Comments for Project Planning & Estimation

Comment on Heuristics for Systems Engineering Cost Estimation by galorath

galorath — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:49:33 +0000

IEEE Systems journal. I have now posted a link to the article in the BLOG as well.

Comment on Heuristics for Systems Engineering Cost Estimation by Project Management Tools That Work (Bruce)

Project Management Tools That Work (Bruce) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:22:01 +0000

Which IEEE publication will it be in? Spectrum?

Comment on IT Project Failure Warning Signs by Project Management Tools That Work (Bruce)

Project Management Tools That Work (Bruce) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:30:41 +0000

Yes, rarely is it a lack of project techniques or methodology (or fancy tools).

The telling evidence is what it takes to “fix” organizations that have consistent IT project failures. Usually it is getting rid of bad habits (especially opinion based estimates). Once a few of the management bad habits are removed, many organizations lurch forward in improved productivity and quality. It is often like remembering to release the parking break on the car – gee, it runs so much better that way!

Comment on Off Topic: Estimating the Occurence of Phantom Traffic Jams by Denton

Denton — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:51:43 +0000

Dan, I appreciate your comments regarding traffic jams which seem to occur for no particular reason. I have a theory. In the same way that a large % of drivers are “slow” to start moving when a stop light turns green I believe that those drivers are also “slow” to respond when traffic begins to move which just propagates the sluggishness.

I have always proposed to others that I believe that traffic on LA freeways follows a “traveling wave theory”. I believe the slow down causes a traffic “plug” or heavy concentration of vehicles. And that Jam moves down the freeway as a traveling wave. I have always wanted an opportunity to look at the traffic jam from the air so I could see if it did not actually move down the freeway. I wonder if it would obey the mathematical laws of partial differential equations when we studied traveling waves. I can still have nightmares thinking of trying to write the equations of motion for the wave traveling in a guitar string that in one case was fastened at only one end and a different case where is was not fastened at either end and when plucked how would it vibrate.

Comment on Off Topic: Estimating the Occurence of Phantom Traffic Jams by Lee Fischman

Lee Fischman — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:28:05 +0000

Mike Kimel (Galorath alumni) and I used to have a repeated argument over the source of phantom jams, i.e., those occurring without the presence of an accident. He would b*tch at drivers pressing on their brakes, while I figured the cause was analogous to the turbulence induced in fluids flowing through a pipe. Turns out we were both right – how do you get turbulence without perturbation? We all await automated highway navigation…

Comment on Brooks Law Is Applicable To Many Collaborative People Activities by galorath

galorath — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:27:33 +0000

Thanks for the comment. You are likely seeing seeing some entropy when the teams of designers get larger than a couple people. If it is only one or two humans doing the work then there you will not. But that is great that you are being so productive.

Comment on Brooks Law Is Applicable To Many Collaborative People Activities by Nexus

Nexus — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:20:51 +0000

I’ve just come across this and it is not surprising that you would see productivity falls and complexity rise in human social groups. We do not using humans to code any aspect of the product we have built. In fact the whole application is auto generated from an engineering specification – so Brooks Law does not apply as each additional human designer (not programmer as there are none) adds to the productivity and reduces cost as labour our development costs are zeroed. Now that we use this very productive tool set and methodology we would never use a hand crafted approach again.

Comment on Software Project Failure Costs Billions.. Better Estimation & Planning Can Help by We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done. » Blog Archive » T?i sao d? án ph?n m?m th?t b?i ?

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 05:31:02 +0000

[...] http://www.galorath.com/wp/software-project-failure-costs-billions-better-estimation-planning-can-he... [...]

Comment on Addressing the Need for More Female Computer Science Graduates by Sam Lightstone

Sam Lightstone — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:49:19 +0000

I recently interviewed Google’s VP of Search and User Experience on this question. You can hear a 3 minute audio of what she said here:

http://makingitbigcareers.com/googles-marissa-mayer-on-pet-peeves-and-women-in-technology

The full interview with Marissa is published in “Making it Big in Software” (details here: http://amzn.to/b08auR)

Comment on Estimating and ITIL by Chris Fairclough

Chris Fairclough — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:39:10 +0000

As a person who has spent 25 years working in the IT industry in roles from technician to technical writer, business analyst and project manager, I have seen many fads come and go about how businesses should apply this principle and that, and there are always those that prescribe their method because they want to leave their mark on something. Seeking to achieve certification on everything and anything that is said to be essential for business is not practical as this article says, and so I feel that it is simply one of those things that consultants use to keep themselves employed.
Apart from a Diploma in Front Line Management, I have had no formal training in anything, other than short courses in things like Project Management, Planning and Organising, Risk Management and an Introduction to Business Writing and yet applying common sense, being honest and communicating effectively, I have managed to achieve some significant results for companies I have worked for both as a full time employee and a contractor. I believe that lateral thinking, common sense, consideration for the skills and ability of others and an understanding of the basic principles of management is quite sufficient for most small to medium businesses. Businesses who blindly follow a method that may not suite them may be doomed to fail simply because they don’t have the basic skills in picking what is applicable to their situation. This means taking some risk, but what business takes no risk?