BrainsLink

We have a disconnect in the agile community. Agile approaches to software development are not about technology departments like Information Technology, Engineering or Research and Development. Agile development approaches are about customers, knowledge workers, and successful outcomes. This fundamental concept seems to be difficult for many companies to grasp. Or, maybe many managers and developers […]

Software developers, testers, analysts and managers are known to be detail oriented. We need to know exactly what needs to be done so we can devise and implement software algorithms. We need answers to detailed questions so we can make the right implementation decisions. Meanwhile, business people don’t always have all the answers. This is […]

I feel compelled to weigh in regarding the recent decision by Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, dropping the company’s work-from-home option beginning in June. Yahoo will require that employees work in an office location (unless they have a need to work from home such as a visit by the “cable guy”). Firstly, I have to […]

You want your software development team to switch from using a waterfall approach to using an agile approach like Scrum, Kanban, Lean or XP. Should you do it gradually or go cold turkey (all at once)? Before you answer that question there are a few things to consider. Let’s walk through an example. This will […]

Guest Blog I’m pleased to have Anders Ingerstedt, founding partner of Colabpro Outsourcing Ltd, as a guest blogger today. Agile is a buzzword. It is replicating and spreading into new domains beyond technology and software development, where it originated. Agility is — no denials accepted — a good capacity in any corporate environment, as it […]

As we say goodbye to 2012 and prepare to greet 2013, we need to think about what we want to accomplish in 2013. Specific goals and objectives will vary widely among companies, workgroups and individuals. I can’t help you with those. What I hope to help you with is how you achieve those goals and […]

Hewlett-Packard is in the news a lot lately. The company has made a few truly horrific moves in the last 2+ years. Here’s my 2 cents worth on what went wrong and how to fix it. [I’m not going to rehash the historical events at HP. If you want to read a good summary of […]

Getting a big company to change the way it operates in any meaningful sense is always tough. They invest lots of time and money in establishing best practices and training people to follow them. Change happens but it’s never simple or quick when hundreds or even thousands of people are involved. This causes major issues […]

Some software projects stay in “beta” status for what seems like forever — a kind of perpetual beta. It may seem odd but let’s think about this. Most businesses are effectively in perpetual beta, so the software they develop must be too. How can a mature business be in perpetual beta? How can it not! […]

Software development estimates are horribly inaccurate. The business people want to know how long it will take and what it will cost to build a software system — fair enough. Businesses routinely operate with schedules and budgets. However, because businesses have schedules and budgets, the business leaders already know how much time they’re willing to […]

Companies create Project Management Offices (PMO) as a means of improving software project success rates and establishing best practices. Regrettably, many of these PMOs fail to offer anything constructive. They are often burdensome, costly and wasteful. PMOs are a good idea, in principle. They can be enormously beneficial when done right. When done poorly – […]

Did Apple make a major blunder in dumping Google Maps and rolling out its own mapping solution? Was Apple dumb enough to believe that its iOS mapping app is as good as or better than Google’s app? Not a chance! I think many people are missing the boat with regard to Apple’s actions and motivations. […]

You’ve delivered a new or improved software application. Congratulations! Now you find that the software is not receiving the enthusiastic reception you expected. Some people are complaining about defects. Others are whining about missing features. Something seems to have gone wrong. Unfortunately, this scenario is more common than not in software development. We can try […]

Much of what happens around us involves trial and error or the process of elimination. For example, if you’ve ever gone to a medical doctor complaining of not feeling right, you’ve seen this in action. Doctors rarely pinpoint a medical condition immediately. They usually start eliminating possibilities by asking questions. They run some tests that […]

Have you ever noticed that start-up companies have a sense of urgency while established companies have a sense of preservation? It makes sense when you think about it. Start-ups have nothing to lose. They have little or nothing to preserve. They need to build something and get it out into their target markets. Only then […]

Enterprise-scale software development is bit like car racing. I’m not thinking about speed or agility. I’m thinking about complexity. Hear me out. Let’s take NASCAR racing as an example. It looks simple. Drivers go round and round on a track as fast as they can. Fastest car wins, right? Not at all! Racing crews win […]