Clarke Ching's Rocks and Snowballs

Toogle

Introducing Toogle.  It's easier to do it than it is to explain it. 

Here are some I prepared earlier:

• http://c6.org/toogle/index.php?phrase=cow
• http://c6.org/toogle/index.php?phrase=tulip
• http://c6.org/toogle/index.php?phrase=theory+of+constraints

The last one, btw, is based on my own change cloud.

Never, ever, think outside the box ...

From the New Yorker Cartoon Bank.

Introducing the "Mouse" - 1968 Video footage

Take a look at this video footage.  It's extraordinary.

On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart ... presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. ... This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration  involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface. 

There's more here.

(via Robert Cringely's latest article).

From Fayol to Flores

I recieved a note in the mail today telling me that I can "use the designatory letters MBA(TechMgmt)(Open) after my name". 

It's more likely that I'll use EJIT(Gobshite)(Burp) ...

... but, hey, I'm officially finished.  And I get a certificate too!  Yipee!

[Now all I'd like to know is why it took 5 months for them to mark my report ... and why our library has a book titled "KISS - Getting pregnant"]

Cheers,

Clarke
MAYBE(Getting)(Old)

New webcasts from Tony Rizzo.

You may remember a few months ago I was going on a bit about how clever my virtual friend Tony Rizzo is.

Well, just so you know, over the next few days he's offering a few more 3 hour webcasts discussing his (TOC based) approach to project management of single and multiple projects.

For the record: I have no commercial relationship with Tony. In fact, we've never even met.  But  his last webcast was absolutely fantastic and I can't recommend these highly enough.

New group: Theory of Constraints analysis of a large Waterfall project

If you are interested in:

• Software development methodologies (especially Agile/lean) and / or
• Learning about Goldratt's Theory of Constraint's (TOC) thinking process

then I invite you to join the new TOCSoftware Yahoo group where we will soon be starting a fresh TOC analysis of a large Waterfall style software development project.

The analysis will be based on the work I started for my MBA dissertation which was an amateur TOC analysis of a real-life Waterfall style project, but this time it will be guided by TOC expert Jim Bowles and have a much broader level of input.

Jim will guide us through the TOC side of the process and I'll provide the initial input and I'll created and publish any documents/diagrams to the (newly created) TOCSoftware weblog.  

This would obviously be easier if we were all in the same room working with yellow stickys and whiteboards, but we'll have to see how we go.  So I ask that we keep to the TOC process (as advised by Jim) and try to keep the email volume lowish and on topic. 

This is an experiment.

Clarke Ching

An IT conversation with Alistair Cockburn

Here's a brand spanking new 40 minute conversation with Alistair Cockburn.

I haven't listened to it yet, but I imagine it will be good.

Jim Highsmith talks about projects and promises

Jim Highsmith talks about projects and promises:

 These executives have a fiduciary responsibility to manage the investments of their companies, they have to
make product release and product line marketing decisions (often months ahead of completion), and they have to balance resources across multiple products and projects. Telling them we can't give them dates and cost
figures is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. The executives I talk to aren't looking to pound their development teams; they want early information to help make the right decisions for the organizations and the teams.

 

Ken Schwaber talks about conflict

Ken Schwaber talks about conflict within agile teams:

In retrospect, I'm surprised that I didn't foresee this cost to team work.The team members had previously been kept in relatively conflict-free situations, with management responsible for resolving anything that came up. Now it was up to the teams.

This sounds oh so like my current, soon to be old, employer.  Conflict was a no-no and was handled by the hierarchy.  I recommend looking at the crucial conversations book.

Options and old people

The old people in question are my parents.  My Mum's always been a "house mum" (don't know the currently politically correct way of saying this) and Dad's been self employed as a Truck Driver for the last 20 years, but in the evenings and weekends he's a farmer.  At heart though, he's a farmer that drives a truck because the farm is too small to pay the bills.

Recently, my Dad had slowed down a lot and was tired all the time. Mum blamed the long hours he worked with the truck and the farm and she was worried, I think, that in the end it would kill him.  So, since they were close to retiring, about a year ago they decided to sell the farm - something I thought would never happen - which would give them a respectable pension fund.  All way going fine with the sale until last week, when the survey was done.  It turns out the farm was one 25% smaller than they always thought it was (and had been paying council taxes on).

Yikes: no sale!

So, they told the buyers immediately and they came back with a new, slightly-reduced price - not surprising since, I think, its priced way too low.  But now my parents are deciding whether or no they should sell the farm at the lower price.

So, my Mum was telling all this today and over a 3 hour conversation we came up with at least 4 options, which I got her to write down, each on a separate piece of paper, along with pro's and con's.  For some reason having them on paper really helped the conversation.

The options were:

1. Sell the farm to the current buyers at the reduced price.  This gives them their cash & spare time.  But, odds are that Mum will murder my dad because, farm-less, he'll become incredibly annoying.
2. Sell the farm to myself and my brother and we lease it back to Dad.  This gives him the cash and gives us a fantastic deal, in the long term.  But, neither of us have the cash to fund such a large mortgage, nor the inclination or entrepreneurial instincts to develop the land later on.
3. Mum calls in three new estate agents and gets the farm revalued and kicks of the sale process again.  Downside is that the cash is delayed, but eventually they sell the farm, even though my Mum ends up murdering my Dad.
4. Mum visits the bank - and eventually several banks - and enquires about a small mortgage on the farm, worth about 10% of the farms value at today's prices.  This way they get to keep the farm, my Dad doesn't get murdered, my Mum doesn't end up in jail, they get plenty of cash to live on.  Oh, and realistically, one day my brother and I will inherit a farm that is, almost certainly, worth much more than the the interest paid on a relatively small mortgage.

Obviously option 4 is the best option, assuming it's possible, and I think it is.  But the point is: these are options - and they now have plenty of time to think them over.  In fact, my Mum has promised to look at options 3 and 4 on Monday by ringing real estate agents and banks respectively.  And, she can hold off on 1 for a couple of months.  Worse case scenario is that they lose their current buyer and have to start again.  Big deal, because of zoning complications the current deal has taken over a year to complete, and the property is probably worth more now than it was when they sold.

This is a long blog entry and a selfish one because I've used it to help think the situation through and make sure my advice was sensible.  Was it?  My parents originally dived into a single solution which maybe seemed best at the time.  As it happened, zoning complications kept their options open and the survey problem allowed them to re-evaluate their position; by writing the options down and keeping them all open until a clear winner emerges, or they have to make a choice, they're in a much better position.  Pheww!