Sorting with Sound

via Geek.com — yes, I subscribe to stuff like this in my RSS reader …

I thought this was interesting on two levels …

The Engineering student within appreciates the differences in sorting techniques (although I think I could speed up that bubble sort …)
I also think these videos provide a simple illustration of the power of [...]

A Hierarchy of Information Requirements

It’s a common problem statement – ‘I don’t have enough information to (run my business unit, manage this process, identify opportunities, etc.)’. The solution designer, when faced with a question like this, starts with a little detective work; the problem is too broadly stated.

Perfect IT

I once met with a rather thoughtful Project Manager to catch up on things. An interesting person to talk to – it’s the cadence and style of his chat, he’s a fairly laid-back guy. I asked where his Stress comes from – he shows no visible signs of any, and it made me Ponder. We [...]

PMO Nirvana is a Conversation, not a Schedule

We continue to iterate on our PMO processes – managing too few resources and too many project requests, an environment I have consistently seen in every IT group I have ever worked with. Our latest discussion concerned the concept of FIFO work on projects …
… when presented with five things to do, I will only [...]

Another Take on Enterprise Open Source

Today’s best conversation was with Christopher Young, of B2BSX, a startup software exchange where corporate IT departments can buy and sell their development efforts, and make a little cash to offset stressed budgets. It’s an interesting idea, and spawned some ideas in a couple of different directions.Andy Hardy, IT DirectorEvery company I’ve worked for has [...]

Is SharePoint WSS dangerous to SharePoint contractors?

Firing Up Internal OpportunityIt was true last year, but even more so now; SharePoint is very important for corporate IT, both strategically (medium- and long-term) and tactically (short-term). Sure, it’s a terrific way to iterate on collaboration, internal portals, document management, etc. – “enabling innovation” in every buzzword-compliant sense. But there is solid benefit for [...]

News for Wombats: Taming Unreasonable Requirements

I’ve heard from a couple of friends about some “classic” project requests – dilemmas they have recently faced. These unreasonable requests can be turned into something achievable and, potentially, more relevant / meaningful to the requestor, by approaching the problem from a different direction.
Request for Data: the Analytics Project
Classic scenario #1 arrives courtesy of [...]

Hacking the Google Chart API from Excel

a bit of code on a Saturday night …I’ve written before about a simple way to measure and report IT value to the business – quantifying alignment with strategic initiatives  project spend in context. It all culminated with a single, simple slide – numbers, with some Tufte-esque Sparklines thrown in. Click on the picture for [...]

Best Practices for Requirements Gathering Sessions

It’s been a while since I’ve led an interactive requirements session for an interactive application – but it’s kind of like riding a bike. After a few minutes, the old habits come back, and the iterative ideas and cascading creativity starts to flow. What has changed, however, is the application platform, the office environment, and [...]

Agile Methods in a Waterfall World: Speaking In Code

Starting up a new project, and I’m definitely having fun with it. At first glance, it looks like a fairly small, departmental application, but it is actually part of a web of disconnected processes and local databases (ie. “a mess”) that support some fairly important master data. Also, the folks I’m working with are much [...]