risk their life savings.
"A good thing about maths is that the knowledge does not inflate. Bad is that it is typically a powerless carreer. Very bad is that anyone in the world, with the only tool required the free brain, can compete."
A brain is the only tool required to compete globally for management positions but that doesn't stop it being the World's most lucrative career.
The older I become, the more I believe that financial success depends not on hardcore brain power but on one's ability to work the system. Mathematic PhDs generally don't, MBAs generally do. That's the only explanation for the difference in wages.
Good luck on your project but, with the greatest of respect, a 10K LoC project is not huge.
I'm currently working on a 500 000 LoC project and the thought of writing it without data hiding and instead having ten people adhere strictly to naming conventions sends a shudder down my spine...
Re:The real 90s versus outdated 00s software
on
Java Is So 90s
·
· Score: 1
"I do think that Java is an outdated language"
Jeez, how many times does this have to be said: there is no shortage of good programming languages, just a Worldwide shortage of good programmers.
Although a Java fan myself, I totally respect excellent Perl programmers, excellent C++ programmers - hell - even excellent Cobol programmers.
It's a sweeping generalisation, but the people who say: "dude, this language is so, you know, totally outdated" are from the same crowd who work on a failed project, reflect for a second then say: "Man! Why do I keep finding languages that soooo blow?".
No, you're getting confused. It was John Scully and Jean Louis Gassée who presided over the disastrous Apple pricing debacle - both of whom are business people not techies.
I heard a similar sentiment from a German friend when he told me that in some parts of Germany they celebrate Kristallnacht.
"Isn't that awful?" I asked.
"Ja! It's terrible vat vee did to der Jews in der Second World War, but Kristallnacht brings der whole family together."
When I pushed him on the matter he became defensive.
"It's not my fault!" he protested. "I didn't invent der holiday! My parents are from Croatia so it's nothing to do with me! I'm only twenty seven, for f*cks sake!"
I told him I was Jewish and found the celebrating Kristallnacht - even though it was now just a reason for families to be together - somewhat insensitive.
"Der family is very important to we Germans," he said. "Don't be upset! It's not anti-Semitic. You're my friend. I don't mean to be offensive. And besides, it was such a long time ago!".
I turned down his invitation to join his family for his Kristallnacht celebrations. He didn't really understand why. I guess some people just aren't terribly culturally sensitive.
So get a consultant for 6 to 12 months that has done this, listen and learn and you will be off to a fast start.
Expecting honesty and commitment from a consultant is like expecting love from a prostitute - I'm sure it happens but generally they're only in it for the money.
Talking to people in the developer community is a far better way of getting good advice and it's free.
I do not want to pay more for my stuff because you can't compete with foreigners.
Then don't pay for your stuff at all. I'm serious. All the software I use is free.
Software is moving away from the manufacturing model. It's becoming a service industry. So, analogies with the Japanese dominance of the automobile industry have only so much mileage (if you'll pardon the pun).
Everything that can be outsourced has been outsourced. In fact, a lot of stuff that can't be has been too! That's why a lot of work is coming back to the West (if the number of agents 'phoning me is a valid metric).
I don't think we should be complaining about offshoring. It has not proved to be the pernicous force in IT people thought it would be three years or so ago.
However, H1B is totally different. I cannot believe, that with all it's multibillion dollar IT companies, India does not have cheap executives that the West cannot poach. The savings would be huge but it's only the lowly coder who is offered H1Bs.
"The Sunk Cost Fallacy" is like a lot of popular economic theory - it ignores the most important issue: that fallible and often weak human beings are behind these decisions.
A business person might be fully aware that throwing good money after bad may not be the best policy for the business but he will lose face if he does not do so when it is his pet project. He has his career to think about.
It's a little like the psychology test that goes like this:
I give $50 to person A
I tell him to share it as he wishes with person B
I tell both that person B can veto the distribution if he is not happy with it. However, if person B does so, neither person gets a penny
Popular economic theory would say that person B will be happy with a share that was 1 cent or more. Yet this experiment has been conducted many times and across cultures, the figure at which 50 per cent will veto the distribution is about $12.50 - considerably higher than $0.01!
Management make lots of bad decisions but it's not always (often?) due to ignorance as much it's due to pride or selfish motives. I think this is one reason IT outsourcing is popular. In my experience, it is more expensive to outsource (due to hidden costs etc) but execs like it because they can absolve themselves of responsibility in the event of failure.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder how long it is before the Bush administration adopts the same tactics...?
Seriously, it's nice to see a company that values its engineers doing so well.
Engineers build products, not businesses.
That will come as a surprise to Bill Gates, Larry Elison, Google's Brin and Page, HP's Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard etc etc etc...WTF? Just because Scrum doesn't keep a history doesn't mean you shouldn't.
