Herding Cats

MAY 11, 2017

I started my career as a Software Engineer , writing Fortran 77 signal processing algorithms to find and track missile launchers in the middle eastern desert. This skill was an extension of the signal processing work I did as a grad student looking for information in the data stream of a particle accelerator.

Software Developers 39

Software Developers Software Development Engineering Software 39

Herding Cats

MARCH 11, 2017

What happens if you shift focus from "accurate estimation" to "reliably shipping by a date"? . This quote demonstrates a lack of understanding of making decisions in the presence of uncertainty and the processes and events that create uncertainty. There is naturally occurring variability from uncontrolled processes.

2003 46

2003 2014 2015 2011 46

Herding Cats

APRIL 16, 2019

Here's a collection of presentations, briefings, papers, essays, book content used to increase the Probability of Project Success (PoPS) I've written and applied over my career in the software-intensive system of systems and other domains. Management Processes (#MP). Product Development (#ProdDev). Governance (#Governance).

Technical Review 42

Technical Review Performance Measurement Underperforming Technical Team Governance 42

Herding Cats

FEBRUARY 9, 2019

There's been a rash of conjectures about all kinds of bad business, project, and software development (agile and traditional) management ideas of late. This also meant developing software systems to support this effort. Time to update the Don't Do Stupid Things on Purpose (DDSTOP) post.

Estimate 42

Estimate Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team Software Review 42

Herding Cats

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

I've had a conversation of sorts with one of the "leaders" of the #NoEstimates movement who talked in circles when asked where is this method applicable outside your examples of a 5 week project and a cleanup of bugs on another project? . What's Gonna Cost and When Will We Be Done? - What's it gonna cost and when will you be done?

Estimate 39

Estimate Risk Management Finance Software Developers 39

Leading Agile

AUGUST 20, 2018

What are “all the things,” by the way? An unattended software delivery pipeline frees technical staff to spend more time on value-add activities rather than tediously performing repetitive tasks by hand, such as. The company wanted to automate their dispatching process. Even better: It was the right process.

Software Review 78

Software Review Software Technical Review Development Team Review 78