Category Archives: IT

Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service

Once again Joel Spolsky spins a great post with, Seven steps to remarkable customer service. Read it. It’s crucial that tech support have access to the development team. This means that you can’t outsource tech support: they have to be … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, IT, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Kaizen Online

Kaizen, That Continuous Improvement Strategy, Finds Its Ideal Environment by Hal R. Varian Kaizen doesn’t just mean a business should keep trying new things. Rather, it refers to a disciplined process of systematic exploration, controlled experimentation and then painstaking adoption … Continue reading

Posted in IT, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | 1 Comment

Toyota’s Nick Dieltiens Discussing Lean Ideas

Another YouTube video on Toyota Management (produced by a software vendor selling to Toyota Europe): Toyota’s Nick Dieltiens Discussing Lean Techniques. He is responsible for strategic planing for Lexus Europe and was previously for the lean operations office for Toyota … Continue reading

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Knowledge Management – Management is Prediction

This presentation web video discusses the idea of managing corporate information: Seamless Information Capture and Discovery for Corporate Memory [the broken link was removed]. The video focuses on discussing technical solutions. The most important factor to me, is the value … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, IT, Quality tools, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #3

More links to interesting management improvement blog posts. Lean IT – what comes first, technology or waste reduction? by Kent Blumberg – “rather than pushing technology on people and processes (the traditional top-down approach), Toyota looks to the people and … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Carnival, IT, Management | 2 Comments

Innovation Examples

Two examples from 37signals: first, Pioneer Theater. Good idea. I am stretching to call it innovation, today, maybe 5 years ago it was. Today I think any reasonably sized theater should have something like this in place. The interface is … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Innovation, IT, Management | Tagged | 2 Comments

Interviewing and Hiring Programmers

Interviewing and Hiring by Tom Van Vleck “Let’s take a break from talking to people. Why don’t you have a seat in this empty office, and write a small program. Use any language you want to. The program can do … Continue reading

Posted in Career, IT, Management, Software Development | 4 Comments

How Do You Run a Business Without Managers

Ask the CHO: How do you run a business without managers It seems that a lot of the problems seem to come from low to middle management and as someone who is looking to start my own software company I … Continue reading

Posted in Innovation, IT, Management | 1 Comment

Competing On The Basis Of Speed

Competing On The Basis Of Speed (webcast) [the broken link was removed] by Mary Poppendieck discussing complexity, queuing theory, and constant innovation. Google posts presentations given at the Googleplex (including this one). In this one, Mary presents lean ideas as … Continue reading

Posted in Google, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Software Development, webcast | 1 Comment

The IT Iceberg Secret

The Iceberg Secret, Revealed by Joel Spolsky It’s pretty clear that programmers think in one language, and MBAs think in another. I’ve been thinking about the problem of communication in software management for a while, because it’s pretty clear to … Continue reading

Posted in IT, Management, Software Development | 2 Comments