Welcome,
This blog was produced to create a space to discuss how IT professionals manage the high-tension pressures of work life in the Information Age.
Why call it Optimal Friction™? Simply put, we find that, for those of us in the field of Information Technology, high-pressure demands are a breeding ground for friction within and between organizations that affect us both personally and professionally. In this environment – to build more and more in less and less time – friction is a fact of life. Small amounts are unrealistic – too much can exacerbate conflict and drive a team to failure. Somewhere in between lies a sweet spot where friction is optimal, serving a useful purpose, but not causing collapse - at work, in health, and at home.
We encourage our fellow professionals to weigh in on this topic. We want to share ideas and solutions. Welcome to the conversation.
- Michael Mah
June 22, 2009
Rightsizing Your Project in a Down Economy
...is the topic of a new talk that Lee Copeland - chief poombah at SQE - asked me to give at the Fall 2009 Agile Development Practices Conference at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando FL this November.
I've got a few war stories to share since the case study format is what I find best for topics like these. Self-defeating behaviors are what I'll try to tackle; some of what happens in a recession falls into this category as people scramble to adjust to "compressed" thinking - compress my dates, budgets, (expand project scope), and compress my family life. How can we cope?
I'd welcome folks to weigh in on this subject by the blog comments or via email. Send a message to my attention at info@qsma.com. Would love to hear from you! Or better yet, come to Orlando on November 9th. Here's a description of my talk:
Rightsizing Your Project in a Down Economy
In tough times, both shoes drop simultaneously and “scarcity thinking” takes over in senior executives, managers, and development teams. In this environment, dysfunction can wreak havoc on your projects in the form of scope greed, death-march deadlines, and budget cuts. Often, the tendency is to say “yes” to impossible dates, take on too much, suffer the budget cuts, and pray that heroics might save the day. This is a disaster waiting to happen. It takes a skillful manager to “rightsize” critical projects – right team, right scope, right dates – at the beginning. Scarcity thinking threatens all three. Michael Mah describes how to lead difficult conversations to discuss the “undiscussables.” Michael shares how to artfully frame trade-offs for stakeholders to set priorities and get buy-in by using a blend of common sense, essential measurement concepts, and rules of software estimation. Whether you’re agile, waterfall, or offshore, discover information you need to make the right choices and gain the support of your organization.
more...Continue reading "Rightsizing Your Project in a Down Economy"
Posted by Mike at 1:07 PM | Comments (0) |
May 16, 2009
Inspiration
A slightly off-topic post, off my Facebook. I'm thinking of a mother who lost a son on the hijacked plane that struck WTC Tower2 on 9/11. Then deciding with her husband to build a girls school in Loghar Afghanistan - land where terrorists were trained - as a way to make PEACE; thus creating a tribute in her son's memory, transforming grief into inspiration and joy, and bridging cultures in faraway lands. That is the story of Sally Goodrich as told in the film-in-progress, "Axis of Good".
Director friend Rick Derby and I have gotten the documentary of Sally Goodrich's journey into the Berkshire International Film Festival www.biffma.com. Go see it in Gt. Barrington MA at the Triplex2, tomorrow, Sunday 5/17 at 4pm. Inspiring. Heartwarming. Incredible. Rick, Sally and Don Goodrich will be there to share, after the film concludes.
Continue reading "Inspiration"
Posted by Mike at 12:26 PM | Comments (0) |
May 5, 2009
Cutter Summit 2009
Hanging with my Cutter Summit gang at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Boston. Preparing for a Harvard Business School case study led by Rob Austin. Great fun! Weather stinks; it's not sunny like this picture shows. Check out the Tweets here.
Continue reading "Cutter Summit 2009"
Posted by Mike at 1:15 PM | Comments (0) |
April 23, 2009
New Metrics for Turbulent Times - Excerpts
Cutter IT Journal's issue on "New Metrics for Turbulent Times" is out! Here's an excerpt from my Guest Editor introduction. This issue contains some great articles by Cutter authors Vince Kellen, Michael Rosen, Evan Campbell, Sara Cullen, and William Walton on Ethics, IT Architecture, Agile Methods, Outsourcing, and Portfolio Management. Interested in more - perhaps a trial subscription? email me at info@qsma.com.
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New Metrics for Managing Turbulent Times
Point: Tough Times Demand New Metrics
The recession is forcing companies to make tough decisions. New metrics are needed to make the right decisions on getting through the downturn.
