Category Archives: Execution
The Power of Planning Ahead
Why do things go wrong? Is it inevitable? To some degree it is, but I think the likelihood, frequency, severity and impact of adverse events can be minimized by several key practices, one of which is planning ahead. Continue reading
Everyone Doing Their Job
If every employee in our company did their job (as defined in their job description, most recent performance doc, or whatever), would that make us successful as a company? Of course it would – well, at least in theory. That’s … Continue reading
Ability to Deliver
This is what software development is all about. So simple in concept, yet seemingly so hard to accomplish. A development organization that can’t deliver what’s needed is a wasteful expense, not to mention a generator of false hope for those … Continue reading
Handoffs
The more handoffs that are required by a process or organization to do its business, the less effective that process or organization is. Said another way, there is an inverse correlation between handoffs and high performance. I think I first … Continue reading
Have You Failed Lately?
Since we all want to be successful, failure must be bad. At the very least, if you fail at something, you are obviously not being successful, and maybe it will make others feel that you are incompetent, not talented, or … Continue reading
Catalyst for Change
There’s turmoil in the financial markets and lots of uncertainty in the world right now. The world economy is in a major recession. The media is full of dire news. As a result, our customers are spending less. I don’t … Continue reading
Theme for the New Year
We’re starting a new calendar year, and with it come big new challenges. Much could be said about this. Over the holidays I came across a brief article from Time entitled “Myth of the Fearless Entrepreneur” that makes a great … Continue reading
Second Best, Tomorrow
That certainly doesn’t sound very appealing, does it? But it might depend on the context, and it actually might be a pretty good idea in software development. During WW II, when the British were under attack by German bombers, they … Continue reading
You Can’t Test Quality Into the Code
… yet it is surprising how much we still rely on testing as our primary defence against defects. To produce quality products consistently, the process must also have the objective of removing all defects before test entry. The objective of … Continue reading