In the world of Information Systems Development, there are ‘many ways to skin a cat’ as the saying goes but, when all is said and done, there are two major school of thoughts (or philosophies) on implementation approaches, or how and when to implement what has been developed; here they are:
Implement your best. This approach states that it is extremely important to put up a quality product that, on the vast aggregate, meets the stated requirements, and it is the best the team is able to produce. There will be issues that come up and require fixing but, for the most part, they are cosmetic in nature. The ‘customer’ will be satisfied from the beginning. --- There are many merits on this approach (no need to re-state the obvious) and there are also pitfalls, the main ones being that, in the pursuit of the best, time lines are blown, budgets are busted; at the end, it may be a great product but no longer desirable due to the CBA (Cost-Benefit Analysis) being no longer valid because of cost overruns or a closed window of opportunity…
Implement what you’ve got. This approach subscribes to the principle that it is extremely important to implement what you’ve got at the expected time, ready or not. It states that it is easier to deal with issues from the inside that from the outside looking in (not having implemented); it is easier to cancel an implementation than to revert one. --- Although there are many benefits to this approach (Microsoft has been practicing it for 20+ years making billionaires out of thousands of people and achieving an until-recently unchallenged market dominance) there are also mortal sins when overdone.
Having professionally practiced the discipline (or art?) of Systems Development in all possible rolls for the last 35+ years, I have selected/directed/used, and successfully executed, both of those approaches in many instances. Although I strongly favor one of them above over the other (won’t disclose which one), the overarching principle always has to be not to overdo either one of them; in the end, all successful endeavors are a healthy mix of both approaches. You take reasonable risks on the timeline and budget but deliver sound functionality; or you take reasonable risks on functionality and deliver on time and within budget; and sometimes, when almost everything goes perfectly, you deliver the expected functionality, on time and withing budget! The decision making process (regarding the reasonability of the risks you take) is always influenced by your understanding of the role of the project, the priorities of the 'customer' (the person paying the bills), and what risks they could either afford the most or hurt them the least; in other words, always picking the lesser of all evils…
In the case of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) electronic interface (web site), there seems to be a multitude of basic leadership and Project Management concepts that were either ignored, neglected or plain all abandoned. All the information one hears on the media (after filtering for political biases/noise) seem to point out to lack of focus, lack of coordination, lack of care, lack of accountability, lack of communication and last – but not least - lack of understanding of what were the project organizational and institutional priorities. These lapses in all these areas seem to have permeated from the project leadership (Sibelius) through middle management, down to the myriad of contractors running amok, enriching themselves and delivering garbage.
One month after the implementation debacle there seems to be nobody in charge, no credible remediation plan in place, no time frames as of when the deficiencies will be satisfied and a hell of a political rainstorm.
I personally do not think President Obama was either coding or testing or managing the project; he should not have been. But his Secretary of Health and Human Services was the manager in charge. Full accountability needs to be established and made public; that includes the chain of command within the administration and contractors involved; and heads should roll!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
0028 - 10OCT2013 - "How Fanatics/Extremists just take over…"
This is an adaptation from, and not a verbatim copy of, an article by Dr. Emmanuel Tanay, a respected psychiatrist.
A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to WWII, owned a number of large industrial concerns and estates; when asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave may be an indication of some of the realities we currently face and are living through…
“Very few people were true Nazis” he said, “but many enjoyed the return of German pride and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools who eventually would go away… So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world as we knew it, came. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and my family lost everything.”
We are told, again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is a religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace and are normal people just like us. Although these assertions may be true, they are entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe on the name of Islam and other causes, and here in our own backyard with other types of extremisms.
The fact is that the fanatics/extremists rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics/extremists who march. It is the fanatics/extremists who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics/extremists who systematically slaughter Christians or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics/extremists who bomb, behead, murder or honor-kill. It is the fanatics/extremists who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics/extremists who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics/extremists who teach their young to kill and become suicide bombers. The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the ‘silent majority’ is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists under the Stalin regime were responsible for the murder of about 20 million of Russians and other Soviet people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people under Mao's Cultural Revolution.
The average Japanese individual prior to WWII was not a war mongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an bloody orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians, most killed by sword, shovel and bayonet.
