Clarke Ching's Rocks and Snowballs

Hey! I'm famous!!!

Hey. 

This blog is mentioned in Seth Godin's new free ebook Bull Market, along with 50-odd blogs that Seth chose "unscientifically".  I reconginise a few others - such as Doc Searls, Johanna Rothman and Hal Macomber, but the others are all new.  I wonder if bloglines will cope with the new entrants ...

I've only been doing this for a few months so I feel quite special.  Thanks Seth!

See page 47 for my entry.

Cognitive dissonance theory

Cognitive Dissonance:

"According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, it is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior." [ref]

Last week I discussed my dissertation with my project sponsor. 

There's a bit in the report that describes how, despite the project's management team assertion that we're on target, the feeling "at the coal face" is that we're very unlikely to meet our schedule.  But, we all continue on as if everything is fine because, where I work, it is safer to deliver a project late than to admit it might deliver late.  I figured this bit might be a suprise and that we'd spend quite a bit of time talking about these few paragraphs.  At least I hoped so: admiting we might fail was the first step needed to consider my recommendation (aka rescue plan).  Put another way: If we are certain to succeed, why change?

As it turned out she had read that bit and we did spend most of our hour talking about it.  Although initially defensive - after all, I was saying that not only did she - the programme manager - not know what was going on in her project but that it was doomed to failure - but, she was also open minded and listened and discussed my analysis and recommendation for a good hour.

We agreed that bring her this news was a big risk for me to take - especially considering the downsizing list is currently being drawn up.  At the end though, instead of thanking me for my honesty and loyalty to the project, she told me that she wouldn't hold it against me in.  Huh? I should have realised then that it wasn't a good sign.

The next day, though, I was truely suprised.  A senior colleague and friend came up to me with a big smile on her face.  "Guess What", she said.  "[The programme manager] popped by my desk this afternoon and asked me how things are going". 

Excellent news, I thought, she took me seriously!  And my colleague was a good person to ask because she had big concerns.

"I told her everything was fine".  Huh?  Fine?  Why would she say a thing like that.

"I had to say that since [our project manger] was sitting right next to me and could hear our entire conversation.  He's helping write up the downsizing list so what else could I say?"

To clarify, the programme manager had acknowledged that there might be a problem, had investigated the problem, but - fortunately - had proved that the problem didn't exist.  The only person she fooled was herself.  I believe this is called "Cognitive dissonance".

p.s. Fortunately she won't hold this whole thing "against me".  My job is safe.  Phewww!

This isn't a trick question.

This isn't a trick question.

How long should it take - assuming you start with failry stable requirements and an existing infrastructure - a Java based Wizard with approximately 20, fairily simple, pages in it?  Staff will use the Wizard to key in customer instructions from a form that is then sent to a mainframe and saved in the database.

Does a year and a half, with 15 staff, sound a tad on the high side?

Mail me - using the spam protected link on the left - or leave a comment. 

Steve the fish

True story:

My local chinese restaurant has an big aquarium full of fish. One of them - let's call him "Steve the fish" - spends his whole life doing "laps" of the aquarium.  But poor Steve the Fish is a bit thick and forgets acquarium is rectangular because each time he finishes a lap he WHACKS his head into the glass. WHACK! This must hurt since he's swimming at full speed. But, each time, undetered, he turns around and races to the other end until WHACK! He's hits his head again. Then he turns around and races to the other end until WHACK! ... And so on, and so on.

Poor "Steve the fish" never seems to learn. It's cruel to laugh but it's hard not to after half a bottle of the cheap house wine.

I can't help of poor Steve the Fish when I think about the downsizing. 

The managers that got us into this mess are the ones who are going to get us out of it.  If they didn't learn earlier, why should they start learning now? 

WHACK!

They "traded autonomy and craftsmanship for high pay and stability"

Clever chap Seth Godin has written a new book called Free Prize Inside.  Hal Macomber has a nice introduction here and here .

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early copy.   It's very good.  It's a short book but in parts it is eye openingly good.  I'll get to those parts over the next week or so - in particular, the middle part of the book "selling the idea" ties in perfectly with what I am planning to write for my "selling agile" theme (except Seth's stuff is way, way, better written).

But in the mean time, page 43, sent a wee shiver up and down my spine. 

