Clarke Ching's Rocks and Snowballs

Agile and Critical Chain

Rob Newbold has written a useful article comparing and contrasting Agile with Critical Chain.

Wine ratings: entirely random?

From the La Times:

In a study published Wednesday by the Journal of Wine Economics, [retired Humboldt State professor Robert Hodgson] wrote that only 10% of the judges were able to consistently give the same rating, or something very close, to the identical wine sampled multiple times in a large blind tasting.

At the opposite end, another 10% of the judges gave the same wine far different ratings, ranging from worthy of a gold medal to deserving of no medal at all on successive tastings. The remaining 80% of the judges also varied in their ratings, but by a narrower range.

Gosh.  That sounds like the results are ... quite random.

And:

He also discovered that a "super judge" who is consistent in his or her ratings one year does not maintain that superiority the next year.

Make that very random.

Quiz ...

Agile Quiz!

My friend Graeme and I have agreed* to cowrite the sequel to Rocks Into Gold.  It may be called More Rocks Into Gold or Gold into Platinum or ... who knows? 

Here's a little quiz to give you a little taster of the next "lesson" (and it's even more important than I realised):

A reminder: In Rocks Into Gold Bob discovered that he could save his job by delivering a big project as a series of smaller projects.  In all the excitement he sorta forgot to point out to his bossed that his little discover allowed his customer to deliver an 18 month long project in 12 months - more or less.

Now let's imagine that Eugene "Mega" Watt, Bob's ultimate boss, has just realised that Bob's approach allowed their customer to deliver the project in 2/3rds of the time.  He asks Bob if there's any reason why his idea wouldn't work in an organisation like, say, a bank.  Bob says that he can't think of a reason and the next thing he knows, he and Sam (she's Bob's PM) are whisked away to work in MegaBank and Bob discovers - much to his surprise and horror - that he is now a "consultant". 

Bob and Sam soon discover that MegaBank have a huge backlog of projects just waiting to be started.  And, by some miracle, all of the projects are expected to last precisely 4 months.  Sam and Bob look at the projects and reckon that they could very safely use their method to deliver those projects in precisley 3 months.   By another miracle, MegaBank always executes these projects one after the other, never in parallel.

Q1.  Assuming Bob convinces MegaBank to do this magic, how long does it take until a project finishes before it would otherwise have started.
Q2.  Assuming each project costs $100,000 per month to build (and this is red herring, so ignore it, but they're all staffed by contractors) and when they go live they return $100,000 in either new revenue or reduced costs  then how much better off are MegaBank on the day that the project from Q1 would have originally finished?

I'll post out a copy of the Rocks Into Gold paper back to whoever I decide wins the quiz.  Email the answer and your working to clarke.ching@gmail.com.  (I've closed the comments).

* [Agreed* Or rather, I don't have the time to write the sequel to Rocks Into Gold by myself, even though there are at least 2 sequels lined up in my head ... and they're at least as important as the original book ... so I've talked Graeme into co-authoring with me.  It'll be good for him, I promise, and it means I can share the next "lesson" with a whole lot less effort.]

My friend Graeme and I have agreed* to cowrite the sequel to Rocks Into Gold.  It may be called More Rocks Into Gold or Gold into Platinum or ... who knows? 

Here's a little quiz to give you a little taster of the next "lesson" (and it's even more important than I realised):

A reminder: In Rocks Into Gold Bob discovered that he could save his job by delivering a big project as a series of smaller projects.  In all the excitement he sorta forgot to point out to his bossed that his little discover allowed his customer to deliver an 18 month long project in 12 months - more or less.

Now let's imagine that Eugene "Mega" Watt, Bob's ultimate boss, has just realised that Bob's approach allowed their customer to deliver the project in 2/3rds of the time.  He asks Bob if there's any reason why his idea wouldn't work in an organisation like, say, a bank.  Bob says that he can't think of a reason and the next thing he knows, he and Sam (she's Bob's PM) are whisked away to work in MegaBank and Bob discovers - much to his surprise and horror - that he is now a "consultant". 

Bob and Sam soon discover that MegaBank have a huge backlog of projects just waiting to be started.  And, by some miracle, all of the projects are expected to last precisely 4 months.  Sam and Bob look at the projects and reckon that they could very safely use their method to deliver those projects in precisley 3 months.   By another miracle, MegaBank always executes these projects one after the other, never in parallel.

