Cutting Development Time

I read that Jeff Bezos of Amazon makes champions of new projects start by writing an imaginary press release about the benefits of the new project. That’s nice.

Then after a while, I understood. This is different from typical development, where you build something and then try to figure out the benefits.

By starting with the benefits, when there is still energy to edit and improve, we get the very best benefits, the sparkling benefits. That cuts out a lot of trial-and-error development, and makes a more purpose-designed product, slimmer and more elegant.

Instead of picking up the castoff ideas from the shop floor, or going from version 1 to version 2 to version 3 to come up with a successful product, why not spend your energy to define what good is and start there?

WordPictures – Phrases That Lit The Bulb!

Moving Forward Is Bottom Up

Jesse asked, “How do I get my best performers to take on new tasks? They are my best performers because they are fully engaged. By definition, they don’t have extra time for anything new.”

Fair enough. We can’t get anything more from them without dropping something. And without adopting new capabilities, the organization dies. Recognize the ol’ horns of the dilemma?

But wait! Adopting new skills is not just done by the fortunate, the favored few! Adopting new skills is the target culture. Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

So adopting new skills starts on the bottom, and giving up skills, which means teaching all you know, starts at the next level up. Which means one reason you want to learn it is because you expect to teach it. Again and again. Now that’s a kickin’ culture!

Learn, do, teach has re-entered the building.

Frank Herbert writes, “Delegate heavily to only the same people and you fell into bureaucracy.” and also, “Remember: Bureaucracy elevates conformity... Make that elevates 'fatal stupidity' to the status of religion.” And that was written during the somnolent sixties (current prequels excepted).

In order to have room to expand, make a habit of giving away the safe, secure activities to people who are new to them, who have a fresh view to improve them, and go grow some funk of your own.

Moving forward is bottom up.

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Open Or Complete?

I read a lot of commenting from open source enthusiasts about the disadvantages of what is not “open,” which frequently gets into philosophical concepts.

I don’t derive much value from philosophical working. I work for successful completion. And I use open tools and other tools, often measuring one against the other.

There is a difference in completion between between “open” products and that other stuff, which I would like to define in this post.

For starters, I say the opposite of “open” is “complete.”

The old joke is, “A man is incomplete before marriage. Then he is finished.” Be careful what you wish for.

When I sit down to write, I start from a variety of templates, which I have developed to speed the writing process. Whether it is code, a web page, report, spreadsheet, brochure, presentation, or post, I have specific templates. And when I start something new, the first thing I do is reason out my template. I write against time, so working freehand is not an option.

Following the smartphone “open vs Apple” discussion, the beauty of the Apple product is that it executes almost everything it is designed to do with wonderful ease. If you want it to do something it is not designed to do, well, you’re out of luck. Ask the guys who would like to Skype on their iPhones. So as long as you stay within the parameters handed to you by the designers, that is the phone for you.

If, you have some strong feelings about what you want your phone to do for you, with different software or connected to different hardware, then open software is easier to bend to your will. Apps are increasingly easier to write, and I know people who are running custom apps they built for themselves, to shave some time off here, alerting them to something there, watching their television using their phone as their remote.

The question is, “How involved do you want to get?”

The first question when writing your first app is, “What do I want it to do?” That gets easier by the fifth app.

Over time, leading thinkers get more involved in improving their experience with their tools, shaving off some time here, automating a process there.

To me, that is the purpose of “open.” Getting leverage performance with minimum understanding is the purpose of “complete.”

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

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