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Rethinking story commitments
I recently came across a fresh way to help people work towards the higher level goals of a project. And while I’m not 100% sure of it, I wanted share it because it has some valuable insight. I was speaking to a group about making agile development work in practice in a corporate environment, and … Continue reading
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I was confounded the other day by Andrew Ross Sorkin’s criticism of Facebook’s IPO figures, which he wrote up in the New York Times. On the face of it he looked naive and distinctly non-digital when he wrote: On the first page of Facebook’s prospectus for its sale of stock to the public, it pegs … Continue reading
I spent a couple of days this week hearing from Tom Gilb about defect prevention. Here is just one small thing from that which intrigued me… rules for business cases. Defect prevention is quality assurance in its true form. Testing to discover defects is too late — you really need to make sure there are … Continue reading
You may very well not need a spec for your software project. I had a recent conversation with a friend in a very small (3-4 person) company, building their first online product, and he said his sole developer was going off to write a spec. This raised alarm bells with me, as I saw it … Continue reading
Welcome
Hi. I'm Nik Silver. I've been running software teams for years. My specialism is getting technical teams working effectively with each other and with others, to deliver business value frequently and consistently. Take a look at my experience.
If you want to talk about turning talented people into brilliant teams then get in touch. I'm nik@niksilver.com on e-mail, and I'm @pigsaw on Twitter.
Recently spotted
- Redesigning the Windows LogoThe new Windows 8 logo. It's not a flag any more, it's a... window.
- Eternal Copyright: a modest proposal – Telegraph BlogsAdrian Hon sends up our silly copyright laws... "How can our laws be so heartless as to deny [your great-great-great-grandchildren] the benefit of your hard work in the name of some do-gooding concept as the "public good", simply because they were born a mere century and a half after the book was written?"
- Management lessons to learn from 'Star Wars' - Business - Careers - msnbc.comI know it's tongue in cheek, but really... "the Galactic Empire strikes me as a quintessential example of how not to effectively run an organization. Let’s take a look at five of the Empire’s biggest mistakes and see how you can avoid them in your own organization."
- VLC 2.0 Released: What’s New, And An Interview With VideoLAN Developers"Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux machines, VLC 2.0 is a major update that brings several new optimizations on the technical side, new features, and a brand-new Mac interface..."
- Gamestop to J.C. Penney Shut Facebook Stores: Retail - Bloomberg"Last April, Gamestop Corp. (GME) opened a store on Facebook to generate sales among the 3.5 million-plus customers who’d declared themselves “fans” of the video game retailer. Six months later, the store was quietly shuttered. [...] Over the past year, Gap Inc., J.C. Penney (JCP) Co. and Nordstrom (JWN) Inc. have all opened and closed storefronts on Fa […]
