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Showing posts from May, 2015

Curse of the Project's Gold

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I've worked for a few different companies, worked in pre-sales calling on lots of vendors and taught classes and did training with from teams from many different organizations.  This is my current list "curses" based on those experiences.  You can find lots of project warnings using a little google foo. Here are mine: I worked a team where everyone got a box of gold treasure. Knowing when it is better to leave the gold in the chest... No one is sure who the business owner is. The original "primary business problem" is not addressed by the project. The company believes it is immune to the three legged stool of "Cost", "Quality" and "Time". More bodies are added in order to make the project go faster in the current sprint. An egregious version of  Brook's Law The project expands to justify the cost.  See  Escalation of Commitment The CIO says that "they have never had a project come in late". Upper man

IPad, Chromebook, Windows 8 Tablet long term family test

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We've been conducting a long term "family" test on our coffee table for the past year or so. Our test subjects include an IPad (2), an HP Chromebook 14' and a Windows 8 (Winbook) 10" tablet. The devices are primarily used for web surfing, news reading, basic word games, social media and research when people need to prove they are right as part of a discussion. Our previous coffee table device was a Macbook Air that has been appropriated for other uses. Chromebook #1 Coffee Table We've been surprised how much we like this device. A Chromebook takes some getting used to at first because you don't install any software on it and you don't have to do any patches.  Software hacks like me are initially completely lost when getting a new Chromebook.  You don't have to install software because you can't install software.  It is the closest thing to an appliance.  This Wi-Fi and T-Mobile enabled Chromebook has become the house go-to devic