Q1.  Assuming Bob convinces MegaBank to do this magic, how long does it take until a project finishes before it would otherwise have started.
Q2.  Assuming each project costs $100,000 per month to build (and this is red herring, so ignore it, but they're all staffed by contractors) and when they go live they return $100,000 in either new revenue or reduced costs  then how much better off are MegaBank on the day that the project from Q1 would have originally finished?

I'll post out a copy of the Rocks Into Gold paper back to whoever I decide wins the quiz.  Email the answer and your working to clarke.ching@gmail.com.  (I've closed the comments).

* [Agreed* Or rather, I don't have the time to write the sequel to Rocks Into Gold by myself, even though there are at least 2 sequels lined up in my head ... and they're at least as important as the original book ... so I've talked Graeme into co-authoring with me.  It'll be good for him, I promise, and it means I can share the next "lesson" with a whole lot less effort.]

Agile Quiz!

My friend Graeme and I have agreed* to cowrite the sequel to Rocks Into Gold.  It may be called More Rocks Into Gold or Gold into Platinum or ... who knows? 

Here's a little quiz to give you a little taster of the next "lesson" (and it's even more important than I realised):

A reminder: In Rocks Into Gold Bob discovered that he could save his job by delivering a big project as a series of smaller projects.  In all the excitement he sorta forgot to point out to his bossed that his little discover allowed his customer to deliver an 18 month long project in 12 months - more or less.

Now let's imagine that Eugene "Mega" Watt, Bob's ultimate boss, has just realised that Bob's approach allowed their customer to deliver the project in 2/3rds of the time.  He asks Bob if there's any reason why his idea wouldn't work in an organisation like, say, a bank.  Bob says that he can't think of a reason and the next thing he knows, he and Sam (she's Bob's PM) are whisked away to work in MegaBank and Bob discovers - much to his surprise and horror - that he is now a "consultant". 

Bob and Sam soon discover that MegaBank have a huge backlog of projects just waiting to be started.  And, by some miracle, all of the projects are expected to last precisely 4 months.  Sam and Bob look at the projects and reckon that they could very safely use their method to deliver those projects in precisley 3 months.   By another miracle, MegaBank always executes these projects one after the other, never in parallel.

Q1.  Assuming Bob convinces MegaBank to do this magic, how long does it take until a project finishes before it would otherwise have started.
Q2.  Assuming each project costs $100,000 per month to build (and this is red herring, so ignore it, but they're all staffed by contractors) and when they go live they return $100,000 in either new revenue or reduced costs  then how much better off are MegaBank on the day that the project from Q1 would have originally finished?

I'll post out a copy of the Rocks Into Gold paper back to whoever I decide wins the quiz.  Email the answer and your working to clarke.ching@gmail.com.  (I've closed the comments).

* [Agreed* Or rather, I don't have the time to write the sequel to Rocks Into Gold by myself, even though there are at least 2 sequels lined up in my head ... and they're at least as important as the original book ... so I've talked Graeme into co-authoring with me.  It'll be good for him, I promise, and it means I can share the next "lesson" with a whole lot less effort.]

A favour?

Assuming that every so often you get something out of reading my blog AND assuming that you read my wee book RocksIntoGold then ...

Would you mind popping over to the book on slideshare.net and leaving a comment? 

I've received loads of really nice comments (as well as a few surprising revelations) offline, but it would help me spread the word if I had even more "testimonials" and if they were in a public place. 

Oh, and more than that, it gives me a buzz to read them.

Thanks!

The power of Agile (or not)

If you were among the 3000 people who've viewed Rocks Into Gold during the last two weeks then I've gotta ask, did you notice that I didn't mention the word Agile in the book?  Did you notice that I didn't mention anything technical at all?  No programming languages, no databases, no methodologies, were harmed in the writing of the book. 

All that changed was that goal of Bob's project changed from on time, on budget, on scope to much better cashflow (albiet via survive).

Goldratt article

Here's Eli Goldratt's new article about the "recession": Goldratt PowerOfCauseAndEffect-1

The paper is an outgrowth of the thinking that is in this teaser video by Goldratt: http://www.toc-goldratt.com/TV/video.php?id=186&type=2 And is also the main topic at the upcoming Now and Into The Future presentations, info here:http://www.goldrattconsulting.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=31.

