Protegra

So I attended a Scrum session last week that was presented by Steve Porter. Excellent session that discussed many of the misconceptions or myths about Scrum. I came away wondering why I don’t profess to believe in Scrum. I honestly do follow many of the Scrum rituals, but I always seem to not be able … Continue reading →

Over the years I have been lucky enough to find books that have profoundly changed the way I perceive the world and the way I think. I usually know when I have found one of these books when I read the book over and over. This is a list of those top 5 books in … Continue reading →

Many times on projects and presentations I hear both the empty words and principles and also the full words. I’ve always struggled to determine the difference between the two. I’ve listened to people state that their success is all about ‘their people’ and I’ve come away on one occasion believing them and on another occasion … Continue reading →

I just recently finished reading Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull. It is undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read. The book provides a history of how Pixar came about and how Pixar has managed to maintain their culture of creativity and innovation. There are many poignant lessons that I took away from … Continue reading →

I was watching a No Estimates video that someone tweeted recently and I was reminded why I hate and love No Estimates at the same time. The video in question is a No Estimates presentation by Allen Holub. You can find the video here. I’d like to review the key points of the presentation and … Continue reading →

In a recent post, I stated that some aspects of the #NoEstimates approach is not yet a professional Software Development approach. I believe it could become a professional Software Development approach, but it isn’t one yet. Some people raised an eyebrow to this statement and rightfully so. When you drop a bombshell like that you … Continue reading →

I work for Protegra. I’ve worked here since July 23rd, 2001. I’ve performed in a variety of roles and worked on many projects for a wide variety of clients. But many times we continue to get the question; “What do you guys do?” Some people limit us to a Software Development Consulting company. We often … Continue reading →

Haven’t you heard? Custom Software Development is dead. No one should have any reason to do Custom Software Development unless you are building a product to resell to clients. The creation of a novel solution created to address a specific client or problem is definitely passé. Custom Software Development is much too risky. It is … Continue reading →

Recently I was reading about the immense operations the D-Day landings on Normandy were. I believe I had heard that it took over a year or planning just for the event itself. This included many practices and mock invasions. Here are some numbers, courtesy of http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk “On D-Day, the Allies landed around 156,000 troops in … Continue reading →

A phrase that is being used a lot north of the 49th parallel is compete level. Usually the term is used to talk about the level of effort by hockey teams. Another phrase that is also used in being ‘hard on the puck’. Basically both of these phrases try to communicate the level of effort … Continue reading →

I was asked to do a session for the Agile Winnipeg User Group and the first thing that popped into my mind was Innovation Games. Innovation Games are a critical piece in Protegra’s offering to gain Customer Insight on all projects. Recently we have used Innovation Games to assist the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce in creating … Continue reading →

I was reminded how important it is to be careful what you measure on the weekend. I had to call two call centers and both surprisingly implemented the same Service Level Agreements. Both promised that calls would be answered within two minutes. But surprisingly, both had implemented what I would consider ‘cheats’ to reach those … Continue reading →

With all the recent discussion of the new business model that Uber has introduced, I was surprised to find another company that kinda did Uber before Uber was Uber in my recent trip to Madison, Wisconsin. 🙂 (Only Better than Uber!!!) The Discussion I was taking a cab from the Madison Concourse Hotel to the … Continue reading →

We all know about Lean. At least most of us do. We need to Lean our processes and organizations. We need to make them more efficient and less wasteful. But the problem is that Lean is only for incremental improvements. Given an existing process, how can we make it 5%, 10% more efficient? But the … Continue reading →

There I said it. I like estimates. I like estimating. I think they provide value to my team and the customers. I will attempt to explain why is this Blog post. 1) Estimates make me think through a solution I liken estimating to the visualization successful sport athletes do. It is the visualization and mental practice … Continue reading →

Why should we bother with Customer Empathy? Many time we have seen the results. Either you deal with Customer Empathy or you deal with Customer Anger. It is much more efficient to deal with Customer Empathy when you define an offering than dealing with Customer Anger to fix the offering. Sadly, most the time Information … Continue reading →

Have you ever started implementing a software feature from a specification that seemed to be complete, only to find that almost every time you asked a question you uncovered another business requirement? Hi John – I’m working on the ‘Approve’ button and just want to confirm the location:  it should appear at the bottom right, … Continue reading →

Note: before we get into things: “customer” can include end users, citizens, as well as staff– in essence it is the group of people for whom you are designing a solution. Build what your customers want– obviously this is what you need to do. The problem is that if you ask them what they want, … Continue reading →

As I was evaluating the current role of Information Technology in our Industry I looked back and it seemed to be that there have been four distinct roles that Information Technology has played with business over the years     1) Recording and Reporting  This role focused mainly on Risk Mitigation. In the early years … Continue reading →

Today we had a the third installment of the Minecraft Code Club. We reviewed some network diagrams and talked about how Minecraft works over the Internet. For the most part the kids got the concepts which I was just overjoyed with. We then looked at a couple of plugins and showed how we can modify … Continue reading →

Well today was Day 2 of the Minecraft Code Club. Actually it was Day 1 again for a second group. This time it was for Grade 3’s. I modified the session a little bit based upon the feedback received in the first session and I think it went even better. We increased the Silent Brainstorming … Continue reading →

Here’s the thing. Minecraft is huge. It’s amazing. It’s accessible and complex. Kids love it. I love it. Everyone who encounters Minecraft should love it. Mention that you’ll be doing something – anything – involving Minecraft and kids will pay attention. This is huge, because it’s much easier to engage with someone on a commonly shared … Continue reading →

Well today was day 1 at Minecraft Code club at my kid’s school. I was lucky enough to have a parent council that was crazy enough to listen to my grand design for how I would teach kids coding by looking at Minecraft Plugins. Even crazier, I was going to do this over lunch in … Continue reading →

I’ve been busy recently on a lot of activities and my blogging has suffered as a result. Now that my kids Hockey Seasons are winding down, I find myself having a bit more time. I’m hoping that my pent-up blog posts will become much more frequent in the coming months. One thing that drives my … Continue reading →

Why empathy? This question comes up frequently, whether I’m talking to people about developing  Butterfly, or talking to them about product/service/solution development in a more general sense. I’ll keep this short. I think most people have a general appreciation for being empathetic, and acknowledge that it’s a good thing to be – like an aspiration … Continue reading →

One thing I have struggled with when I have created Operational Data Stores is the tendency to create generic tables that promote re-use. I find these are usually tables like Address and Person. In an enterprise environment there may be many applications or Systems of Record that store Person or Address information. There is the … Continue reading →

There isn’t too many things more sacred than Minimum Viable Product in the Agile circles. Maybe Planning Poker, Automated Testing, and Continuous Integration. But usually Minimum Viable Product is also right up there. What if I told you that focusing on Minimum Viable Product is sometimes the wrong thing to do? Would I be branded … Continue reading →

It seems like everyone has a different view of the role that contingency should play on projects. While some recommend removing it so as to not inflate the cost of features, others feel it is a critical element in the estimation of the project. Some people feel it is best to hide it away in … Continue reading →

Recently I have read a lot of articles and listened to many conversations that seem to place the individual ahead of the team. Frequently when we talk about group activities like meetings, paired activities, working from home, and co-located work spaces, the issue invariably comes up on how some people don’t see value in those … Continue reading →

Many times as Data professionals we no longer have full control over the quality of data in the source systems. I am discussing SAP in my example, but I could have easily mentioned PeopleSoft, SalesForce, or a number of other purchased solutions. Usually those solutions are purchased and then we are tasked with maintaining those … Continue reading →