Quite a gap in time 2011-07-14

Everything's the same. Everything's different.

Just now, I'm learning about more effective ways to generate complex written personal documents for clients.

Also about more effective ways to streamline internet and mobile communication with clients.

Celebrating Christmas  2003-12-24

The world may be full of many ways in which the strong mistreat the weak. More importantly, there are many beautiful things in the world. Courage, generosity and affection are there too.

In Perspective  2003-11-19

Of course you really need to be clear about your Mission Statements.

Clarity about goals is so important.

It would be all too easy to be cynical when so many organisations don't mean to do anything other than have one. Not a Mission, but only a Mission Statement.

Dilbert.com knows a thing or two about how to fake this stuff. Just a warning for us to be careful.

But YOU can get your team to build an enlivening Mission Statement that truly works. All you need to do is focus on the team and focus with them on the customers. Read this: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Have a great November.

Business is Gardening, not Construction  2003-08-18

I was reading a techy article when it hit me that Business is Gardening. Everybody promises us that all we have to do is design a good business plan and then construct the business according to that plan and all will be well. If there are any problems, then either we chose a bad design or we didn't follow the design carefully enough.

Trouble with that scenario is that it assumes a changeless world and that your plan will turn out to have been perfect.

Your business plan is important. Planning for a garden is important. But "the garden doesn't quite come up the way you drew the picture. This plant gets a lot bigger than you thought it would. You've got to prune it. You've got to split it. You've got to move it around the garden. This big plant in the back died. You've got to dig it up and throw it into the compost pile. These colors ended up not looking like they did on the package. They don't look good next to each other. You've got to transplant this one over to the other side of the garden."

"Everybody says, I want a low maintenance garden, but the reality is a garden is something that you're always interacting with to improve or even just keep the same."

The value of your business is the value that you and your co-workers are creating. It's deliberate, it's a shared effort, it's changing and growing all the time. It's fun. Make it fun.

Excellence in Goals, Excellence in Methods  2003-07-11

I'd like to return to the theme of Is Worse Better? which I mentioned back in September last year.

It's true that computer programs can add enormous value to your business. But it is a fact that they will do so only if all the thinking and planning is directed to people issues and technical issues in that order.

You are Financially Well, But Otherwise Sour  2003-06-08

It happens to every leader. Every measure says that your organisation is running smoothly and to plan. Everybody is pleased with what you are doing. Why then this nagging doubt? Why this unease, even emptiness?

It could be that there is some new thing for you to accomplish and it's not quite surfaced yet. It could be time to wonder what do you want? How will you get there? Who will help you?

Never underestimate the people who work with you. It might be good to do some joint brain-storming.

Use Your Customers' Frustrations To Build Your Business  2003-04-27

This is an excellent idea because it is a reminder that lasting success is accessible only to those who care about mutual benefit.

Observe also in this piece that it is based not only on respect for the customer but also respect for one's own staff.

Let's have more theft  2003-03-02

I'm advocating Sun and Microsoft steal each other's good ideas. Well it can't be theft because no one owns good ideas.

C# has some wonderful ideas that I want Sun to adopt: properties, indexers and a wonderful kind of string where I can paste a multiline piece of SQL without a lot of editing pain.

Almost as impressive are delegates, enumerations and boxing.

Then there are the things that Sun and Microsoft both left out, parameterized classes and type inference.

There's a common reason. It's the same reason that causes me to condemn Entity Beans as "the only really bad idea in J2EE". It's the need for elegance, clean code, clean design, the destruction of bureaucracy. It's why I think that Java's lack of header files is wonderful.

Can't you just hear the laments of those who loved those C++ header files - they were supposed to be a safety feature!

Value and Service  2003-02-22

When you make new services and provide them at low cost, or you improve existing services, you are surely the champion of your organisation.

To succeed you need moral clout and you need technical know-how and you need a top team.

Agile  2002-11-12

Much more important than tools and technologies are the choices that we must make about how we will work.

A Google search for "agile fowler beck highsmith cockburn" sheds an enormous amount of light. These guys are writing some great books.

Just say NO to bureaucracy.

Databases and persistence  2002-10-11

I suspect we may come to regret losing interest in the advantages of relational databases. The major software vendors tend to drive discussion and debate in the world of software development. Or alternatively, we all get a little bored with a technology that seems a little less than brand new. Remember, software has no purpose apart from the needs of people and organisations. The new technologies enshrined in internet programming, in .NET and J2EE, are given great strength by using them with relational database technology.

The mere persistence of data doesn't signify a lot without a deep interest in its place in processes and the derivation of meaning.

Designing the internet 2002-09-30

You need to know the truth about software development. That it is a process of design rather than a process of manufacture.

Knitting  2002-09-22

There's a lot of risk taken when an organisation forgets its knitting. The biggest risk is the misallocation of resources. It is managment's responsibility to gather the support of employees, customers, external suppliers and contractors to ensure that a common vision is being pursued. If management knows more than the customers, oh what a shame! If management refers to the employees as "resources", oh what a shame! If management forges relationships with external suppliers and contractors, only to treat them with mistrust, oh what a shame!

We're in learning mode, all the time, absolutely all the time.

Education is one thing ...  2002-09-21

Encouraging ourselves and each other has little to do with sanctions and incentives. A Plea to trust is a reminder that, when we focus on what is easily measured, we may lose sight of more important goals. When we look for a quick fix, we may be focussed on problems rather than goals.

Worse is Better  2002-09-20

One of the most captivating pieces I have come across is Worse is Better by Richard Gabriel.

More than just a joke it raises serious questions about the design of computer programs which give real value to the companies or institutions which commission them.