And who can forget Rwanda which collapsed into the butchering of millions of innocent civilians by a small minority of fanatics/extremists? Could it not be said that the vast majority of Rwandans were ‘peace loving’ people?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: peace-loving people are made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving people will become tacit accomplices of the extremist minority if they don’t speak up because, like the German man mentioned above, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics/extremists own them, and that the end of their world has begun.
Peace loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians and many, many others died because the peaceful majority did not speak up against the fanatics/extremists until it was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: the fanatics/extremists who threaten our way of life!
Editorial Note:
We are currently witnessing how a small group of fanatics/extremists in position of power are managing to derail the country’s economy and the future of the republic as we know it. They were sent there by their fanatic/extremists constituents to destabilize the system, create chaos and eventually impose their will; nothing else matters; no other ways are feasible; no other opinions count; bye-bye democracy! Unless the vast ‘silent majority’ acts decisively and send these fanatics/extremists back to where they came from, we are on our way to be ‘owned’ by them. For many years, around the world, the word German was synonymous of Nazi; unless the vast 'silent majority' act decisively starting now, the word American will become synonymous of right-wing-extremist!
A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to WWII, owned a number of large industrial concerns and estates; when asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave may be an indication of some of the realities we currently face and are living through…
“Very few people were true Nazis” he said, “but many enjoyed the return of German pride and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools who eventually would go away… So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world as we knew it, came. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and my family lost everything.”
We are told, again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is a religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace and are normal people just like us. Although these assertions may be true, they are entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe on the name of Islam and other causes, and here in our own backyard with other types of extremisms.
The fact is that the fanatics/extremists rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics/extremists who march. It is the fanatics/extremists who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics/extremists who systematically slaughter Christians or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics/extremists who bomb, behead, murder or honor-kill. It is the fanatics/extremists who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics/extremists who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics/extremists who teach their young to kill and become suicide bombers. The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the ‘silent majority’ is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists under the Stalin regime were responsible for the murder of about 20 million of Russians and other Soviet people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people under Mao's Cultural Revolution.
The average Japanese individual prior to WWII was not a war mongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an bloody orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians, most killed by sword, shovel and bayonet.
And who can forget Rwanda which collapsed into the butchering of millions of innocent civilians by a small minority of fanatics/extremists? Could it not be said that the vast majority of Rwandans were ‘peace loving’ people?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: peace-loving people are made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving people will become tacit accomplices of the extremist minority if they don’t speak up because, like the German man mentioned above, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics/extremists own them, and that the end of their world has begun.
Peace loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians and many, many others died because the peaceful majority did not speak up against the fanatics/extremists until it was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: the fanatics/extremists who threaten our way of life!
Editorial Note:
We are currently witnessing how a small group of fanatics/extremists in position of power are managing to derail the country’s economy and the future of the republic as we know it. They were sent there by their fanatic/extremists constituents to destabilize the system, create chaos and eventually impose their will; nothing else matters; no other ways are feasible; no other opinions count; bye-bye democracy! Unless the vast ‘silent majority’ acts decisively and send these fanatics/extremists back to where they came from, we are on our way to be ‘owned’ by them. For many years, around the world, the word German was synonymous of Nazi; unless the vast 'silent majority' act decisively starting now, the word American will become synonymous of right-wing-extremist!
Thursday, October 3, 2013
0027 - 03OCT2013 - "Who needs a government, anyway?"
And so it goes, that on October 1st 2013, the US Government was shut down and more than 800,000 ‘non-essential’ government workers were furloughed… Are the national parks and museums non essential? During WWII, somebody told Churchill that the funds dedicated to the preservation of Arts and Culture in Great Britain had to be diverted to fund more military equipment. He responded “If we are to disregard our Arts and Culture, what are we really fighting for?” Now, there are several key questions that, depending on your psychological profile (because that dictates your political persuasion) are valid or not, simple or not, fair or not…
Question #1: one political radio commentator asks: “If they are non-essential, why are they working for the government anyway?” Interesting question because it indicates that only essential functions are needed or necessary, right? It makes sense. However, like with everything else, the devil is on the details and, after further analysis, this criterion for essential-or-not starts getting a little fuzzy… Are janitors essential to the Pentagon or to the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building? No, they are not; Pentagon is Defense and the FBI building is Justice; period. And that all makes sense until there is no paper in the bathrooms, or the toilets are not working. The alternatives are to wait until you return home to go to the bathroom or go in any dark corner of your choosing. Are electricians essential? The same answer applies: no, they are not; that is until a breaker blows and there is no power to the whole wing of a building, or light bulbs need to be changed, or the A/C is not working, etc. Now we are talking about a stinky, dark hot and humid workplace; still non essential, right? And one can go down the line and talk about guards, cooks, secretaries, travel arrangers, couriers, etc. Can you see the difference between essential and needed? Can one understand that non-essential does not mean unnecessary? A bathroom in one’s house is non-essential because a house essential function is to provide shelter, plus you can go outside and do your ‘businesses’. Does that mean the bathroom’s services and functionality are not needed? I know that the answer to those questions depend on your political persuasion and, as such, I leave it up to you. I know what my answer is!
