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Monday, December 08, 2003
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Do people really use their desktop? I just relized that I use my start menu and taskbar...and that's it.
10:23:43 PM 
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My brother is 27 and is going to start his second marriage tomorrow...he decided it today. The girl he's marrying is 23 and just ended her first marriage in October (and has a 1 & 2 year old). He was in a wreck a few weeks ago and is out of work for 3-5 months. She's never had a job. He just got a new car that's going to be repo'd 'cause he doesn't have the money to pay the sales tax on it. They don't have a place to live (or money to get one). I just can't figure it out. I guess it's not my place to. It's just so odd that a person can be raised in the same family and be such a polar opposite. Most of the time I feel like I can be really empathetic or sympathetic of folks/situations, but this feels completely beyond my comprehension. So odd.
10:16:17 PM
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Sometimes a good workout is just the kick in the booty I need!
7:04:23 PM
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Yesterday I hung out at B&N for a couple of hours (and hopefully will return tonight). I browsed through some business books and here are my short notes/quotes/highlights.
"people don't resist change. they resist a loss of control." short, but thought-provoking. i've often joked with friends that i hate when things change...but i think this is more up the right alley. i hate to not feel in control of a situation. and i really dislike it at work.
"We all predict what other people will do and what they will produce based on what we've seen them do before." I think sometimes I/we expect people to judge us based on what we'd like to do, what we say we're going to do or what they'd really like us to do...but this hits the nail on the head. If you want someone to believe in your future, you have to prove what you can do first.
I liked this Asian Proverb "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war." If we prepare now, when we get down to the line, it's not going to be painful...or as painful as waiting until you HAVE to do something to do it.
"A map is not functional until you know where you are on it." Sometimes I think I know where I want to be or what I want to do (note the sometimes) but I can't figure out how to get there until I know EXACTLY where I am right now.
"Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil & ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there" (Eric Hoffer) - Ouch! That one hit a nerve with me. So much so, that I think that's all I can say.
"If you want different results, a change of focus is required." How many times do you catch yourself thinking that you want to be doing something different in a year, or that you want more praise, or that you want to spend less time working, or, or, or? You gotta change something. Otherwise...it'll all the same. Occasionally we luck into someone changing things for us, but there's no reason to wait.
"Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power" (Noel Coward) - That was just one to grow on.
3:58:26 PM
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Interesting article from : [Darrell Norton's Blog] Develop software in one-third the time, with one-third the budget, and with one-third the defect rate. Sound impossible? The proponents of Lean Software Development don't think so. Check out the Lean Software Development Overview now (i'll save you the trip)
What is LSD?
Lean Software Development (LSD) is the application of lean principles to the craft of software development. So what is Lean? According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extensions Partnership’s Lean Network, Lean is:
“A systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste through continuous improvement, flowing the product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection.” [1]
“Lean Software Development reduces defects and cycle times while delivering a steady stream of incremental business value.” [2]
Lean Software Development is more strategically focused than other Agile methodology. The goals are to develop software in one-third the time, with one-third the budget, and with one-third the defect rate. [3] (Note that although Robert Charette’s original Lean Development concept was the foundation for Lean Software Development, he has not written much easily available information, so most of the analysis here will concentrate on Lean Software Development as presented by Mary and Tom Poppendieck.)
Lean Software Development is not a management or development methodology per se, but it offers principles that are applicable in any environment to improve software development.
The LSD Principles
There are seven LSD Principles:
- Eliminate waste. In software development, waste is anything that does not improve the quality of code, reduces the amount of time and effort it takes to produce code, or does not deliver business value to the customer. In other words, any activity that does not “pay for itself” in reduced effort elsewhere in the system.
Tools: Seeing Waste, Value Stream Mapping.
- Amplify learning. For programmers to develop a system that delivers business value, they will have to learn about many things. Some are technical, such as the advantages and disadvantages to various approaches to do remote communications in .NET (i.e., remoting, COM+, web services, etc.). Others are requirements related, such as understanding what the business user really needs versus what the developer thinks the user needs.
