http://www.geordee.com Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:17:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The early bird gets the worm! Common wisdom suggests to get things done as early as possible. Everyday I see people - tuned to this wisdom - rushing on the road, into the elevators, around the vending machines, fretting and fidgeting about the seconds lost. I used to have a ... http://www.geordee.com/2008/02/29/as-late-as-possible/ During a recent discussion on risk management, I suddenly realized that we tend to see risks too negatively. We were trying to enumerate risks and it was easy for everyone to come up with negative risks (threats) and not so in exploring positive risks. May be we do not want ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/11/18/no-risk-no-glory/ The two basic questions in any project/task are - are we doing it in time, using the estimated/allocated effort? Most of the important metrics are then derived out of these parameters - time & talent, as I like to call it. Time & talent are curiously unique while being the ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/07/14/time-and-talent/ As today's professional world is adopting a knowledge-intensive culture, it is tough to find a right combination that covers the depth and the breadth of a specific area of knowledge. Conventionally, we relied on deep, explicit, documented knowledge as in the case of research and development projects. But in recent ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/05/29/the-all-rounders/ Howard Artrip - a manager in Toyota - knows what he does. He knows when he gets up, how long he takes to get ready and get to work. He smiles when he says "I've maximized my sleep time". Toyota's philosophy of continuous improvement is his personal statement. Sometime back, I ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/04/18/value-addition/ It is a very old saying of Aristotle - well begun is half done. We find this true in many fields, especially when it comes to accomplish a certain goal - whether it is in studies, sports or projects. We have developed and mastered many techniques and processes to execute a ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/04/16/well-begun-is-half-done/ I knew a boy who had the abilities to excel, but did not have the motivation. His teachers advised him and expected him to come first. He did. I know a man on whom his managers put their trust. They expected him to work wonders. And he did. Often, performance follows ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/02/25/pygmalion-effect/ Various books about software engineering usually compares software development to manufacturing. The comparisons often highlight the differences so as to establish a separate set of processes and methodologies for software development. While it is true to a larger extent in the current scenario, the future of software development may blur ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/02/13/manufacturing-software/ Quality is one of the evergreen topics for discussion in business world. I attended yet another session on quality a few days back and that made me think a bit deeper - more on concept and perceptions. Our instructor described quality as conformance to requirements and fitness for use, the ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/01/16/qualifying-quality/ Currently I am reading a book named Long-Range Forecasting - From Crystal Ball To Computer (LRF). The author - J Scott Armstrong - begins by introducing a simple idea which he calls systems approach as the first lesson to be learned in forecasting. The approach is an elementary technique for ... http://www.geordee.com/2007/01/11/systems-approach/