The best indicator that the project will fail is how dogmatically a methodology is being adhered to, irrespective of what the actual methodology is.
Methodologies are recipes. If one of your guests come into your kitchen clutching their throat saying: "You knew about my nut allergies!" are you going to say: "Yes, but that's what the book told me to do"?
C'mon! There's common sense and experience that prevent you from applying the wrong advice or advice that is just unsuitable.
I've always found Agile Methodologies great but like any tool in your technical arsenal, you use the right one for the right job and modify it a little to suit your needs.
- There is evidence to suggest Roosevelt knew about the Japanese plans to attack prior to Pearl Harbour to unite the wavering American people in entering World War II. Though this is still somewhat contentious, it is undeniable that he was certainly forcing Japan to attack by refusing to sell them fuel (for example). A sharp operator like FDR would have easily forseen the outcome of that.
- The incident that is generally considered the start of the Vietnam War were two alleged attacks on the US in the Gulf of Tonkin.
I'm sure many other countries have acted in a similar manner.The first involved a single bullet hitting an American boat. The second both sides now agree never happened. At best it was over-eager sailors. At worst, an attempt by the US Military to entangle America in a "proper" war against communism. It depends on your interpretation. But what is surprising is if the banal, first explanation is true, one would have thought there would have been some due diligence before committing the lives of 58 000 Americans to a war the US ultimately lost...
Some of the lousiest managers and executives are managers and executives.
Techies are no better nor worse at managing than professional managers. Off the top of my head, look at techies who have managed brilliantly: Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Google founders Brin and Page etc etc. You might not like some of their business practises but you cannot deny their success.
Look at who turned around IBM from another dinosaur to be to what it is today ... Lou Gerstner came from non other than Nabisco
Well, Lou took a lot of the credit for the IBM's reversal of fortune when a lot of it was due to the dot-com boom...
That's like saying lawyers have to write their own contracts... D'uh, yes of course they do.
The code is the document, the design *as well as* the product.
I've just given up working for The Man and started my own consultancy. I'm heading to make twice as much money this year.
I saw the light when asked in front of my entire team whether we could meet some impossible deadlines, I replied: "I think the estimates are somewhat bullish". Despite continued management cajoling, I refused to agree with their rose-tinted views. The next thing I know, I'm pulled into an office to talk about my "communication issues". This was despite the finger-in-the-air-and-feel-good deadlines that management estimated at being only a few weeks eventually turned out to be the four months the development team had estimated. And, yes, we were working flat-out already.
No more of that for me. Want to believe those deadlines are going to be met in a few weeks? Go ahead. I know it's going to be a few months and that you have no choice but to pay me for those months.
The really bizarre thing is that now I am charging far more money, I'm getting far more respect.
I guess people are not paid well because they are well respected - but that they are well respected because they are paid well.
Sure you need to discriminate. But if you're a manage whose only important metric is dress-sense, then you're probably in the wrong job.
Magically detected the 9/11 plot? MAGICALLY?
What was so magical about the 6 August 2001 President Daily Brief entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States"?
There's no guarantee that listening to these advisors would have stopped 9/11. But if 'Mr Bush was on a month-long "working holiday" at his Texas ranch' at the time, it's not unfair to say that perhaps he wasn't taking the threats seriously.
This problem is endemic in the IT industry. Everybody focuses on cutting costs. Nobody cares about increasing productivity.
Generally, production code is not of excellent quality since there is no time in the real World of business to make it super-duper. What is really important is something you can't steal: the knowledge and experience in your employees head.
Anybody who has had to maintain other people's code knows that often it is easier just to re-write it (or large chunks of it) anyway.
As for getting somebody reputable like Ernst and Young: be careful. If they have a division that can pitch for the work, they will.
Beware of conflicting interests. The IT business is generally run by cowboys and cut-throats and few business people understand the conflicting interests in technology.
The one thing I've never heard an argument against is this line of thought (stick with it - there are a few steps but it's worth it):
Incidentally, has anybody else noticed fewer stories about offshoring these days? I think it's biting the market less than it used to - and I speak as a member of management as well as an engineer. The reasons my company doesn't offshore include:
I want to be able to say: "Dan! Can you run those stress tests again please?" to the guy next to me. Despite the fact it's not really his job, he is a friend who will do that for me. I really can't afford to explain why we need them to some guy half way around the World who says it's not his job and that I must talk to his manager.
If corporations really wanted to save money, they'd have offshored middle management years ago.
Having said that, I think R&D will be offshored, I think large projects will be offshored and I think major mutlinationals will offshore by default. However, most IT projects are not R&D, are done by 10 developers or less and done at companies that are not major multinationals.
