Archive for Juli 2nd, 2008

Managing incomplete Knowledge (Pender, Steven 2001)

Mittwoch, Juli 2nd, 2008

ICK (thumb)

Pender, Steven: Managing incomplete knowledge – Why risk management is not sufficient, in: International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 19 (2001), pp. 79-87.

Pender basically looks into the question if project risks is better described by the term ‚incomplete knowledge‘ and therefore be linked to probability theory. (Kudos to everyone who did the PMP and still knows which contingency reserve accounts for ‚known unknowns‘ and which for ‚unknown unknowns‘.)

He looks into the question of randomness (probability vs. non-probability), repeatability, human limitations to understand such a complex thing as a project, uncertainty & ignorance, flow of knowledge, and fuzziness of parameters.

Posted in Knowledge Management, Risk Management | 1 Comment »

Why does Software cost so much? (DeMarco, Tom 1995)

Mittwoch, Juli 2nd, 2008

WDSCSM? (Thumb)

Let’s start with a real classic. Tom DeMarco’s „Why does software cost so much? And other puzzles of the information age“ (http://www.amazon.com/Why-Does-Software-Cost-Much/dp/093263334X)

Well, it is a bit aged but given the projects I have seen, it is far from being outdated. So what is his answer? It’s Peopleware not Software and people have to function in their roles and sometimes they don’t.

DeMarco lists as root causes: Scheduling errors („The schedule is crap, when even high performers have no slack“), missing accountability by management („I don’t ask for an estimate, I ask for a promise!“), missing prioritization („All these recommendations for improving ourselves are great. But what if only one thing succeeds? What would it be?“), and the general tendency to ‚fuck up‘ the end-game (i.e. value capturing after implementation).

And of course DeMarcos specialty – Software Development Metrics. He adds the nice insight that measuring something without a clear idea how to improve on that metric is a waste of time and money. It might be worthwhile to sample business case points etc. for a while, but in the long-run only defect counts should be institutionalized.

Posted in Books, Software Development | 1 Comment »

Why this Blog?

Mittwoch, Juli 2nd, 2008

Dear Internet:

as you might know from my many searches on scholar.google.com, I currently try to build something, which could be the basis for a thesis on project management. My personal style of working is most effective when I summarise articles and books into pages of my notebook. Today I wanted to look something up, I knew I had written down a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately that made me realise that I spent a significant amount of time flipping through what is now some 70 pages of my notebook, with no X1 or Google Desktop to help me out.

Solution: This blog!

Posted in Admin | No Comments »