Tag Archives: Software Development

Motivate or Eliminate De-Motivation

Posted on October 7, 2008 by John Hunter

A huge failure I still see is managers thinking in a theory x way, 50 years after McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise. Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

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

Webcast on the Toyota Development Process

Posted on September 18, 2008 by John Hunter

Kenji Hiranabe talks about Toyota’s development process (webcast). Kenji shares a presentation he attended earlier this year by Nobuaki Katayama, a former Chief Engineer at Toyota, and the lessons he learned from him. Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Top Blogs for Software Development Managers

Posted on September 14, 2008 by John Hunter

I am happy to say our blog has been included in the Top 100 Blogs for Development Managers. The list of blogs is quite impressive, including blogs referenced here previously: Joel on Software (ranked 1st), Coding Horror (2nd), Seth Godin’s Blog (3rd), Paul Graham’s essays (4), Signal vs. Noise (40)… Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com, Software Development | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Top Blogs for Software Development Managers

Future Directions for Agile Management

Posted on August 25, 2008 by John Hunter

Agile management (agile software development specifically) is something that makes a big difference in my work life. David Anderson consistently provides great ideas on agile management and he does so again in this 90 minute presentation on the future directions … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, IT, Lean thinking, Management, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Gobbledygook

Posted on August 21, 2008 by John Hunter

How is this for Gobbledygook? Your home banking access code is expired! You must change your access code at this time. Your access code: * may be between 4 and 20 characters in length * must not have been changed … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Don’t Do What Your Users Say

Posted on August 11, 2008 by John Hunter

In, Don’t do what your users say [the broken link was removed], Hanford Lemoore, provides a nice illustration of why customer focus is important but must be done with care. in UI design it’s important to understand that what a … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Don’t Do What Your Users Say

Amazon S3 Failure Analysis

Posted on July 26, 2008 by John Hunter

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is a service providing web hosting. The cloud computing solution has been used by many organizations successfully. However the solution has experienced some problems including failing for much of the day on July 20th. Amazon … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Keeping Good Employees

Posted on July 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Understanding Why Good Workers Quit [the broken link was removed] “What do you need to want to stay?” Most managers, she acknowledges, are afraid to ask this question and that is a reason why their companies have to do plenty … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, IT, Management, quote, Respect | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #38

Posted on July 1, 2008 by John Hunter

Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. Value in Value Stream Mapping by Mike Wroblewski – “value stream maps helped us all agree on our current state and what our future state vision … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged | Comments Off on Management Improvement Carnival #38