Imagine this scenario: your spouse, child or loved one is critically ill and is transferred from hospital to hospital, in search of that “House-like” diagnosis that will bring a cure, or at least remission. Think about the physical pain, the mental anguish, the uncertainty. Now, layer onto that getting pushback from each hospital on releasing medical records. One hospital says it will forward the records in with 21 days, another says it will release the records, but at a cost of $1 per page, a third simply stonewalls. Twenty-one days, really!? One dollar per page!? Are you kidding!? Maybe it’s because I work in the technology industry that every time … Read More
Category Archives: Software Quality
The Impact of Outsourcing on ADM
Last week, Steve Hall, Partner & Managing Director at ISG (formerly TPI), presented a webinar on the topic of aligning vendor SLAs with long-term value. The discussion focused on the need to not only consider cost savings within ADM (Application Development & Maintenance), but also the importance of risk mitigation and value enhancement of vendor-client relationships. As businesses increasingly look to shift from a “Run the Business” (RtB) model to a “Change the Business” (CtB) perspective, broader adoption of software tools to provide automated function points counts and technical insights, as well as increase application structural quality, are critical to successfully moving to the CtB model. To read more on … Read More
The Speed of Diligence
One of the oldest conversations on record is the discussion of how to measure effective software development. One of the most used, most abused and least understood metric is “velocity.” Think Corvettes versus Volkswagens. Just to keep terms straight, velocity is the sum of the estimates of delivered/accepted features per iteration. Velocity can be measured in the same units as feature estimates, whether this is story points, days, ideal days or hours. On the one hand, velocity is a very simple measure for evaluating the speed at which teams deliver business value. It can provide tremendous insight into a project’s progress and status. Velocity will tend to stabilize over the … Read More
Mobilizing Security Failure
Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said that “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” But decades after Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers dominated the NFL, a new slogan joined the sports lexicon – “moral victory.” A moral victory, as best I can tell, is the “power of positive thinking” approach to the loser’s lament. Rather than suffer in indignity and wallow in self-pity, the losers bolster their efforts in their own minds by trying to find the “good” that came from the loss – whether it’s an improved performance or a great effort. I don’t know; to me, it still sounds like a loss. Many corporate IT departments have taken … Read More
Crash Course on CRASH Report, part 2: New Insights
I confess – I’m an “Urban Myths” junkie. That doesn’t mean I believe in every Urban Myth that comes across my email inbox; much to the contrary, in fact, I’m a born skeptic. I snicker at the widespread beliefs and openly wonder how someone could believe that Bill Gates would send them a check for forwarding an email or that Mr. Rogers was a Marine sniper or that some currently popular entertainer was born a different gender. This is why I have Snopes.com on Internet speed dial and I DVR the television show “Mythbusters”. I guess not only am I a born skeptic, I appreciate knowing when myths and legends … Read More
Will You Source Them Here or There
My wife often jokes that we had a child for the sole purpose of giving me a good reason to read Dr. Seuss’ books on a regular basis. When she does this I object- vehemently; she is absolutely wrong! I would most definitely read Dr. Seuss whether or not I had a child. So it came as no surprise last week that I found myself reading “Green Eggs and Ham” to my daughter. After finishing the book and tucking her in, I sat down to do some work and began thinking about something in the recent CAST Report on Application Software Health (CRASH). The CRASH study noted there was no … Read More
What the New York Giants Can Teach Us about Software Quality
As we all know, Sundays are for football, and this past Sunday brought some choice matchups. Although I am a devout fan of the New England Patriots, one of my favorite games paired the undefeated Green Bay Packers, led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and Eli Manning’s New York Giants. Tied with less than two minutes to go in regulation, Rodgers did his best Tom Brady imitation, leading his team on a spectacularly engineered drive that preserved their as-yet unblemished record. After the game, I wondered if Giants Head Coach Tom Coughlin repeated his prior week’s answer to reporter’s question, where he stated that his staff had prepared the team, but … Read More