Happy Thanksgiving America!
A time for celebration, family reunion and rest. Why not unplug for a day, reduce your mobile, and computer use and actually enjoy this day with people, in person?
The people at Offlining actually think that is a great idea, and experts say it may help you prevent the Computer Stress Syndrome.
Enjoy the turkey, and be grateful for all the good things you have!
Firesheep - One More Reason to Be Very Careful with Open Wi-Fi
Like most people, I love free WiFi, at Starbucks, the Airport, wherever. However I’ve always been careful about what I do on an open connection. Suddenly now, being careful has become a must.
Firesheep is a Firefox exension that makes it incredibly easy to capture session information from people on an open HTTP connection.
Solution, from now on use HTTPS always, and be very aware of open WiFi, is not as good as you think it is. In case you haven’t heard, HTPPS establishes an encrypted connection between you, and the site you are visiting. But make sure, that connection is continous throughout your connection, and not just for the user / password combination. How do you make sure? Check on the top line in your browser, does it say HTTPS or HTTP. If it is the latter, you are in trouble, a tool like Firesheep on an open network can take your identity in a second. Be careful.
Note: More information and source code from Erick Butler, creator of this plugin here.
Beyond the 3 Project Management Constraints - The Agile Kanban Contribution
Traditionally Project Management has identified three constraints that must be managed to achieve success on any project, namely:
- Time: or the schedule, to meet deadlines and deliver
- Money: our available budget, and financial resources
- Scope: extent of work that has to be performed.
Collectively they are known as the Project Management Triangle, and for decades they have been the focal point for the project manager’s efforts.
Lately however the Project Management Institute (PMI) and Agile Kanban have noticed that this simplistic 3 constraint model is incomplete. PMI today does add three new constraints: Risk, Quality and Resources, while leaving the door open to even more constraints that might be identified (PMBOK 4th. Edition, page 6.)
On this article however, I’d like to focus on Kanban’s contribution to the classical 3 constraint model. One that I believe is sometimes overlooked, because it gets lost in the details of the Kanban Method itself. Although I have not seen these constraints formally identified before, they are fundamental to the Kanban Method and they are present in most documents from different authors.
Luckily any reader familiar with Project Management should be able to follow this discussion, without knowing the Kanban method. However, for those who would like a quick introduction I recommend the following: Dr. Dobbs Introduction to Kanban, the Kanban Definitions by the Limited WIP Society.
In my opinion, Kanban identifies 4 additional key constraints for a project success:
- Value - Mission First
- Flow - Healthy pace
- Focus - Less is More or LWIP
- Waste - Quality by default
On this blog post I will concentrate on the first two.
1. Value - Mission First
“A Kanban System visualizes some unit of value.” Karl Scotland, founding member Lean Software and Systems Consortium.
Unlike other Project Management methods, the Kanban Method emphasizes that we must first identify what is the key value the system must deliver, and then improve on it.
We can see this focus on value at the micro project level on this typical scenarios Kanban ask us to answer: what value does this User Story delivers?, What is the purpose of this Requirement? What do we really need to deliver for this Minimal Marketable Feature to deliver value to the customer?, What is the key value we are delivering in this project?
At the macro level the Kanban Method can evaluate whole departments and even an organization by mapping the value stream and asking: how can we deliver more value? How can we improve from here? How can this department deliver more reliable code? What do we need to do to ensure the customer is satisfied with our customer service? How can we reduce time to market for our key new product? How can we foster innovation at our development department?
Once people, and management start thinking in terms of delivering value, not just for shareholders, but for every person on the organization, value creation in the company grows and a culture of Continuous Improvement (Kaizen) is born.
2. Flow - Healthy Pace
“Are we outraged that work-life balance is considered the pursuit of the soft, lazy and uncommitted?… Are we outraged that overtime working is expected?” David Anderson. Speech at UK Lean Conference, 2009.
Kanban sees Flow, and the optimization of workflow as fundamental to a project success. It optimizes flow by identifying bottlenecks, and using a variety of tools (mostly from the Theory of Constraints) to remove or minimize bottleneck impact.
Some of the tools used to identify bottlenecks are: work flow diagrams, demand analysis, and the Five Focusing Steps from the Theory of Constraints. By using those tools Kanban is able to make continuos improvement to the overall flow of work, and keep progress steady and predictable.
However Kanban does not recommend Flow optimization so high that workers can barely cope, and it strongly discourages over-work. It advocates sustainable pace, and therefore work-life balance. A good Kanban Flow must have slack so that the people who work on the system, can remain productive, healthy and motivated.
Comments, contributions? Do let me know. Next week I will cover the last two constraints.
Get the Best Tools - Why most pros should consider the new Macbook Air?
If there is a principle in project management, and Getting Things Done that I have learned is that we should use the best tools possible for the job. For over 7 years the best tool for me in the area of computers has been an Apple laptop, and although I’ve used Windows PCs also, believe me when I tell you that Apple has been doing something great with their computers for a while now. And on this subject I’d like to update you on what I think about Apple’s Macbook Air.
First let’s recap a little, for a long time people who considered themselves mobile professionals, went and got the fastest laptops, with the beefiest specs they could afford. If you liked the Mac, that meant you buy a Macbook or even better a Macbook Pro.