Counterpoint: Existing Metrics Are Good Enough
Organizations should resist the urge to concoct new measures when the existing ones, applied correctly, will do.
Opening Statement, by Michael Mah
The current economic downturn has cut a deep gash in the economies of virtually every country and industry, affecting the lives of perhaps every living person in many ways not seen in over 50 years. In a recent live appearance on CNBC, billionaire Warren Buffett said unemployment will likely climb higher and that the economy has basically “fallen off a cliff.” Fear is dominating Americans’ behavior and the economy has followed the worst-case scenario he envisioned. Moreover, in a global recession - fear goes global. It’s not limited to just Americans and U.S. companies. Economies around the world are more interdependent today than ever before. In work and in private life, no one seems immune from having to make tough decisions in the months ahead.
How do people make wise decisions in the face of such unrest? What information do they rely upon and how does that data come into play? When it comes to work life, if cutting costs are mandatory, should we simply make across-the-board cuts with a hatchet, or is it wise to find a more surgical approach? Or is this a time to make strategic decisions to invest, and thereby out-recover the competition when the recession ends? What information, what metrics, should we rely upon to decide?
more...
Posted by Mike at 2:18 PM | Comments (0) |
March 26, 2009
QSMA @ Better Software Conference...
I'm Sean Callaghan, QSMA's Director of Business Development and I’d like to invite you to join us at the Better Software Conference June 8-12 2009 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Among the many outstanding speakers is QSM Associates’ Managing Partner, Michael Mah, who will be sharing his latest findings on the state of Agile development, taken directly from his “real world” work with innovative companies who depend on creating great software....
Michael, along with QSMA's Anny Randel, will be offering workshops, discussion and insight at one of the software development industry's most important conferences. He is also teaming with Rally Development's Richard Leavitt to present a compelling case for the significant ROI advantages of Agile development.
So, whether you are Agile, considering it or are just looking for deeper insights into your software development metrics, please join us at this engaging and practical conference and expo. If you would like to sign up for any of our workshops, please let me know at info@qsma.com
Continue reading "QSMA @ Better Software Conference..."
Posted by Sean at 8:35 PM | Comments (0) |
January 5, 2009
New Metrics for Managing Turbulent Times
Happy New Year 2009!
I'm pleased to kick off an editorial New Year at Cutter Consortium as guest editor for the March 2009 issue of the Cutter IT Journal. I'm posting the call for papers here in case any of you sports fans would like to make a submission for consideration. Let me know by emailing me :)
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CALL FOR PAPERS
Cutter IT Journal
Guest Editor: Michael Mah
Abstract Submission Date: 13 January 2009 Articles Due: 6 February 2009
New Metrics for Managing Turbulent Times
The current economic downturn has cut a deep gash in the economies of virtually every country and industry, affecting the lives of perhaps every living person in many ways not seen in over 50 years. It seems as though the fall of communism was, in hindsight, a prelude to an even larger shockwave that would come and strike the heart of capitalism, completing a shakeup to economies of nearly every nation across the globe.
more...
Posted by Mike at 3:04 PM | Comments (0) |
November 24, 2008
Surviving, Thriving in Turbulent Times
Defensive postures abound during this current economic mess, and most everywhere you turn, the mantra is about making deep cuts to avoid costs. There's another approach: create a high-value, low-cost strategy that increases productivity while simultaneously delivering measurable value to company stakeholders, faster, than via traditional methods.
So... If I were a technology manager, I'd be focusing on key strategies to make the best out the current situation. I'd deliver smaller software releases with high value features - first and foremost at the top of the list, use teams that are as small as possible, and avoid costly rework by making sure that "tight communication-feedback loops" help get software done right, as much as possible, the first time. And secure management buy-in on this strategy by showing them ROI numbers on how it works. Sounds like Agile development.
"Agile in Turbulent Times," is the theme of a two-part webinar sponsored by Rally Software on Wednesday, December 10th at 1pm EST. I am pleased to be the host of Part 1, "Proving the Financial Benefit of Agile," where we'll show how to quantify the financial return, time-to-market, cost, and quality of successful agile strategies. The highlight will be the result of a study that QSM Associates performed on 30 agile projects across 9 companies, comparing the results against the QSM SLIM-Metrics database which contains trends from over 7,500 completed projects collected worldwide.
