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Scrumming For Dollars
“Systems Engineering with SysML/UML” author Tim Weilkiens recently tweeted:
Tim’s right. Check it out yourself: Scrum Guide – 2011.
Before Tim’s tweet, I didn’t know that “software” wasn’t mentioned in the guide. Initially, I was surprised, but upon further reflection, the tactic makes sense. Scrum creators Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland intentionally left it out because they want to maximize the market for their consulting and training services. Good for them.
As a byproduct of synthesizing this post, I hacked together a UML class diagram of the Scrum system and I wanted to share it. Whatcha think? A useful model? Errors, omissions? Does it look like Scrum can be applied to the development of non-software products?
Weirdos
On the top left, we have a recent Hugh MacCleod cartoon. On the top right, we have the cover of Seth Godin’s book, “We’re all Weird“. On the bottom center, we have the Zappos.com 10 core values. Do ya think these people are onto something?
Where are you on this scale?
12/05/11 UPDATE
One courageous reader sent me a pic with his position on the scale:
Any other takers?
Product Lifetime
The UML state transition diagram below depicts the growth, maturity, and retirement of a large, software-intensive product. There are a bazillion known and unknown factors that influence the longevity and profitability of a system, but the greatest determinant is how effectively the work in the upfront “Develop” state is executed.
If the “Develop” state is executed poorly (underfunded, undermanned, mis-manned, rushed, “pens down“, etc), then you better hope you’ve got the customer by the balls. If not, you’re gonna spend most of your time transitioning into, and dwelling within, the resource-sucking “Fix” state. If you do have cajones in hand, then you can make the customer(s) pay for the fixes. If you don’t, then you’re hosed. (I hate when that happens.)
If you’ve done a great job in the “Develop” state, then you’re gonna spend most of your time transitioning into and out of the “Enhance” state – keeping your customer delighted and enjoying a steady stream of legitimate revenue. (I love when that happens.)
The challenge is: While you’re in the “Develop” state, how the freak do you know you’re doing a great job of forging a joyous and profitable future? Does being “on schedule” and “under budget” tell you this? Do “checked off requirements/design/code/test reviews” tell you this? Does tracking “earned value” metrics tell you this? What does tell you this? Is it quantifiably measurable?
Chain Of Disapproval
Apple-less
Amazingly, I’ve never owned an Apple product. Despite this fact, I admire Apple and the culture that Steve Jobs brutally, but single-handedly, instilled into the company. These excerpts from “Jobs questioned authority all his life” explain why:
Jobs called the crop of executives brought in to run Apple after his ouster in 1985 “corrupt people” with “corrupt values” who cared only about making money. Jobs himself is described as caring far more about product than profit.
He told (biographer) Isaacson they cared only about making money “for themselves mainly, and also for Apple — rather than making great products.”
Despite Apple’s unprecedented success behind Jobs’ “products, strategy, people” credo, most captains of industry and their mini-me clones just don’t get it – and it looks like they never will. I think capitalism is the least inequitable “ism” there is, but extreme capitalism is no better than any other “ism“.
Collage Of Influence
In a stream of (un)consciousness, I whipped together a collage of people who have greatly influenced my thinking over the years. The criteria for inclusion were: 1) they had to be alive today (with one exception), 2) no one in the entertainment or sports industries, 3) no politicians (that was easy), and 4) I’ve never met them face to face.
How many of my influencers do you recognize? What would your collage of influence look like?
The Value Zone
Even though it’s been on my Kindle for a year, I just finished reading HCLT CEO Vineet Nayar‘s book, “Employees First, Customers Second“. It was low on my priority list because I already had read a slew of articles about the book when it was first released.
In EFCS, Vineet describes “the value zone” and “the so-called enabling functions” as follows:
So, how did Mr. Nayar “force” the superiors who dwell in the enabling functions to be accountable to the value-creators? He did it by effectively implementing the HCLT “Smart Service Desk” (SSD) – a twist on the typical problem management system employed by most companies to resolve customer issues. Here’s how it works:
- Whenever an employee has a problem or needs information, he or she opens a ticket that is directed to the appropriate department for handling (including senior management and the CEO).