Question #2: another political radio commentator said: “It’s been two days with the Government out of business and I, for one, see no difference. Who needs a government, anyway?” I’d say that the logic here is infallible and as perfect as one can conceive, right? Justice, Foreign Policy and Trade, Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Labor, Transportation, Education, Energy, Veteran Affairs, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services. All those things are a waste of money and play no role, whatsoever, in the day-today lives of God-fearing, Bible/Torah-totting, red-blooded Americans. Let’s make a simple list:
I have one more example of government irrelevance, a close-to-home example: Elizabeth Warren, a senator for Massachusetts, is referred to by many people of certain political persuasion (i.e. psychological profile) as a God Dammed Liberal, a true Communist! Many also ignore (or choose to ignore) that this same ‘communist’ fought for long and hard, and founded, the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau); she caught hell from many patriots who opposed the creation of such a wasteful entity; it had to be created by executive order because the patriots in congress did not want more government. Ironically, this is the same outfit we are all looking at, and talking to, and pleading with to help us with the mess the developer left behind in Hawks Bluff… What a waste!
Lastly, for those of us who still think that government is not needed, here are a couple of suggestions where one may find the closest thing to Paradise: Somalia or Afghanistan. Little or no government whatsoever; there one can live happily ever after!
Question #1: one political radio commentator asks: “If they are non-essential, why are they working for the government anyway?” Interesting question because it indicates that only essential functions are needed or necessary, right? It makes sense. However, like with everything else, the devil is on the details and, after further analysis, this criterion for essential-or-not starts getting a little fuzzy… Are janitors essential to the Pentagon or to the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building? No, they are not; Pentagon is Defense and the FBI building is Justice; period. And that all makes sense until there is no paper in the bathrooms, or the toilets are not working. The alternatives are to wait until you return home to go to the bathroom or go in any dark corner of your choosing. Are electricians essential? The same answer applies: no, they are not; that is until a breaker blows and there is no power to the whole wing of a building, or light bulbs need to be changed, or the A/C is not working, etc. Now we are talking about a stinky, dark hot and humid workplace; still non essential, right? And one can go down the line and talk about guards, cooks, secretaries, travel arrangers, couriers, etc. Can you see the difference between essential and needed? Can one understand that non-essential does not mean unnecessary? A bathroom in one’s house is non-essential because a house essential function is to provide shelter, plus you can go outside and do your ‘businesses’. Does that mean the bathroom’s services and functionality are not needed? I know that the answer to those questions depend on your political persuasion and, as such, I leave it up to you. I know what my answer is!
Question #2: another political radio commentator said: “It’s been two days with the Government out of business and I, for one, see no difference. Who needs a government, anyway?” I’d say that the logic here is infallible and as perfect as one can conceive, right? Justice, Foreign Policy and Trade, Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Labor, Transportation, Education, Energy, Veteran Affairs, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services. All those things are a waste of money and play no role, whatsoever, in the day-today lives of God-fearing, Bible/Torah-totting, red-blooded Americans. Let’s make a simple list:
- Justice: Courts where to air one’s grievances; “Who needs that crap? Every man for himself.”
- State: Healthy and honorable relations with other countries of the world; “what the hell for, who needs to even know who they are?”
- Defense: Ability to defend our land, citizens and interests wherever they may be; “hey, we are all rugged individuals and I need nobody to defend me; I have my AK47 ready to go against those government thugs!”
- Treasury: Control and manage monetary policy. “What kind of gibberish is that? A dollar is a dollar is a dollar. Inflation, recession, depression those are inventions of the bureaucrats!”