To read the detailed description, or to register for this event, click here. I look forward to having you join us!
more...Continue reading "Surviving, Thriving in Turbulent Times "
Posted by Mike at 7:56 PM | Comments (0) |
November 11, 2008
New SLIM 7.0 Release, Now Shipping
All of us at QSM are very excited about the new SLIM 7.0 Release which represents the latest state-of-the-art in software measurement and estimation. Personally, I feel that this is a major milestone in manifesting virtually all we know as a team in software measurement, management, and forecasting.
As many are well aware, what's especially exciting to me is the blending of "QSM science" in the space of helping companies implement Agile methods, and the way SLIM portrays how agile software projects behave. I've had the pleasure of using the models at two of the highest performing companies implementing XP and SCRUM, namely Follett Software and BMC Software, and creating trends and analyses that have been the crux of recent keynote and main stage talks at conferences like Agile 2008, Better Software, and Agile Develelopment Practices (where I am today, teaching a full-day session on Agile Metrics :)
But as you can see in the press release below, quantifying ROI, predicting schedule outcomes, forecasting project scope within deadlines, creating reliable velocity trends and burndown charts for stories and bugs etc. isn't just for the few; it's available to anyone who wants to "just do it" themselves. Below are quotes from Kim Wheeler of Follett and how she's used SLIM to achieve just about the highest level of productivity and quality that I've personally measured, something especially vital in these economic times. Across 6 projects, they've delivered software 50% faster than industry with twice the quality, while saving over $7.8 million! As a result, they are the dominant player in their marketplace, winning industry awards and increasing their market share and profitability. Bravo!
Guess what? We teach this stuff! I'd welcome you to any of my future conference tutorials or SLIM workshops in McLean VA. However, both our last class in October and our next class in December - have quickly sold out. (Don't be dissuaded - come see us in January!) You can contact Sean Callaghan at sean.callaghan@qsma.com for more information about upcoming events.
more...
Posted by Mike at 12:23 PM | Comments (0) |
November 4, 2008
Election Day Electricity
This November 4th day is brimming with excitement. I just returned from casting my vote, and found it interesting to use a traditional paper ballot to color in a dark circle signifying my voting choice, in this age of computers, software, and modern technology. Quite different than the last election, which used those old booths with the curtain like the Wizard of Oz. I understand they were invented in 1905, and my city still used them in the last election of 2004. (Ignore that man behind the curtain!!)
How interesting that we've "advanced" to using a piece of paper and a pencil, now that it's 2008 :)
Agile Development Conference
Speaking of exciting, next week I get to travel to every retiree's favorite Red State - Florida. [November 5th Election Update: Holy smokes!! BOTH Florida and Ohio turned BLUE! YES WE CAN!]
I'll be speaking at the Agile Development Practices Conference at the Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando. I had the privilege of Keynoting the last SQE Conference in Las Vegas, and if you're not constrained by your company's travel lockdowns in this crappy economy, I hope to see you at any one of these 4 sessions. Lee Copeland and his gang at SQE run amazing conferences, and this one promises to be even better. Here's where I plan to be:
Monday - I'm teaching a full day tutorial on "Using Metrics in Agile Environments," showing people how to do what I do using SLIM. I've taken my previous half-day session and expended it to a full day, to include estimation practices for Agile releases under tight deadlines. It got great reviews at the last Better Software Conference, so we've expanded it and made it even better. The class is virtually full, but I bet a space or two might still be available if you're interested.
Wednesday - Rally Software will be showcasing the results of a recent productivity study that QSM Associates conducted on results of using agile. We're going to give attendees an inside view of how we ran this analysis using the SLIM model and our database of 7,500 completed projects collected worldwide. This study showcases more than 30 projects from 9 companies using SCRUM and XP. I get to co-present with Richard Leavitt of Rally, who is a very dynamic and brilliant presenter.
Thursday - I'll be giving a talk entitled, "Maximizing Team Dynamics and Avoiding Dysfunction." This is a very cutting-edge talk about the people-oriented issues when teams work as closely together as in pair-programming. I plan to introduce ideas about "systems dynamics" and interpersonal interaction, bringing in concepts from my colleagues at the Harvard Negotiation Project, and the work described in a remarkable book called "Difficult Conversations."
Friday - Israel Gat, Sr. VP at BMC Software, will discuss how his team achieved results that we measured on very large Network Management releases using SCRUM, where their time-to-market was among the fastest in the QSM database. This kind of performance can be a dramatic disruptor to the status quo - rippling through engineering, marketing, and management. Being "too productive" apparently brings interesting problems. Israel is a powerful speaker, and I'll be on hand to answer questions about our work with them.
I hope to see you in Orlando!
more...Continue reading "Election Day Electricity"
Posted by Mike at 4:40 PM | Comments (0) |
September 16, 2008
More Data Comes In on Agile
Well well... things are getting interesting on productivity, time-to-market, and defects that our research is revealing on Agile methods. The latest comes via our collaboration with Rally Software, for whom our company is an Agile Enablement Partner.
There was such ballyhoo about my recent industry Keynotes and Main Stage sessions (Better Software 2008 and Agile 2008) and webinars on productivity findings at 5 companies implementing Agile, that Rally Software issued a call to other companies to consider allowing us to measure what was happening in their organizations.
So now we have data from 4 more organizations: CNET, Accuro Healthcare, Moody's Investors, and Homeaway Inc., who all agreed to participate in this new study and also to be named. This adds to the previous analysis that encompassed our findings from BMC Software and Follett Software, making a total of more than 30 Agile projects from 9 companies. In this latest study, projects reached time-to-market 37 percent faster than the industry average. Prefacing the results is an industry opinion on metrics from Melinda Ballou from IDC Corporation. You can read the full text by clicking here.
Stay tuned as more research findings unfolds as organizations transition to Agile methods. I'll keep you posted on what our analysis (using the QSM SLIM model) reveals.
more...Continue reading "More Data Comes In on Agile"
Posted by Mike at 4:03 PM | Comments (0) |
August 31, 2008
Chinese Olympic Gold Medals
Factoid: in 1984, China didn't win a single Olympic medal.
In the last Olympics in Beijing, they won an incredible 51 gold medals, The next closest was the United States at 36, and Russia at 23.
When I heard that statistic while on vacation last week with my children in Ogunguit Maine, I recalled a statement made by my fellow Cutter Consortium colleague Rob Austin, a professor at Harvard Business School. During a Cutter Summit Conference, Rob mentioned that in a nation of over 1.3 billion people, that China has more honor students than the U.S. has... students.
In my volunteer time, I happen to be a trustee at the Berkshire Country Day School in Lenox MA, a remarkable place that's provided a stellar independent school education here in the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts for more than 60 years. This year, we have an enrollment of about 180 students from pre-K through 9th grade. I imagine that in future years - our kids will have to compete against a nation where their A and A+ students outnumber our total students. Yikes.
In another interesting article from this weeks NY Times, another milestone has been reached: data that flows through the Internet now increasingly flows around the United States. In short, the era of Internet dominance by the U.S. is officially over.
Are becoming less relevant in the global economy, or at the threshold of irrelevance? Ed Yourdon, are you listening? Has anyone read some of Richard Florida's recent writings on the creative economy, most notably, "The Flight of the Creative Class"?
What happens when all those Chinese students decide that knocking off DVDs and CDs is boring, and that it's time to get creative and design killer-app software applications and other products and services that come from innovative thinking?
more...Continue reading "Chinese Olympic Gold Medals"
Posted by Mike at 11:20 PM | Comments (0) |
August 21, 2008
Jim Highsmith on Intrinsic Quality
I really liked this article by Jim Highsmith who is the Director of Cutter's Agile Product & Project Management Practice, so much so that I thought to post it here.
Much of Jim's writing on topics like these are available via Cutter Consortium. Ask for Jack Wainwright who can set you up with readership passwords and trial evaluations of Cutter's content.
Cheers :) Michael
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Intrinsic Quality: Why Testing Takes Time
This is a continuation of previous Advisors on quality, specifically ones on intrinsic quality (see " Investigating Agile: Inside and Out," 19 June 2008 and " Intrinsic Quality?" 3 July 2008). I want to address a very basic question: why is technical (intrinsic) quality so important? In previous Advisors and in the agile literature, the reduction of technical debt has been widely discussed. Agile pundits pose that continuous, comprehensive (every day, every iteration), automated testing is required to be truly agile. In this article, I'd like to address three very important aspects of why the focus on technical debt and testing are so critical: the impact of code quality on testing time, error location dynamics, and error feedback ratio.
Many people estimate testing time completely incorrectly -- mostly because they don't understand testing. The rough guideline they may use is something like: "Well, it took five days to code it, I guess it will take about three days to test it." While this rough estimate may work at times, testing time in general is not related directly to coding time. Testing time is related to defect density. For example, take a coding effort that takes four developers 10 days and they produce four KLOC (thousand lines of code). Assuming a half day to find and fix a defect, the testing time for a team that produces a module with one defect per KLOC (an achievable level) is two days. Code produced that had 15 defects per KLOC (very possible with a team that does minimal unit testing nor any automated testing) would require 30 days of testing time!
Many development teams, and many managers, wonder why testing takes so long -- and blame the testing team (the coding team made their schedule!). The greatest impact on testing time is not the testing team, however, but the coding team -- and their defect densities. A number of quantitative studies done in recent years by Cutter Senior Consultant Michael Mah attest to the higher quality of many agile projects and the positive impact on scheduling.
A second testing issue is error-location dynamics. A number of years ago, a large computer manufacturer did some studies of the time it took to find errors in software. The curve goes up from one or two hours to find easier defects to more than 50 hours for a small percentage of hard-to-find defects. Years ago, in one major airline reservation system, it took more than six months to find a bug that brought both primary and secondary systems down. One question this raises for testing is: how much money can you spend looking for unfound defects? The answer for a computer game and the space shuttle's avionics software would be much different. The agile practice of refactoring (both code and tests) can significantly decrease the percentage of hard-to-find bugs by improving code design, thereby reducing testing time. There will always be a curve of harder-to-find bugs, but the shape of the curve can be greatly altered by producing quality code.
The final testing factor to explore is error-feedback ratio, which is the number of new defects injected when fixing existing defects (20 new defects generated in fixing 100 defects would be an error-feedback ratio of 20%). Several years ago, Jerry Weinberg conducted studies on error-feedback ratio and found that a 20% difference in feedback ratio leads to an 88% difference in completion time (bad enough), but the next 10% increase leads to a 112% increase.
Have you ever worked on a project in which the code never seemed to stabilize, no matter how much testing was done? If the code has a high defect density to begin with, then it will probably have a high error-feedback ratio as well. Low-quality code causes worse error-location dynamics. Have you ever worked on a project where the testing seemed to take forever -- multiples of the budgeted time? All three of these factors we've discussed show why poor code (high defect density, lengthy error location curves, and high error-feedback rations) can lead to an inordinate amount of testing -- testing that can never (and I mean never, no matter how much testing is done), result in a high-quality code base.
In every maintenance release, the problem gets worse.
Agile developers and testers know that reducing technical debt (increasing intrinsic quality) is important. These three intrinsic quality factors -- the impact of code quality on testing time, error location dynamics, and error feedback ratio -- can help explain technical debt.
I welcome your comments on this Advisor and encourage you to send your insights on agile techniques and practices in general to me at jhighsmith@cutter.com.
Continue reading "Jim Highsmith on Intrinsic Quality"
Posted by Mike at 4:36 PM | Comments (0) |
July 21, 2008
How To Screw Up a Project - Period
I just published this piece through the Cutter Agile Project Management Advisory, entitled "When Agile Doesn't Work". I decided to share it here as well. I tried to emphasize here are two critical pieces: Domain Knowledge and Dialog. Screw these up, and it doesn't matter what approach you use; trouble awaits. But the counterfactual holds as well - do these well and you can succeed, regardless of the latest software development "religion." Enjoy :) --------------------------------------------------- Last month, I had the privilege of being one of four keynote speakers at the Better Software Conference in Las Vegas. I'm not a gambler,... more...
Posted by Mike at 11:24 AM | Comments (0) |
June 22, 2008
40 Hour Workweeks, Sustainable Overtime, and Productivity
Well, last week I recovered from a month that included preparing for (and then traveling to) Oslo Norway, and then (preparing for and traveling from) the East Coast to Las Vegas NV to teach and speak for three days at the Better Software Conference. It was an amazing month, but also physically - the month from hell.
Interestingly in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of listening to a keynote address by Mike Cohn (other keynoters included myself, Jean Tabaka, and Johanna Rothman - such amazing company :) One of Mike Cohn's slides struck home for me. Mike mentioned Kent Beck and the subject of sustainable overtime for software development teams. One of Kent's "rules" for agile teams is to never work two consecutive weeks of overtime. The thinking is that a recovery is in order if you choose to push yourself really hard in a given week. Cohn showed a slide illustrating productivity levels when a team violated this rule. In essence, as a team pushed itself week over week, productivity only rose in that first overtime week - after that, it fell and fell and fell... even as teams pushed and pushed and pushed.
I thought about my own energy levels over the recent month, which included marathon sessions in Europe in the midst of jetlag - first six hours ahead, then a week of cramming to prepare for teaching and keynoting in Vegas, and then switching my clock 3 hours behind to teach and lecture for another week.
No wonder that after getting home from that, I felt like I was run over by a truck. I thought about one of my last talks where I talked about my friend and mentor Ed Yourdon, author of "Death March." I once googled the term "death march projects", and came across this photo entitled "Mike Exhausted.jpg":
Bloodshot eyes and all, I can imagine that this "Mike" (I wonder where he works?) feels a lot like many software developers working impossible deadlines with insane overtime. I know one thing for sure - some days I also feel like this fellow looks, this day being one of them.
I imagine if I had a productivity meter strapped to my head, that it might be falling just like the chart in Mike Cohn's slides. That being said, it's clear that recovery is in order to get back to my usual self. It might take a while, but thinking of the last month, it took a while to get me to this level of fatigue. A fantastic burst in the short term, but not one that I can sustain over the long haul.
The root of it all? Schedule pressure. They say you teach best what you need most to learn (Read the book "Illusions" by Richard Bach).
More to come on this topic, after I get me some rest....
more...Continue reading "40 Hour Workweeks, Sustainable Overtime, and Productivity"
Posted by Mike at 12:13 AM | Comments (0) |
May 25, 2008
$10/Gallon Gas in Oslo Norway
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24896249/?GT1=43001...
In Oslo this week working with a client, a large multinational engineering firm. At one point, I thought my eyes were fooling me, jetlag and all, but it was real. Gas prices at almost 13 NOK (Norwegian Kroner) per liter. At the current exchange of $5 dollars per Kroner, that's almost $2.62 per liter. At 3.8 liters per gallon, you get... a gas price of almost $10 per gallon.
You thought $4 per gallon was painful? We ain't seen nothing yet.
And Norway is an oil rich country - the third largest oil exporter after Russia and Saudi Arabia. As to gas prices, the truth is the Norwegian government taxes gasoline heavily, resulting in extraordinary energy consciousness and conservation in this country. Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore is extremely popular in Norway. There was an all Electric Vehicle (EV) parade honoring the Nobel laureates at the awards ceremony last December. Increasingly, there are more of these electric cars parked on Oslo's streets: the Buddy Car :) Cute, eh?
They're so small that you see them parked perpendicularly on the streets of Oslo, nose outward, like a motorcycle. It ranked 29th in sales by automotive brands in Norway (2006 data), ahead of Jaguar, Fiat, Smart and Porsche, and goes from 0-50 mph in 7 seconds. I fell in love from the moment I saw them, and I want one for life back in the U.S. Interestingly, the first thing one of my companions said was an expression of concern about how it might hold up in a fender bender with an SUV. I'm less worried about that. Besides, at $10/gallon, a typical SUV would cost $200 to fill your tank (once). In time, there will be NO SUVs on American roads, especially with oil now at $135 per barrel. A year ago it was $50. We're heading toward $200. It will cost between $17,000 to $25,000 per year to DRIVE YOUR CAR!
At $200 per barrel, a May 21 2008 article by Thomas Friedman of Flat World fame cited recent congressional testimony by energy expert Gal Luft, who said OPEC could “potentially buy the Bank of America in one month's worth of production, Apple Computer in a week and General Motors in just three days.” Friedman's NY Times article talked about the enormous global economic power shift, with America's influence declining as oil prices rise along with the decline of the dollar. This is on a macroeconomic level. As an American traveling in Europe, I can tell you it hits hard on a micro level. The dollar is virtually impotent against European currency. A few years ago it was $9.20 against the Norwegian Kroner, falling to the current levels of $5, almost half. Against the Euro, it's at $1.57. (Last year it cost a fortune for me to give a lecture in Ireland.)
At current rates, a pizza costs $50 here in Oslo, and a Big Mac is $15. If Americans lived in Europe, they couldn't afford to eat or drive. A new world order? Enough to make you think about buying a Buddy car? What might it take?