You can share this but "Eli asks that this article only be distributed in .pdf form."

google tom cruise

http://www.google.com/search?q=tom+cruise

only 2 suggested related searches "tom cruise height" "how tall is tom cruise"

Snake oil

Snake oil

Despite its reputation, snake oil is good for you. The oil from the fat-sacks of snakes is a rich source of heart disease- and cancer-busting Omega‑3 fatty acids. Chinese water-snake oil contains even more of these wonder substances than salmon.

[from the telegraph QI column which, btw, is back on the telegraph following a mysterious disappearance; the've got a new home page but the old archives seem to be gone for good.]

Programmer nuns

I put a question onto stackoverflow.com (which looks supurb, btw) asking if anyone had suggestions about how I could spread word about my new book.  My problem is that I don't know where (apart from my agile yahoo groups) programmers hang out these days.  Someone closed the question because they thought it was spam.   I removed the books url from the message and resubmitted it (it didn't mention the title but it did have my name - you can see this below) and it survived about 15 mintues ( and furnished  6 really useful answers) then it got closed down as "spam" again.

It bothers me.

I've got a picture of the people who closed it down in my mind: they consider themselves very pure of thought; they're probably excellent programmers; they distrust anything that might look slightly commerical (but they're happy to be paid for their work); they distrust anything or anyone that thinks about the commercial side of software development; they have a large collection of stolen music; they have small penisis (what is the plural of penis?), and they spend too much time policing community managed forums (because it's the only true power they'll ever hold).

It bothers me.  I'm a little bitter.  It reminds me of the nuns in ireland who drive at 40 miles an hour in the middle of the road, making it impossible to pass them or to drive at any speed.  I'm quite sure the nuns do it deliberately - they're saving us from ourselves. 

Anyway.

You can see the answers below, but why not take a shot yourselves?  Some people think I'm good at marketing but really, I don't have clue.  I'm giving away my book.  I've sold a few copies (very few) but I don't expect to make many because the book takes only a few minutes to read and it's free - there's very little incentive to buy the book.  And guess what?  What?  I've given away more paper copies of the book than I've sold.

So, given that I don't know where the trendy programmers hang out these days ... do you have any hints about how I could spread the word further?  

How do I spread the word about my “business book for programmers”? [closed]

5  2

I've resubmitted this quesiton - without the link to the slideshare page - since the original got closed. My apologies if it looked like spam or marketing. The question is genuine - apart from the yahoo groups I belong to I don't know where programmers hang out these days. Background: I've just published a free book online about the business side of software development during a recession. It's a short story - a parable - about a programmer who is about to lose his job because his project's customer has cancelled it due to the recession / credit crunch. He saves his job in the end by asking questions about the commerical / financial side of his project. The answers help him discover a way of making the project much more money than anyone expected, while at the same time needing far less cash. My quesiton: I know the book will save programmer's jobs and I'd like for more programmers to read the book (for free) ... but I don't know how to spread the word further. I put the book up on slideshare.net where anyone can read the entire text for free (it's a short book so it's surprisingly pleasant to click-read it as a presentation). About 2000 people have read it in the last week and it's received some fantastic feedback. I'd really appreciate your suggestions, I've put a lot of my evening hours into this and I think it's very important Clarke Ching. project-management books agile offensive? edited 25 mins ago clarke ching community wiki

comments (2)

Question closed as "spam" by EBGreen, Simucal, bdukes, Jon B 55 secs ago

6 Answers:

OldestNewestVotes

2	How about Delicious Digg reddit twitter StumbleUpon link|offensive? edited 14 mins ago John Nolan community wiki 2 revisions
	comments (2)

1	For start you could maybe provide us direct link to your book :) link|offensive? edited 21 mins ago Mr. Brownstone community wiki
	comments (2)

1	You can try the programming subreddit. Just be sure to pick a non-spammy title. "Free book for programmers" might work. You might also try sending free copies of the book to influential programming bloggers. Does anyone know any? :) link|offensive? edited 20 mins ago Bill the Lizard community wiki
	add comment

0	You are spreading the word right here and now... link|offensive? edited 23 mins ago Jobo community wiki
	add comment

0	That was a nice read. Thanks for sharing. link|offensive? edited 21 mins ago Paolo Bergantino community wiki
	add comment

0	Maybe the crowd over at The Business of Software at joelonsoftware.com will like it as well. You could try there. link|offensive? edited 2 mins ago Arjan Einbu community wiki
	add comment

2,000 downloads ...

In the last week or so since I uploaded Rocks Into Gold onto slideshare over 2,000 people have downloaded it (for free).  It's got some really nice reviews too.  Cool.