Category Archives: Software Development

A Programmer’s View of the Universe

Posted on December 29, 2008 by John Hunter

A few weeks ago I wrote about integrating information technology and business process management. This post from Steve Yegge is interesting and discusses one reason I find that a good strategy. Programmers, by and large, are good, practical systems thinkers … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Respect, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #50

Posted on December 20, 2008 by John Hunter

Corey Ladas is hosting the Management Improvement Carnival #50 on the Lean Software Engineering blog, highlights include: Where did middle managers come from? by Jeffrey Krames: A new anecdote from a conversation with Peter Drucker, which leaves the reader wondering…where … Continue reading →

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Information Technology and Business Process Support

Posted on December 3, 2008 by John Hunter

I moved from management improvement work into information technology work (where I continue to practice management improvement). Many IT practices follow quality management guidelines well (agile software development for one). I have found it far easier to design and provide … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Embrace Diversity, Erase Uniformity

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Guest Post

Guest Post by Jurgen Appelo, author of the Managing Software Development blog. Five years ago, when I started working for my current employer, the entire organization (about 30 people) consisted only of 20-something white straight single males. The atmosphere was … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Science, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Eric Schmidt on Management at Google

Posted on November 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Eric Schmidt speaks at the Management Lab Summit on May 29, 2008 in Half Moon Bay, California. Conversation with Professor Gary Hamel. “The culture can be thought of as a ship and iterate culture with transparency for what people are … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Google, Management, Popular, Software Development, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Manager FAQ

Posted on November 20, 2008 by John Hunter

This is a great set of answers for programmers on the behavior of managers, that can also be of interest to some non-programmers. The Manager FAQ by Peter Seebach The following list is an attempt to cover some of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Software Development | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

CMMI and Agile Development

Posted on November 19, 2008 by John Hunter

CMMI or Agile: Why Not Embrace Both! is a new report that is worth reading. All too often, CMMI has been applied rather than implemented. The standards-centric application of CMMI has contributed to some spectacular failures and losses of time … Continue reading →

Posted in Process improvement, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Lean and Kanban for Software Developers

Posted on November 15, 2008 by John Hunter

Lean and Kanban for Software Developers by Clinton Keith Time-boxing allows us to employ a very powerful aspect of Kanban. The cards in each column represent capacity for each stage of the value stream. As we see above, each stage … Continue reading →

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The Software Engineering Manager’s Lament

Posted on October 23, 2008 by John Hunter

The engineering manager’s lament by Eric Ries: In teams that follow the “pick two” agenda [quality, time or price], which two has to be resolved via a power play. In companies with a strong engineering culture, the engineers pick quality. … Continue reading →

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Making Life Difficult for Customers

Posted on September 27, 2008 by John Hunter

Companies seem to think technology is an excuse to provide bad service. Or maybe they don’t need any excuse at all to do so, based on how often they provide bad service. My latest experience with lame pointy haired boss … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments