Hammers and Nails

When all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail.

When you don't have a hammer, there's nails everywhere.

***

Recommended New User Story Format, Because New

There's a playful way of explaining the reason why one does something. The argument ends with the rationale "because <noun or adjective>."

We can recommended this as new format for user stories, because it's aligned with how people speak these days.

AS A phone user, I WANT TO upload photos in one click, BECAUSE one-click!

AS A bank customer, I WANT TO see my balance on my phone, BECAUSE money!

***

PROJUCT MANAGEMENT

With a slip of the tongue, I came up with a wonderful, terrible portmanteau:

"Projuct". Defined as the product of a project.

*** 

Table Tennis Blades Composition

 Composition of some blades I'm interested in.

Blade				Core				Info Source
Waldner Legend Carbon	n/a	Kiso Hinoki	Carbon	Kiri	Carbon	Kiso Hinoki	n/a	Donic website
Original Carbospeed (aka Ovtcharov Carbospeed)	n/a	Kiso Hinoki	Carbon	Kiri	Carbon	Kiso Hinoki	n/a	Donic website
Donic Waldner Senso V1	n/a	Limba	Limba	Abachi	Limba	Limba	n/a	Donic website
Donic Waldner Senso Carbon	Limba	Anegre	Carbon	Abachi	Carbon	Anegre	Limba	Donic website
Donic Persson Powerplay	Koto	Anti-vibration film	Abachi	Abachi	Abachi	Anti-vibration film	Koto	Donic website
Donic Persson AR	n/a	Limba	Red Abachi	Abachi	Red Abachi	Limba	n/a	Donic website
Yasaka Extra Offensive 7 Power
Yasaka Extra Special	Walnut	Limba	Ayous	Ayous	Ayous	Limba	Walnut
Yasaka Ma Lin Soft Carbon
DHS Fang Bo B2X	Limba	Limba	ALC	Ayous	ALC	Limba	Limba
Stiga Clipper	Limba	Ayous	Ayous	Ayous	Ayous	Ayous	Limba
Stiga Infinity VPS	n/a	Limba	Spruce	Ayous	Spruce	Limba	n/a
Tibhar Stratus Powerwood	n/a	Limba	Limba	Ayous	Limba	Limba	n/a

Iron Lean

 From a Lean perspective, is ironing the bottom 1/4 of your shirt a waste? (The part that gets tucked in).

***

The MoSCoW Unprioritisation Prioritisation Technique

The most popular requirements prioritisation technique in the universe is called MoSCoW.

The acronym stands for:

M - Must have

S - Should have

C - Could have

W - Won't have

The problem with MoSCoW is that it's really not a prioritisation technique.  

It's just a priority labelling technique.  All it does is let you label the requirements.  It doesn't tell you which of the requirements ought to be labelled 'Must have' and which ones ought to be labelled 'Won't have'.

MoSCoW is no different from using colour codes on requirements such as: green for must haves, blue for should haves, yellow for could haves, and red for won't haves. 

***

The Road Not Taken Because You Shouldn't Take It

If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter how far ahead you are.

***

Mini Book Reviews

Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership 4th Ed.   Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E, Deal.

Recommends viewing organisations through 4 frames or lenses: factory, family, jungle, and temple, to get a better understanding of how an organisation works and avoid being clueless about problems in the organisation.  ‘Reframing’ is about dismantling existing frames of mind about the organisation and rebuilding into a new frame.

Scenario-Driven Planning: Learning to Manage Strategic Uncertainty. Nicholas C. Georgantzas and William Acar. (1995).

Scenario-planning is a management tool against ‘dogmatism’ and ‘fads’. It enable articulation and validation of mental models about the future. The book is full of practical and diverse examples, plus a plethora of references to relevant literature.

“The Fox” by Frederick Forsyth

“The Fox” is the latest thriller from perhaps my favourite fiction writer.

What I like most about Forsyth's works is the sense of being educated while reading. He brings the readers to part of the world they have never been, and likely will never be.  I don't just mean physical places in the world, but also 'worlds' like the world of spies and the echelons of power.

This time Forsyth brings together the themes of cyberattacks, North Korean nuclear aspirations, Russian leadership thuggery, and hopes for a geopolitical control of the West, special forces of the West, the East, and the middle East.

In his trademark style, Forsyth includes lots of insider information in his story.  This is mostly what draws me to his works – I subconsciously feel (unjustifiably I know) that fiction is a waste of time and find it hard to justify spending time on them when there’s so much non-fiction around.  (I don't have the same problem spending hours watching fiction TV shows and movies, though).

Compared to his original masterpieces,  “The Jackal”, and “The Dogs of War”, this one feels thin.  The characters are cardboard depth (though that is somewhat usual for all of Forsyth’s works).  The story was too neat, too easy, too fantasy-like, almost like a Disney movie for grown-ups.  The young hacker was too skilled, his special forces security too lucky, the closure of the story too convenient.

Nevertheless, it was still a page-turner for me. I had to resist flipping to the last chapter to see how it all ends.

The other best thing about Forsyth’s works is his technique of letting us into the thinking and decision-making of the primary characters.  While their personalities were cardboard cutouts, getting inside the minds of these first rate political thinkers were 90% of the enjoyment.

Readers who have a technical background in cyber-security are well-advised to suspend disbelief.  This is where the facts fall really short and the limits of Forsyth’s technical knowledge appears shallow, maybe even uninformed. Hopefully, his knowledge is more authoritative in areas where I don't know much about, and the non-fiction aspects of this book are not fiction.

Book Review of ‘Fundamentals of Project Performance Measurement’

This short book (119 pages) covers the basics of measuring project progress via earned value management.

The author (Robert R. Kemps) argues that you cannot measure project progress simply by monitoring cost expenditures versus budgeted expenditures. If your actual expenses by a certain date is less than the budgeted expenses by that date, that information doesn’t really tell you anything – are spending less than expected or are you simply running behind schedule? Adding the work completed to the measure gives you better understanding: you can now tell why your project is spending less than expected. It could be because, some of the work that was expected to being had not yet begun.

Kemps also underlines the importance of technical performance as the third measure to factor in. Just because work is reported as being complete does not mean it is complete.  Unfortunately there is not much information in the book as to how to measure technical performance besides ensuring that it is tracked.

A baseline is important, the author asserts, because without it, the integrity of the project progress measures (and by extension, project management), is at risk, because readjustments to cost and schedule and technical performance leaves no trace behind.

It lists neither references nor a bibliography.

Recommendation: A basic book on earned value measurement, useful as an introductory reference for both the motivation behind earned value and how to do it.