Simple and Useful Projects

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Who is to blame? Try the I-shikawa diagram.

  • Is Agile a cancer to be eliminated?

    Back in September 2014, Erik Meijer, a Dutch computer scientist, gave a remarkable keynote speech at Reaktor Dev Day in Helsinki, Finland.  It began with a claim that “Agile is a cancer that we have to eliminate from the industry”. You can follow the full video at Vimeo . This speech incited a large number…

  • If you give a mouse a scope cookie…

    It may not be scope creep that is troubling your project, but scope seep. And it may be self-inflicted. “Scope Seep” is what happens when the project team introduces additional scope of work not requested by the customer. Have a look at “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”. It is not for children only. Quite the contrary. “If You…

  • Need social media detox?

    If you are reading this, you may need a social media detox.  Just type a “social media detox” in Google and you will find enough to make you think. Here are a few: Are You Addicted to Social Media? Gabrielle Bernstein’s story from addiction to a successful author on life improvement; 10 Strategies for a Summer Social Media Detox by…

  • Are you a multitasking project manager?

    How often do you fiddle with your smartphone during critical teleconferences? Or attend to e-mail pop-ups on your desktop? Our brain does not multitask – it switches between tasks. UK research shows that multitasking lowers IQ by 10 points. There are reasons why people multitask; you may recognize some of them in your behaviour.  If…

  • Agile + Waterfall = Hybrid

    Not only cars, also projects can be hybrid.  An upcoming theme in the last couple of years are waterfall-planned and agile-driven projects, or hybrid, if you like. A rule of the thumb seems to be that going hybrid makes sense when software development and infrastructure deployment are equally represented. A number of interesting blogs, articles,…

  • Signs of a failing project: recognise some?

    Going for project success is obvious, but how can we know if a project is headed to a failure? If we define that a project will fail if: – It does not deliver what is needed and expected; – Goes far out of budget and post-delivery cost; – Will or cannot deliver on time. Then…

  • To endorse or not to endorse?

      What  is a social network endorsement worth? Just having revisited my own LikedIN page, I realized that I had received quite some from the people I know, worked with, or worked for. I have not given any endorsements as yet, although many of those folks who endorsed me deserved them as well. Somehow, I…

  • Your project does not work… Cargo Cult maybe?

    Your project does not work and you cannot figure out why. Is it possible that your team and you are victim to the Cargo Cult science? … They’re doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn’t work… Reading Richard Feynman’s commencement address given at Caltech in…

  • Twelve disruptive technologies by 2025

    McKinsey&Company report on twelve disruptive technologies that have a potential to change the global economy by 2025. Some of them are already here ad may be of importance to your business as well.

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