Tools: Feedback, Iterations, Synchronization, Set-based Development.
- Decide as late as possible. The idea here is to wait until what the authors term “the last responsible moment” to make a decision. This is the moment at which, if the team does not make a decision, the decision will be made for them (doing nothing is a choice). The benefits of this are avoiding or delaying the costs of change, which obviously cannot be incurred if you have not limited your options yet.
Tools: Options Thinking, The Last Responsible Moment, Making Decisions.
- Deliver as fast as possible. This is the foundation of iterative development. Requirements change as a percentage of the original requirements increases non-linearly as the amount of time increases. Typical 9-12 month projects generate roughly a 25 percent change in requirements. However, the amount of requirements change over a month averages only 1-2 percent. And it is much easier to get users to accept waiting until next month rather than next year.
Tools: Pull Systems, Queuing Theory, Cost of Delay.
- Empower the team. The quality of a software team (the people factor) is the most important element in successfully delivering software. In order to get people to take responsibility, get motivated, and gel as a team, they need to be responsible for the outcome and authorized to make it happen.
Tools: Self Determination, Motivation, Leadership, Expertise.
- Build integrity in. The authors make the distinction between perceived integrity and conceptual integrity. Perceived integrity is the customer’s experience with your software. Conceptual integrity is how well the architecture and system components flow together to bring about the perceived integrity. Obviously testing, unit and integration, is a major part of integrity. [4]
Tools: Perceived Integrity, Conceptual Integrity, Refactoring, Testing.
- See the whole. Systems thinking has been around for a while, but the typical response to solving problems is to break them down into their constituent parts and optimize each individual piece. This is suboptimization, which leads to the “tragedy of the commons.” [5]
Tools: Measurements, Contracts.
Applying LSD
Included in the Lean Software Development book are 22 tools. The authors show how to use these tools to identify problem areas and discover possible solutions. Each principle also includes a “try this” showing steps you can take to immediately start applying Lean at work. Since these are principles, they will have to be customized to each situation in order to bring any value. This is not something that can be bought and thrown at an existing problem without any effort.
3:13:30 PM
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Today's Quotes - they're timed well for my life
Sylvia Robinson. "Some think it's holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it's letting go."
Edward Fitzgerald. "Leave well - even 'pretty well' - alone: that is what I learn as I get old."
3:00:41 PM
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My story for my friend for this day:
The little girl climbed up the ladder slowly, carefully placing her bare feet on each step, as she pulled herself up gingerly. She couldn’t help her tongue from assisting with her concentration. Her chubby fingers were shaking. No one was around to catch her if she fell. When she reached the counter-top, she placed both hands on the counter and took a deep breath. Fear can be exhausting. After she felt solid in her toes, she reached one hand across the counter and touched the edge of the jar. Uh-oh. She wasn’t close enough. Her calculations had been off. As she climbed down (which was no easier than climbing up), a salty tear slid down her cheek. If she wanted inside that jar, she was just going to have to move the ladder and do this all over again. She wasn’t sure if she could do it. Without taking time to think much more about it she tucked a curl behind her ear, scooted the ladder over a few inches, and started the climb again. This time the climb was a little easier, though the shaking didn’t stop completely. As she reached the counter again, she bit her lip. Was she close enough? What if she couldn’t reach it again? With one hand, she held onto the counter, and with the other she reached for the jar. She very delicately pulled it across the counter, all the while the bumblebees in her belly were buzzing about. It was there. And she had it. She tucked it in her pocket, hooked her hand back on the ladder and started her final descent. As she placed both feet on the ground, a smile slid across her face. She had done it. And, with that, those other feelings were forgotten.
2:10:00 PM
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© Copyright 2005 Rebecca Schwoch.
Last update: 2/8/2005; 2:15:06 PM.
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Who says fish can't convey emotions with their faces? See the look of doom in this little guy's eyes?. 
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