- Agriculture: Educate, incentivize farmers and help market crops. “Bull crap; farmers need no help; they know best; leave them alone!”
- Labor: monitor, regulate and maintain healthy work rules and environments. “Who the hell needs that? A fair wage for a fair work day; that’s how this country was created; don’t interfere with the business owners”
- Transportation: safety, maintenance and expansion of means of transportation. “There is no place in the Constitution where safe roads, bridges, cars, trains or planes are guaranteed, OK? So, stop whining and travel at your own risk”
- Education: management of educational standards for curricula and educators. “It is a broken system; I don’t trust them; I do my own schooling; teacher are lazy and, at an average of $30,000/year, they are grossly overpaid; college Professors are worthless and always in their ivory towers; those who can’t do, teach!”
- ... And the list goes on with many examples of how little value the government brings to us…
I have one more example of government irrelevance, a close-to-home example: Elizabeth Warren, a senator for Massachusetts, is referred to by many people of certain political persuasion (i.e. psychological profile) as a God Dammed Liberal, a true Communist! Many also ignore (or choose to ignore) that this same ‘communist’ fought for long and hard, and founded, the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau); she caught hell from many patriots who opposed the creation of such a wasteful entity; it had to be created by executive order because the patriots in congress did not want more government. Ironically, this is the same outfit we are all looking at, and talking to, and pleading with to help us with the mess the developer left behind in Hawks Bluff… What a waste!
Lastly, for those of us who still think that government is not needed, here are a couple of suggestions where one may find the closest thing to Paradise: Somalia or Afghanistan. Little or no government whatsoever; there one can live happily ever after!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
0026 - 01OCT2013 - "So, what’s a coach, anyway?"
A few weeks ago a friend and I spent some quality time together; went out for dinner; went for a ride; got lots of time to talk. So we talked about many things and one of them was the situation of going back to work after ‘retirement’. Some people see it as a source of embarrassment since the inference is that they are not able to make ends meet; that they did not plan well; a feeling of inadequacy. Other folks see it as he saw it, a very positive event and a great opportunity; his point was (and is one I’ve advocated for years) that many of us – throughout our ‘productive’ years - have accumulated an immense amount of knowledge, experiences, and tricks-of-the-trade which are not taught in any school, at any level; that intellectual capital sits idle and unproductive (going to waste) as we are now retired; nobody is benefiting from all that wealth of wisdom. As an example, he cited himself as a business man, cited others on their known professions, and cited me as an IT guy… Many other folks would have taken offense at being referred to as an IT Guy; “Hey” they would have said, “I went to six years of school for - and became - a Licensed Computer Scientist, a Specialist in Cybernetics & Informatics, and a Systems Engineer, and you are referring to me as an IT Guy?” and they would have stomped out of the place all offended and in a huff. But that was not the case and that was not the point; the point was that I would have loved to be known as a coach, which is my passion and something that I am experienced in and trained on, instead of being known as an ‘IT Guy’, my old profession; and so I let him know… As the conversation progressed on to several other topics, he gathered the courage to ask me, “So, what’s a coach, anyway”?
