The webcast shows Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO, speaking at TED on the internet boom. He compares the boom to the gold rush highlighting the similarities. But then he compares the internet to the development of industry around electricity. I think he is exactly right on the internet: “there’s more innovation ahead of us than behind us.”
Related: Bezos on Lean Thinking – Amazon Innovation – Amazon’s Amazing Achievement – Innovation Thinking with Christensen – management webcasts
The Deming Institute is sponsoring, How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business, 12-14 May, 2008 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kelly Allan and I will be presenting the seminar. Please let me know if you sign up.
Learn how governance practice leads to the heaviest losses, how inconsistencies between policy and strategy create sub-optimal outcomes, how mismanagement of people leads to unethical and ineffective behavior, and how to overcome these problems. Study the theory and practice of management. Not quality management, not good management, not excellent management, not knowledge management, not risk management, not process management, not performance management, not supply or asset management, not technology management, not time management, not emergency management, just plain management.
Related: Deming on Management – Curious Cat Management Improvement Calendar – Deming Seminar and Conference – Deming Companies
A Case for Agile: Benefits for a Programmer’s Career by Theodore Nguyen-Cao
Most importantly, I still feel I’m growing as a developer. I honestly believe the best thing a developer can do in their career is to always be learning. Everything else will follow.
I am also a strong proponent of agile software development. Information Technology projects have a poor success rate. The best method, I have found, to provide better software solutions is agile development (and I find a grounding in management improvement techniques is useful – customer focus, process improvement, systems thinking, understanding variation, data driven management…). My experience is with custom application development (rather than developing Commercial Off The Shelf software – COTS) for which I think agile is a great fit.
Related: Joy in Work for Programmers – Agile Software Development Presentation – Metrics and Software Development – Management Science for Software Engineering – Programmers at Work – Joel Management
Utah scrambling to meet need for technical workers
The situation continues to worsen, with jobs being created and unemployment remaining low in the state. And as the current work force ages, the supply of skilled workers is diminishing, forcing employers to recruit outside of Utah and sometimes leave Utah altogether, the report said.
…
The college’s Lean Manufacturing Center was built from an old warehouse with state funds and $30 million from rocket-booster manufacturer Williams International. Williams provides the college with equipment and mentors to train students with practical, real-world applications, said Lloyd McCaffrey, the Lean Center’s director.
Related: Engineering Innovation for Manufacturing and the Economy – Applied Quality Engineering Education – Wisconsin Manufacturing – Top 10 Manufacturing Countries – Help Wanted: Lean Manufacturing Experts – The Lean MBA – Curious Cat Management Improvement Job Board
I think these orders of magnitude are not present in between people in many jobs. And I think people’s ability to correctly access who are orders of magnitude better is often faulty. But my experience leads me to believe the difference between exceptional software developers and average (not even below average) is very high. High enough that large increases in pay (say tripling would be sensible). Also accommodating their desires is sensible: freedom from dealing with pointy haired bosses and eliminating other such de-motivators.
While salespeople seen as successful can often be rewarded very well, exceptional software developers rarely are. Most managers don’t seem to be able to grasp that software development is a rare field where such orders of magnitude differences are somewhat common (not one in a million, maybe one in a thousand for a random guess). There are other fields where this is true but most for most fields I do not think this is the case.
In many fields interruptions are costly (and multi-taking is wasteful). In software development those interruptions are often much more costly than in other fields. Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams is an excellent book on managing software development.
Related: People are Our Most Important Asset – Joy in Software Development – Hiring the Right People – Performance without Appraisal – Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations
Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals.
Pausing for reath at fresh & easy (Tesco’s USA stores)
There have been some rumors in the blogosphere and regular press that the stores are not living up to expectations. Tesco denies this but it is hard to tell if this is typical public relations where disappointments are seen as something to deceive the public about, or the truth. Pausing to access and adjust makes all the sense in the world.
In fact it would seem to me to be the preferred method before 50 are in place. However I can see there might be reasons to expand rapidly too. I think if it were up to me I would try to PDSA with fewer stores first, and then expand but I don’t really know the business so…
It is a bit scary that the Fresh and Easy blog references Tony Robbins on continual improvement rather than Deming or Ohno or Womack or someone part of the lean thinking community.
Related: Lean Provision at Tesco – Tesco in the USA – What Innovation Means to Tesco – Lean Retailing – 10 Stocks for 10 Years Update
See more photos of my visit last year to Coopers Rock State Forest in West Virginia. The day before I visited Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland. Photos by John Hunter.
Related: Nature Recreation Declining – Mason Neck State Park, Virginia – Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky
Deming’s 14 points (for software development) by Jamie Dinkelacker (Geo/Maps Engineering Program Manager at Google Inc. Focus on lean principles and agile practices for software development):
A good read. Also a good blog on management improvement ideas and software development (though not very active). See my Deming on Management resource where I try to explain what Dr. Deming actually said and meant and dispel some misconceptions.
Related: Dr. Deming’s 14 Points – Deming’s Ideas at Markey’s Audio Visual – Lean, Toyota and Deming for Software Development – Google: Ten Golden Rules
Three Amazing PHP/MySQL/Perl Developers Now Available [broken link removed] – Posting on Craigslist. The url will expire so I included everything but the contact info below (follow the link for contact info).
Yesterday I had to do one of the more difficult things — lay off three of my good friends, all of whom are talented and professional developers.
I’m posting here today in hopes that someone out in the world is looking for some seasoned talent, people who can get things done for you. I will personally recommend all three of these guys, and I’ll detail below each of them. If you are interested, I’m including my phone number. I’ll take your contact information and give it to the person(s) you are interested in, and you can take it from there.
Here goes.
Developer #1
I’ve worked with Developer #1 since 2005. He’s worked for Fortune 500 companies and small startups. His strengths are conceptualizing and implementing complex systems using PHP and MySQL. These systems are not limited to the web, however the web is where most of his work has been for the last few years. During his employment with me, he:
* Designed a complex billing system, complete with audit trails
* Developed a site-wide internationalization system, allowing us to easily translate any phrase on the system to a different language
* Designed and successfully implemented several difficult projects based on half-way decent specifications documents (my fault)
Related: People are Our Most Important Asset – Bad Management Results in Layoffs – Hiring the Right People – Severance Plans to Respect People – Curious Cat Management Improvement Jobs
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