Toxoplasma, will respond to drugs like haloperidol; the growth of the parasite stops. Haloperidol is an antipsychotic, used to treat schizophrenia.
I'm no doctor, but haloperidol is used not just for schizophrenia but a number of conditions, including Tourette's (see Oliver Sack's excellent An Anthropologist on Mars where he uses it with a patient only for the patient to say he prefers his Tourette's as it often gives the patient excellent reflexes).
To draw a conclusions from nothing more than the same drug being used to treat two different conditions seems like bad science to me...No, people are not saying there is a tech boom because of Google but because technology and engineers are now becoming important. Note:
There was NO tech boom in the late nineties and early 2000s
There was, however, a marketing boom.
Apart from a handful of innovations, there wasn't much that was technically new in the late 90s. There was just a lot of men in suits selling stuff like dog food online and a bunch of credulous investors willing to risk their life savings.
A brain is the only tool required to compete globally for management positions but that doesn't stop it being the World's most lucrative career.
The older I become, the more I believe that financial success depends not on hardcore brain power but on one's ability to work the system. Mathematic PhDs generally don't, MBAs generally do. That's the only explanation for the difference in wages.
Fixed-functionality contracts mean consultancies inflate their hours worked (therefore, increase their revenue).
Fixed-price contracts mean consultancies cut corners (therefore, reduce their costs).
What you have described is a system where the IT worker is incentivized to hack (the latter of these two eventualities).
What you have described is a system that is good for the body-shop owner, even good for the IT worker but totally sucks for the client.
I'm currently working on a 500 000 LoC project and the thought of writing it without data hiding and instead having ten people adhere strictly to naming conventions sends a shudder down my spine...
Jeez, how many times does this have to be said: there is no shortage of good programming languages, just a Worldwide shortage of good programmers.
Although a Java fan myself, I totally respect excellent Perl programmers, excellent C++ programmers - hell - even excellent Cobol programmers.
It's a sweeping generalisation, but the people who say: "dude, this language is so, you know, totally outdated" are from the same crowd who work on a failed project, reflect for a second then say: "Man! Why do I keep finding languages that soooo blow?".
No, you're getting confused. It was John Scully and Jean Louis Gassée who presided over the disastrous Apple pricing debacle - both of whom are business people not techies.
"Isn't that awful?" I asked.
"Ja! It's terrible vat vee did to der Jews in der Second World War, but Kristallnacht brings der whole family together."
When I pushed him on the matter he became defensive.
"It's not my fault!" he protested. "I didn't invent der holiday! My parents are from Croatia so it's nothing to do with me! I'm only twenty seven, for f*cks sake!"
I told him I was Jewish and found the celebrating Kristallnacht - even though it was now just a reason for families to be together - somewhat insensitive.
"Der family is very important to we Germans," he said. "Don't be upset! It's not anti-Semitic. You're my friend. I don't mean to be offensive. And besides, it was such a long time ago!".
I turned down his invitation to join his family for his Kristallnacht celebrations. He didn't really understand why. I guess some people just aren't terribly culturally sensitive.
Expecting honesty and commitment from a consultant is like expecting love from a prostitute - I'm sure it happens but generally they're only in it for the money.
Talking to people in the developer community is a far better way of getting good advice and it's free.
Then don't pay for your stuff at all. I'm serious. All the software I use is free.
Software is moving away from the manufacturing model. It's becoming a service industry. So, analogies with the Japanese dominance of the automobile industry have only so much mileage (if you'll pardon the pun).
Everything that can be outsourced has been outsourced. In fact, a lot of stuff that can't be has been too! That's why a lot of work is coming back to the West (if the number of agents 'phoning me is a valid metric).
I don't think we should be complaining about offshoring. It has not proved to be the pernicous force in IT people thought it would be three years or so ago.
However, H1B is totally different. I cannot believe, that with all it's multibillion dollar IT companies, India does not have cheap executives that the West cannot poach. The savings would be huge but it's only the lowly coder who is offered H1Bs.
You have to ask yourself "why is that?".
A business person might be fully aware that throwing good money after bad may not be the best policy for the business but he will lose face if he does not do so when it is his pet project. He has his career to think about.
It's a little like the psychology test that goes like this:
Popular economic theory would say that person B will be happy with a share that was 1 cent or more. Yet this experiment has been conducted many times and across cultures, the figure at which 50 per cent will veto the distribution is about $12.50 - considerably higher than $0.01!
Management make lots of bad decisions but it's not always (often?) due to ignorance as much it's due to pride or selfish motives. I think this is one reason IT outsourcing is popular. In my experience, it is more expensive to outsource (due to hidden costs etc) but execs like it because they can absolve themselves of responsibility in the event of failure.