- What do the buzzwords mean?
- Do mashups have anything to do with potatoes?
- I am going to answer all of those questions...
First we need to answer a more important question...
Why? Why should we care about these technologies? Aren’t these things just for people with too much free time on the Internet? Are they really important to the business?
To answer these questions we need to look at the work of Alistair Cockburn.
Has a PhD in Methodology
Worked for IBM and travelled all over the world watching people work
Documented what worked and what didn’t
Turned his findings into a doctoral thesis in methodologies
And apparently he has written a few books.
Notice “Agile”, “Cooperative Game” and “Human-Powered Methodology”
In 2001 Alistair got together with several other software methodologists to discuss what was being referred to as “lightweight methods”. The result was the Agile Manifesto.
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan
For example, Alistair mentioned in a recent interview that Crystal Clear was being used to build airports.
Mary and Tom Poppendieck are now talking about the application of Lean Manufacturing to software development.
Project Management Declaration of Interdependence
Crystal Clear is part of the Crystal family of methodologies.
All Crystal methodologies have three critical features...
“We can negotiate how frequent is frequent and how delivery is delivery.”
The idea is that we show something at relatively short and regular intervals
Stopping once a month (or quarter) and reflecting on the process.
Write down what we like and what we want to change
Throw everything else out
This is how the process evolves organically
Close communication is critical.
The relationship is nonlinear
When a team is doing Crystal they have conversations with...
- the stakeholders (external) with releases and feedback
- the team (internal) with reflective improvement and close communication
Switch gears and approach from a different angle.
Written by smart people who understand business in 2000
It is a manifesto, meaning it is intentionally hostile to the status quo
It would be a mistake to let the incendiary language obscure the truths within
Most of the content is available on the web site.
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.
Not going to talk about all of them...only 6.
1. Markets are conversations.
Customers, competitors and suppliers are all talking to each other
42. As with networked markets, people are also talking to each other directly inside the company—and not just about rules and regulations, boardroom directives, bottom lines.
44. Companies typically install intranets top-down to distribute HR policies and other corporate information that workers are doing their best to ignore.
“Intranet” is archaic but useful as it hints at internal networks as a microcosm of the Internet
45. Intranets naturally tend to route around boredom. The best are built bottom-up by engaged individuals cooperating to construct something far more valuable: an intranetworked corporate conversation.
46. A healthy intranet organizes workers in many meanings of the word. Its effect is more radical than the agenda of any union.
The intranet is the spec of sand around which a pearl can form
41. Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than against their own market and workforce.
Recap - Common themes: communication, participation, community, conversation
The Internet changed the rules by changing what is possible
Competitors, suppliers, customers and employees are all a part of the conversation
Imposed hierarchy and “security” policies are impediments to communication