So for years software developers, photographers, videographers, designers, engineers, even people who just needed a word processor did. It was simply the only way to have a mobile computer! Then something happened on late January 2010, Apple introduced the iPad. And slowly but surely journalists, lawyers, project managers, doctors, and many mobile professionals realized that they truly didn’t need a “heavy” Macbook, the iPad was enough most of the time. Steve Jobs called this new class of computer a “car,” regular Macbooks were “trucks” and someday most people would use a car instead of a truck.
So guess what, last Tuesday Oct. 20th, we got our first cross-over “car”: the Macbook Air. It gets the best from the Macbooks, and the best from the iPad today.
Why is this important? Well for one the Macbook Air can do almost anything a Macbook Pro can for many pounds less in weight! And given a choice of power vs. mobility I choose mobility.
You may say why? Let me explain with a quote from photography that’s been around for decades:
“The best camera is the one you have with you.”
This principle applies to laptops like a glove. Think how much more productive you could be if you actually carried your laptop everywhere without hurting your back in the process! Anyone who’s carried 5 to 7 pounds of laptop gear knows what I mean!
That’s the magic of the Macbook Air, at just over 2 pounds of weight and 5 to 7 hours of battery time it hits the sweet spot between an iPad and a Macbook Pro! The pro features are a bit different this time: first you get instant-on, so you can resume work anytime, anywhere in a second, and continue from where you were last time. Second you get a Flash or Solid State drive that makes the running speed of your Macbook Air processor feel closer to a Macbook Pro computer.
So if you are a mobile professional who’s serious about getting things done, I recommend you put the Macbook Air in your toolbox as soon as you can. It’s the closest thing to a Leica camera in quality, portability and elegance I’ve seen in a long time; but with the price of a micro four thirds!
The Gap Logo Fiasco: Corporate Identity in the Age of Social Media
In case you didn’t know already last Wednesday Oct. 6th, Gap introduced a new logo (seen above) to replace the classic design. Reaction was almost universally negative to the new creation, many actually calling it a piece of %!$@#, and yes you can pretty much sum up everyone’s opinion right there.
For a while pundits in the press and PR community thought maybe this was genius, to introduce a horrible logo on purpose, get free press from the reaction, and then crowd source a replacement. But it didn’t work like that at all for Gap. In fact, Gap had actually paid good money for that ugly looking logo, and their online store was brave enough to use it. Free press quickly became a PR crisis with hundreds, thousands of people ridiculing their brand all over the Internet!
Why did this happen so fast? Because in the social media universe we live on today, a big part of the press is regular people, not journalists. Regular people who in their very opinionated way influence public opinion from their Twitter feed, Facebook page, Blog or wherever they can express themselves socially.
The consequence of this active public engagement in the creation, and editorializing of news is huge. Instead of the usual cycle from news, to press, to public opinion; we now go from news to public opinion! The press and the people have somehow merged into “influencers” and the time it takes for a story to go from news to public opinion has been shortened drastically.
The end result is that if “buzz” on Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs already say that your new logo sucks, it probably does! And the worse part is that this is not the press talking, this is public opinion already! In a matter of days, your brand can sustain a big hit.
So what can companies, agencies and social media professionals learn from Gap’s mistakes:
- 1. Focus Groups and Surveys can’t Ignore Social Media Any More. I am sure Gap paid good money to test their new logo, but I am also quite sure they ignored Social Media almost completely. Result: failure.
- 2. Brands and Companies must listen to Social Media and React Fast. Gap is actually a good example, they did not wait a month to react, in 6 days, meaning today they scrapped the new logo! They got 2000 very negative comments on their Facebook fan page, and that plus the Internet backlash helped them correct course. However, if they had properly listened to the conversation they could have done it much faster, probably in 2 days flat, or even better they could have avoided all this issue completely if they had tested it with Social Media influencers first.
- 3. Don’t Underestimate your customers. We live in a world of savvy customers, let us treat them with respect and they will continue to give us business. The golden rule still holds on the Internet age.
Andy Hertzfeld, member of the original Mac team.
No amount of vision, no dreams, no project plans, patents or detailed battle plans are worth anything without real working execution!
Hard work, and shipping are the big difference between amateurs and pros.
Pros ship!
Is Kaizen Enough?
Kaizen. Japanese for “improvement” is the word behind Toyota’s Total Quality obsession, although nowadays it has suffered in it’s quest to be the number one automaker.
Kaizen origin however goes back to the legacy of a very smart American, Edwards Deming, the father of Total Quality, and the Deming’s Cycle. His ideas went beyond Japan to affect our expectations of products and services. Arguably he led Japan to dominate the auto industry, and get great influence on electronics and robotics. However in the software and mobile sectors Japan has always lagged behind. Why?
Newsweek did a very good analysis on this phenomenon. And the conclusion seems to be that to go beyond Kaizen, you need real innovation, and to achieve that only revolutionary products will do - think Apple iPhone - not just continuos improvement but totally new ideas to fill undiscovered customer needs, or just amaze the consumer. Usually these are ideas that create markets, or radically change the way things work.