Seth talks about how Henry Ford decided to pay his workers way above the market rates because it made them more productive.  "It meant that nearly every factory worker at Ford was dramatically overpaid!  When there's a line of people outside the door waiting to take your job, weird thing happen to your head.  The combination of repetitive factory work plus high pay for standardized performance lead to a very obedient factory floor.  People were conditioned to do as they were told, and traded autonomy and craftsmanship for high pay and stability".

But, hang on.  That's happening to me right now.

Four years ago, when I first joined my current employer - the one that is probably about to downsize me, that is - a new colleague, Douglas, told me that "we get paid above market rates and the pension plan is fantastic.  In fact, it's considered a very prestigous company to work for in Scotland.  We are very very strong company and staff turnover is very low".  ... sounds good so far ...  "But", he continued, "the downside is that, since no one ever leaves, it's a difficult place to be ambitious because promotion is usually into dead mans shoes.  They don't ask much of you so don't offer too much".  "Basically", he said, "its a great job to retire from, but don't expect too much in between".

I figured he was just a bit bitter. 

But over the next 4 years I noticed that everything he said was true.  People did join the company with the intention of retiring.  I work with people who've been in the company for going on 30 years.  Since I joined, I know no one personally - apart from mothers-to-be and contractors - that has left the comapny.  No one.  This is weird - in IT you're supposed to change jobs and/or companies every 2,3,4 years - or you go stale.  And go stale many have.  I should be clear here - I work with some lovely, talented, bright and even brilliant people, but the company wastes these talents by dumbing down their jobs and beating them up when they think for themselves.  I'm lucky that 7 years ago I had a fantastic job and I haven't forgotten it, but many of my colleagues have never seen the sunny side of the street, and don't even realise it's happening.

But - here's the said bit - many of my colleagues joined the company with the expectation of retiring here.  But, 1 in 4 will be downsized.

In Seths words they "traded autonomy and craftsmanship for high pay and stability".  Bad swap.

Broken windows

I first read about the broken windows theory in Malcolm Gladwell's extraordinary "Tipping point" book.  Then today it popped up in Pragmatic Programmer Dave's blog- but this time in a software context.  "Hmmmmmmm", I thought. By the end of the day I'd used the "theory", as it relates to software development, twice in conversation.

Here's Gladwell's original article - which you just MUST read - and here's Google's top "Broken Window" blog entry for the curious.

Frank's going full time

Frank Partick, my friend, part-time mentor and author of my favourite blog, has hung up his gun-belt and is going full time.

Good luck Frank. Just don't stop blogging ... please.

Jakob Nielsen's Website

Yuck!

Take a look at website usability guru Jakob Nielsen's Website at www.useit.com.

Many years ago - back in the 2002s - this site used to be very good. I visited every few weeks and subscribed to his emails. It had just enough useful content - i.e. free education - that I figured the man was a guru. I bought his book.

But now look at it. It's far too busy and I can't find the stuff I was looking for.

Yuck.

Blogline + Typepad = Very Good

A few months ago I switched over to web-based bloglines RSS reader.  So far it's fantastic.  I recommend it.

I've been using typepad to host and manage this blog for about 3 months now. It too is fantastic and well worth the monthly fee for the stress it saves me.

My MBA dissertation in PDF

Late last month I completed my MBA dissertation. Here it is in pdf form, with all references to my employer removed.

I'm thrilled with it but:

• It's written to PASS an MBA course so it's written in an academic style.
• I've simplified things a lot so that it's easier to mark by people who may not be IT literate. So, it's not a complete and utter analysis because that would have been too hard to mark (or do justice within 10,000 words).
• It's primarily written to be useful. The recommendations are genuine and I've started discussing them with our senior management BUT the downsizing was announced days after I handed it over, so they have temporarily lost interest.
• This might sound strange given my obvious (I hope) passion for AGILE, but I tried very very very hard to not present AGILE as the solution. Where I work if people hear AGILE they think XP and they think cowboys. Instead I recommended incremental delivery (using Scrum) - when you read the anlaysis it's obvious that the waterfall approach is what's killing our projects and incremental delivery is the obvious solution. 
• Since I've paid for my MBA out of my own pocket and I'm likely to be downsized I'm starting to look for a new job.

Please don't tell me about any spelling mistakes.  I'm too fragile :)