I gave a good account of myself when it came to define that the type of coach that I was talking about was not the stereotypical sports or any other skills coaches (teach and drill is their model); the coaching that I practiced was oriented towards guiding and helping individuals find healthy ways to face and deal with their perceived or real shortcomings, self-defeating attitudes, and other factors that are on the way of fulfilling their full potential and producing their best, whatever that best might be. “Are you a shrink?” he asked; “No”, I replied, “Psychologists deal with the clinical areas of perception, attention, emotion, motivation, brain functioning, behavior and interpersinal relationships.” “Coaching is like – voluntarily - peeling the onion and understanding there is debris between the layers that may be getting in the way of it being a perfect onion; you get rid of nothing (that would be a job for the shrink); instead, you understand all that is there, value it for what it is – and what it is not, and move on accordingly.” I could see on his face that the whole subject was still obscure, confusing to him and that I had not really answered his question; so I proceeded to try to illustrate the whole concept with an example, oversimplifying the process and the details, and keeping the protagonists anonymous, as the code of ethics demands…
This is the case of a man who grew up in an environment in which knowledge was the most appreciated ‘currency’; there used to be a saying around his home about “Your knowledge, and not your holdings, is your worth”. So, from youth, he was a very avid knowledge acquirer. He read every book he got his hands on; if there were no new books available that he hadn’t read twice, he would read the dictionary end to end. Over the years this attitude persisted and by middle age, he was a walking throve of trivia. There is an axiom that says ‘an overused virtue becomes a liability’ and that was the case with this fellow; he was always eager to share his knowledge and to have answers for everything. At the beginning it all was well and everybody around him praised him for his knowledge and the contributions he made; however, as time went on, he started to be perceived as a ‘know-it-all’; he was still admired by all, but his contributions were not too well received any more. In the role he was expected to play he could not afford to be exiled from the rest of people and teams, so he realized he had a problem that needed resolution; and he did not know how! Through friends and acquaintances he heard about coaching and what it could do, and sought some help from a coach… After several sessions of conversations and information gathering the coach guided the man to come to the realization that his issue was not his needing to show his worth (knowledge); instead his issue was one of fear of obsolescence and irrelevance. The fellow feared to become irrelevant, of not making a difference. The coach helped him find ways to add value to people and situations by just playing his role as a leader and as a friend, and stop using his knowledge as the only tool in his bag. Instead, he tried (successfully) to stop volunteering answers when the question was not even asked; he learned how to either guide people to the answers or wait for the question to be asked; he learned to realize that if the question was not asked, it was not relevant to the situation… That made his job and relationships with others quite more normal and pleasant.
“Does that make sense?” I asked… “Yes, it does…” my friend replied. “Would coaching like that be of any value to you?” I asked… “No; I have no issues…” he replied. And I thought to myself “Right!”
I gave a good account of myself when it came to define that the type of coach that I was talking about was not the stereotypical sports or any other skills coaches (teach and drill is their model); the coaching that I practiced was oriented towards guiding and helping individuals find healthy ways to face and deal with their perceived or real shortcomings, self-defeating attitudes, and other factors that are on the way of fulfilling their full potential and producing their best, whatever that best might be. “Are you a shrink?” he asked; “No”, I replied, “Psychologists deal with the clinical areas of perception, attention, emotion, motivation, brain functioning, behavior and interpersinal relationships.” “Coaching is like – voluntarily - peeling the onion and understanding there is debris between the layers that may be getting in the way of it being a perfect onion; you get rid of nothing (that would be a job for the shrink); instead, you understand all that is there, value it for what it is – and what it is not, and move on accordingly.” I could see on his face that the whole subject was still obscure, confusing to him and that I had not really answered his question; so I proceeded to try to illustrate the whole concept with an example, oversimplifying the process and the details, and keeping the protagonists anonymous, as the code of ethics demands…
This is the case of a man who grew up in an environment in which knowledge was the most appreciated ‘currency’; there used to be a saying around his home about “Your knowledge, and not your holdings, is your worth”. So, from youth, he was a very avid knowledge acquirer. He read every book he got his hands on; if there were no new books available that he hadn’t read twice, he would read the dictionary end to end. Over the years this attitude persisted and by middle age, he was a walking throve of trivia. There is an axiom that says ‘an overused virtue becomes a liability’ and that was the case with this fellow; he was always eager to share his knowledge and to have answers for everything. At the beginning it all was well and everybody around him praised him for his knowledge and the contributions he made; however, as time went on, he started to be perceived as a ‘know-it-all’; he was still admired by all, but his contributions were not too well received any more. In the role he was expected to play he could not afford to be exiled from the rest of people and teams, so he realized he had a problem that needed resolution; and he did not know how! Through friends and acquaintances he heard about coaching and what it could do, and sought some help from a coach… After several sessions of conversations and information gathering the coach guided the man to come to the realization that his issue was not his needing to show his worth (knowledge); instead his issue was one of fear of obsolescence and irrelevance. The fellow feared to become irrelevant, of not making a difference. The coach helped him find ways to add value to people and situations by just playing his role as a leader and as a friend, and stop using his knowledge as the only tool in his bag. Instead, he tried (successfully) to stop volunteering answers when the question was not even asked; he learned how to either guide people to the answers or wait for the question to be asked; he learned to realize that if the question was not asked, it was not relevant to the situation… That made his job and relationships with others quite more normal and pleasant.
“Does that make sense?” I asked… “Yes, it does…” my friend replied. “Would coaching like that be of any value to you?” I asked… “No; I have no issues…” he replied. And I thought to myself “Right!”
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)