- Each ticket has a deadline for resolution.
- The system is transparent so that all could see the contents of the tickets and where they are in the process.
- The employee who had opened the ticket is the one to determine whether the resolution is satisfactory, or if the issue has been resolved at all.
Shortly after placing the SSD into execution, people “were opening tickets at an average of thirty thousand per month (at a time when there was a total of about thirty thousand employees in the company)“. Vineet sums up the system’s success as follows:
People were embracing the system. It was a victory for honesty, transparency, and openness!
Related articles
- HCL Technologies quarterly net profit rises 50 percent (news.bioscholar.com)
- Why HCL Technologies puts employees ahead of customers (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
- HCL Tech Q1 net up 50% at Rs. 496.7 crore (thehindu.com)
- Valuing Employees (Really!): Lessons from India (forbes.com)
Dejected, Frustrated, Infuriated
How often does this happen to you?
Never, right? Just in case you do experience feelings of dejection, frustration, and infuriation from time to time, how do you you handle those pesky little critters? Suppression? Expression?
Cronies Need Not Apply
In great orgs, cronies need not apply for influential positions because there’s no chance of them getting appointed. In DYSCOs, CLORGs, and BOOGs, cronies need not apply because they’re guaranteed to get anointed.
Reckless Meritocracies
Being a staunch advocate of democratic meritocracy, when I stumbled across the title of this potentially UCB-loosening op-ed by Ross Douthat; “Our Reckless Meritocracy“, I dove right in. I was intrigued by the use of the word “reckless” in the title.
Ross commences his opinion piece by telling the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of Jon Corzine:
- Boy grows up in rural Illinois
- Boy’s grandfather was a farmer who lost everything in the great depression
- Boy graduates from Illinois state university
- Boy goes into Marine Corps
- Boy gets MBA
- Boy works for regional bank
- Boy works for Goldman Sachs
- Boy becomes Goldman Sachs CEO
- Boy serves in US senate
- Boy serves as governer of NJ
- Boy returns to Wall St. as CEO of MF Global
- MF Global files for bankruptcy after “mislaying” $600M
- Boy resigns in disgrace (but with plenty of dough in the bank)
Ross uses this lead-in to postulate that the US has “created what seems like the most capable, hardworking, high-I.Q. elite in all of human history – and we’ve watched this same elite lead us off a cliff“.
Ross then theorizes on how catastrophies are perpetrated by the rich and powerful in reckless meritocracies, hereditary aristocracies, and one-party states:
- Hereditary aristocracies: debacles caused by stupidity and pigheadedness
- One Party States: debacles caused by ideological mania
- Reckless Meritocracies: debacles caused by hubris
Relative to the other two forms of governance, at least scores of little people aren’t physically massacred in reckless meritocracies. They’re simply thrust into poverty. The real genius of reckless meritocracy is that when a meritocrat falls, he/she isn’t beheaded. At worst, he/she goes to jail. At best, he/she gets away with a huge bag of loot.
So, what’s a democratically run institution to do? Mr. Douthat rightly states that “it will do America no good to replace the arrogant with the ignorant, the overconfident with the incompetent“. (Didn’t you see the movie “Idiocracy“?)
We need intelligent leaders with a sense of their own limits, experienced people whose lives have taught them caution. We still need the best and brightest, but we need them to have somehow learned humility along the way. – Ross Douthat
If you made it thus far into this post, you may be wondering why BD00 is wasting your time by simply parroting Ross Douthat in yet another meta-blog post? It’s because BD00 wanted to display his fledgling UML skill again:
But wait! It may ironically be because of BD00’s own personal lack of humility and the fact that BD00 gets off on reading funny spammer comments like these:
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