Technical (Installment) Advise Week #43/45 - Tough Economic Times

Well we thought that doing a weeking piece would be easy. However, as we discovered it isn't and therefore we end up skipping weeks. So although we are still going to do our best to meet with this objective we have decided to properly label these pieces as 'Installments'. This way we don't have to count how many we have missed and can simply provide another in sequential order.

Max & I feel compelled to discuss the tough economic situation we are in. While many point to the present laments, like gas prices or housing market slump, as the precipitating factors, it is in our humble belief that these are simply 'tipping' factors (those things that illuminate systemic problems that exists). We heard yesterday that there have been discussions of GM filing for bankruptcy. Obviously gas prices have has some effect but is anyone asking questions about the frameworks that inhibits their ability to change, the excessive assessment maze that they undertake to qualify a supplier (with little value effect), or the inability of the company to be innovative and adaptive? Obviously GM is or may be in the forefront, but we can assure you that there are 1000's of companies that are in a similar situation. The talk about stockholder value yet they are depriving shareholders of value through diminished ROI (and to compensate ravage the workforce to generate increased income, when the workforce isn't the problem, their framework for operations is). Then someone, with great scholarly abilities, draws aim on outsourcing and laments about job loss. Outsourcing is about making a business decision, just like buying hard commodities. Yet, the ROI that outsourcing affords is lost when operational problems here are pass along to the service provider. Then the contracts are carried out in a very hands off fashion and then the organization points to outsourcing being the problem. We are the problem! We are the problem because we speak a good story about our abilities and our accomplishment, yet with a brazen attitude we point to other surrounding factors as the cause. This leaves us at the doorstep of innovation. Are we innovative? We are deer in the headlights when confronted by challenges, and to go one step further we don't even see the signs. Did the housing boom expect to last forever? People were like drunken soldiers grabbing up whatever they could, at insanely high prices, and became self-indulgent with the feeling of being someone special. We heard a recent news account of a mortgage banker, who formerly worked at a fast food chain (does this give rise for question) who was making a six figure income. Now he was faced with selling of his guitars he had collected when working as this mortgage expert and can't find a job. Not to put him down but as some would say, "you can dress them up but that doesn't make them who they think they are". He is, for all intensive purposes, still a fast food cook. To expect that he's going to land another six figure job is a stretch and if accomplished it's a matter of luck and not a matter of ability. Where is the innovation? People fail because they rely on others and lack the basic ability to live outside the box (and I'm talking about going beyond just thinking outside there). We want innovation but lack the ability to do anything once it's presented. Often it's met with reluctance, reservation, or simply rejection. If this country and others (including outsourcing countries) want to be successful you have to break from tradition, you have to inject a level controlled innovation and stop relying on frameworks and processes that lack the ability to be comprehensive enough to cover all conditions. Frameworks and processes are great for the commonplace events, and even then they are limited. Let's make a pledge to throw open the age of innovation as the solution to our problems. Maybe we ought to consider the elimination of foreign aid to those oil producing countries that are (if we wish to blame them) directly assaulting us at the pumps? Is this innovation or opening our eyes? Till the next installment we remain INNOVATIVE!!!!!

Technical Advise Week #34 - The Hills are Alive

Did you ever wonder what the tipping point of life is? What monumental event that would take place that would impact your life, your job, or your contribution to the 'world' that is most important to you? Maybe our thoughts are provoked by a movie we recently saw, "The Bucket List". It's about two guys, from two different ends of the spectrum in terms of social status who have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. They decide to make a list of things to do before they die, but to not just dream about it but do it. The backdrop is their families who either have turned away from them or view this as a selfish act. We wonder whether this is a bit like our technology/work contribution. If we knew that we only had a little bit of time (in the job, before retirement, or in life) would we have a list of things that we might wish to accomplish? Are they centered on us, or are they centered on our families (aka 'our business stuff'). While we have done any extreme thinking about this, because this was provoked by the weekend movie, we feel that we are living the 'bucket list' daily. For us, we live today as though there is no tomorrow. What is wonderful is that when there is tomorrow we are not only thankful for this but also are encouraged to continue our pursuit. Do you feel this way, or do you simply look at your today plate? In looking back, do you get discouraged with the path? Is this path because it wasn't driven by the immediacy of the work. For many organizations we need to renew our enthusiasm, drive and innovation. We need to learn to think, and not just look for a cook book answer to life (or business). I am sure that we could construct a cookbook that would cover 80% of the conditions, but we know deep down inside that it doesn't contribute to the betterment of our society. Canned answers are to easy, and when confronted with new unknowns that the cookbook will not work (and you need to rely on thinking). We hope you create your 'bucket list' and that it involves the seeking of information for feeding your knowledge. Off to the airport where we will be visiting Dusseldorf-Stockholm-Kiev-Tianjin. All the best, Mabel & Max.

Innovation Doesn't Mix with Safety

How many times do you ask for innovation and then ask for reference sources? Doesn't it seem like a bit of a conflict? Most innovations come out of established paradigms, some that work and others that have yet to work. What scares most consumers is whether the innovation has been proven. Therefore 'proving' cannot be substantiated by reference, rather it is confirmed through implementation.

This paradox reminds us of those post-college interviews when the perspective employer asked about experience (knowing full well that the last several years involved institutional learning). Somewhere along the lines an employer took a chance, possibly a calculated risk, and chose us to gain experience. 9 times out of 10 the risk they were concerned over had little to do with the experience, and had everything to do with the personality traits of the individual. Alot also rested with the perspective employer to provide suitable career conditions to retain the person.

Likewise companies looking to solve really big problems need to look beyond the safety zone. Solutions are seldom cookie cutter and often require extensive analysis, dialog, and proving in order to make things fit. Any organization that says they have a perfect/ideal solution set are looking to use you as the experiment. Innovation companies have taken working, durable models, recast them in such a way as to offer a new solution to new problems, and afford a moderate degree of alternation to make it fit culturally.

Our most recent innovation, based on several projects, and extensively using various pieces of the final product, is Reductive Software Engineering (RSE). RSE utilized a number of time-proven technologies including reverse engineering, software reuse, change management processes, artifact control, historical profiling, etc. and assembled them into a coherent model to address a specific concern... "Application Bloat". Behind the solution, and behind the problem, rests a business reason... less is better in terms of time and cost control containment. In it's first week after introduction we have had a few inquiries, most asking... have you done this before? The answer is 'Yes' (in two cases), but each of these piece parts of the method have been done in excess of 20 times each. So is it safe innovation, enought to pursue the service? Or is it scary enough to live with excessive support costs, maintenance effort, and deminished change reliability?

In a recent Forrest Report (July 29, 2007) it was reported that corporate management still viewed IT as an overhead function and not as a mainstream function. Personal aspirations will not get a CIO/CTO to the level of CEO unless innovation is pursued. This isn't just about selling IT as a service (or as a SOA which is the latest buzz acronym) it's about accepting innovation as a solution. If you look at how your organization has respond to needs, it is often in the safe zone. Yet we look at overall IT performance and it is less than stellar, in fact most of the writings are about failures in IT, so what is that telling you?

Innovation can be employed safely when treated as an implementation experiment. You don't gamble the farm when you might start out with mortgaging the farm equipment. Small steps can go a long way but a company must be willing to walk outside the cone of comfort!