Stuff I Have Found Interesting Today

You're Only as Busy as You Want Yourself to Be

Jurgen's latest is a good one. It is tough for control freaks like me to grasp, but it can happen.

Pair Programming: So you don't want to do it…

My experience agrees with this completely. Changing the way you do you work is always uncomfortable, but don't let that discomfort stop you from doing a clear best practice.

Engineering or Customer Service which is more important?

A good short post with a point.

An End of an Era for the Lean Community?

Although this post is aimed at manufacturing, I see a strong parallel to software. Winning the idea battle is a good start, but just a start as legacy has power.

High Test Coverage Ratio is a good thing, Anyway!

I am often worried that people dismiss 100% test coverage as "impossible/ivory tower/a good goal". I have worked on projects where 100% test coverage was the starting point and MC/DC coverage was the goal. When you have test coverage so many things are easier, like refactoring critical sections of code. The goal is 0 defects, because once a defect gets into a release it has many negative affects.

Health Care-Becker

One of the cogent articles I have read on the issue which recommendations. I am no expert but I highly encourage everyone to be more informed.

Kanban vs Scrum

Good opening dialog with a link to a 26 page PDF (although most pages are not filled completely). The paper has an overview of Scrum & Kanban as well as good pictures to aid in the understanding. I recommend it to anyone who thinks about the process they follow to get their work done.

Stuff I Have Found Interesting Today

MythBuster Adam Savage's Colossal Failures

An hour long video the first half is a talk on failure. I never knew Adam Savage was such a good speaker.

Have We Got a Deal for You

Will makes fun of the GM plan. Bets part is near the end "Washington's "rescue" of GM began because GM is "too big to fail," and bankruptcy is (well, was) "unthinkable." Big? GM's market capitalization, $375.8 million on Wednesday, is about the size of California Pizza Kitchen's ($340 million) -- is it too big to fail? -- and one-eleventh that of Harley-Davidson ($4.3 billion). Fail? If GM has not already failed, New Coke was a success."

MSDN Updates - and RFC for you

Interesting on two points, one that if you care you can help shape a better MSDN and the other is in showing different web design ideas.

Stuff I Have Found Interesting Today

Six Thinking Hats And Project Management

I had never heard of the 6 thinking hats...interesting.

Ditch Crunches for Push Ups and Save Your Back

Never did like crunches, but I didn't know they are considered harmful! I am tempted to try http://hundredpushups.com/.

Top 10 Wolfram Alpha Easter Eggs

Some classic response to input...my favorite is #8.

What are you solving for?

This is so true. Just the other day a customer told me to cube the data and I know several co-workers who would just do that without asking why.

Three Levels of Control (Example)

Jurgen gives examples of the three levels of control.

Refactoring Exercise

Brett Schuchert of Object Mentor posted some "ugly code" and asked readers to refactor. The comments are the various refactorings.

Stuff I Have Found Interesting Today

There’s an emotional lie to over planning

A short quote from Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life that rings true to me.

Waste Is As Waste Does

Starts off with more GM scary stats (last it year it mode twice the number of cars as Chrysler, but had over 4 times the staff, including 6 VPs of HR!) The best part is in the last 3 paragraphs ending with "Every time you walk through a maze of cubicles and offices to get to the factory floor to lead a kaizen event, you are probably missing the greatest lean opportunities your company has."

Bug Psychology

An interesting little story that shows how code can get bad while people are trying to "fix it".

Stuff I Have Found Interesting Today

Three Levels of Control

A post on how manager's should manage the system, not the daily actions of their people (smells like Deming). Short and has some good ideas.

Shock Therapy: Turning A Beginner Into A Freestyler?

An interesting idea, but I think it matters which type of theraphy is applied.

Deliver something of value every week

An old tale told in a refreshing way.

Collaborative Agile Contracts

Interesting idea, but the details are scarce. They will deliver more at Agile 2009, but sadly I will not be there.

Stuff I Have Found Interesting Today

What's behind the Dow changes?

GM & Citigroup out and Cisco & Travelers in. That was quick!

Which refuge?

A decent discussion of the use of coercion ending with this quote "Which means that in addition to being the first refuge of the lazy, coercion is also a refuge of the ignorant."

Turn Your Project Into A Pirate Ship

Bizare title, but it hooked me with this quote "doesn't like running a business team...kind of smacks of corporate horribleness. You know, those awful, embarrassing team-building exercises that you read about in business books."

Laffer and the Portability of Knowledge

Interesting point that starts by explaining the Laffer curve then applies it to knowledge. Informational, short and pictures to boot!

Limited WIP Society

Not much there but a definition of What Is Kanban.

Breathe fire over HTTP in Ruby with Typhoeus

Any post referencing a obscure Greek god and parallel programming is a must read. Also worth mentioning is Ruby Fibers: 8 Useful Reads On Ruby’s New Concurrency Feature and Ruby-Toolbox.

Stuff I Have Found Interesting Today

A Deep Breath

Great post on how to prevent crisis in a project. Any summary wouldn't so it justice, but I will say the key is communication.

Is Asia Becoming the Center of the World Economy?

A thoughtful look into the current and possible future state of the world economy.

Management lessons from Gears of War 2

The title sucked me in and it was worth the short read.

The speed, size and dependability of programming languages

An interesting look at programming languages.