Update June 1 2008: Check out this interesting article about gas prices in other countries, from MSNBC.com
* Footnote on Norway, from Wikipedia. "Since World War II, Norway has experienced rapid economic growth, and is now amongst the wealthiest countries in the world, with a Scandinavian welfare system. Norway is the world's third largest oil exporter after Russia and Saudi Arabia and the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of GDP. It has also rich resources of gas fields, hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals. Other main industries include food processing, shipbuilding, metals, chemicals, mining, fishing and pulp and paper products. Norway was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2006, and came second in 2007 (to fellow Nordic country Iceland). It also rated the most peaceful country in the world in a 2007 survey by Global Peace Index. It is a founding member of NATO.
Continue reading "$10/Gallon Gas in Oslo Norway"
Posted by Mike at 8:30 AM | Comments (0) |
May 15, 2008
Agile University Course June 19th
Good news! The workshop that I taught at the Cutter Summit on Agile Measurement is going to be offered through Agile University.
At the Cutter Summit it was a very exciting session with 30 representatives attending from companies like The GAP, Revlon, Union Pacific Railroad, and others. A hidden bonus: We left folks with a "kernel" of the QSM SLIM model, specifically the DataManager utility that is our capture template for agile project measures. After learning how to measure and estimate agile projects in the course, people have a chance to go back home and (gasp) do it for real!!
We're on a roll... this is also being taught in early June at the Better Software Conference on Monday of the conference week, June 9. If you're going to be at the conference, come along for the ride! Please also note that my keynote talk entitled "The Good, the Better, and the Rather Puzzling: The Agile Experience at Five Companies," is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Ciao!
more...Continue reading "Agile University Course June 19th"
Posted by Mike at 10:33 AM | Comments (0) |
April 1, 2008
Pumped Up About the May 7th Summit Workshop
Just finished creating a brand new workshop that I 'm teaching at the upcoming Cutter Summit conference. The cool thing will be "gestalt-ish" role playing - the exercises put attendees into simulated roles with difficult choices. (Unlike the real world, heh heh.) Seriously, the case study scenario is an amalgam of real company situations from recent clients (names changed to protect the innocent). It's already about 3/4 full from advanced registrations.
It will be good therapy. Here's the write-up; if any of you good folks want to join in on the fun, click here. For those of you already registered, get ready :) Here are a few photos of our illustrious curator Tom DeMarco, Prof. Rogelio Oliva of (Mays Business School and before that Harvard Business School), and Ed Yourdon, from last year's Innovation conference. For a look at our entire photo album, click here.
How to Collect and Use Metrics in Agile Software Development Environments
If you're implementing or considering agile methods in your organization, how do compare productivity and quality against waterfall projects? Join Michael Mah to understand both agile and waterfall metrics, and how to communicate differences in the ways they behave to key decision makers.
In this tutorial you'll learn how to move from a project whiteboard to create project trendlines on productivity, time-to-market, and defects using your own data. Get an inside look at agile measurement by seeing this in action using real case studies. Learn how to replicate these techniques to make your own comparisons on time, cost, and quality. And discover how to leverage these methods to make the case for change with your management teams at your company.
During this hands-on session, you'll use your laptop to capture metrics and do productivity calculations. You'll be paired two-by-two, and together learn to use metrics data capture templates provided by Michael. As an added benefit, you will also be offered an option for follow-up project collection after the Summit, including one-on-one metrics calculations via webinar with Michael.
more...Continue reading "Pumped Up About the May 7th Summit Workshop"
Posted by Mike at 1:13 PM | Comments (0) |
March 25, 2008
Cutter Summt Conference, Cambridge MA May 5-7
Wow... I just reviewed the program for the 2008 Cutter Summit Conference which is just around the corner from May 5th - 7th in Cambridge MA. I'm told that the program will be a sellout, with registrations far exceeding last year. Take a look at the agenda; topics include overcoming organizational dysfunction, the future of Internet revenue generation, Mission to Mars: A Harvard Business School Case Study, and a plethora of topics from speakers like Lou Mazzuchelli, Prof Alan McCormack, Tim Lister, Tom DeMarco, Mike Rosen, Vince Kellen, Prof Eric Clemons, and Roberto Verganti. There will also be an exciting... more...
Posted by Mike at 2:29 AM | Comments (0) |
