HBR Blog - “To Do Lists Don’t Work” or Agile Planning in a Nutshell
The interesting bit:
“That means taking your tasks off the to-do list, estimating how much time each of them will consume, and transferring them to your calendar. It’s an eye-opening exercise: you’ll probably find that it’s tough — if not impossible — to find a place for everything. But this is the reality of your life. You’ve simply used the calendar to paint a true picture of the time commitments you have on your plate. And whether or not you make these commitments visible, they’re there. After all, if you’re going to be run over by a truck, you might as well get its license plate.”
From: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/to-do_lists_dont_work.html
And to fend off Kanban/Lean critiques, you can use Kanban to turn make your estimates more truthful too. Put everything in the queue, measure how long it takes to process X tasks to determine throughput, and use that information for evidence-based scheduling.
oldhollywood:
From Katharine Hepburn’s 1981 interview with Barbara Walters:
Hepburn: “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man…I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to and I made enough money to support myself. And I ain’t afraid of being alone.”
Walters: “Is that why also you wear pants?”
Hepburn: “No, I just wore pants because they’re comfortable.”
Walters: “Do you ever wear a skirt, by the way?”
Hepburn: “I have one.”
Walters: “You have one.”
Hepburn: “I’ll wear it to your funeral.”
(via/photo via)
Longing still for the days where women don’t have to see this as living as men, but just as ourselves, just as entitled. I’ll keep the pants though.
Tech *markets* are a meritocracy… But the market *makers* operate in a world that is not particularly even-handed.
Hats off to Weiden+Kennedy: “The rise of “digital” meant agencies having to come up with increasing amounts of interactive work. They didn’t know how to do it, so their developers got screwed, and the work suffered. Horribly…”
Painfully honest wake up call from creative agency Weiden+Kennedy. This should inspire hard-core Agilists - our message is getting out. Break down the silos, hone your axes, be they programming or wordsmithing.
Not so long ago, the rise and rise of “digital” meant agencies having to come up with increasing amounts of interactive work. They didn’t know how to do it, so their developers got screwed, and the work suffered. Horribly.
Few outside the tech teams grasped what was involved in building the software needed for digital campaigns. Crazy deadlines, unrealistic expectations, ill-considered and even ill-advised requirements led to ever-more “inventive” technical solutions. Then, when the last-minute hack they had to cobble together failed to stand up to the traffic they never promised it would, developers were cursed and vilified.
Full text: http://blog.wk.com/2011/10/21/why-we-are-not-hiring-creative-technologists/
Thank you facebook, how could I forget. Happy Birthday, Mom. I miss you.
My cat’s come home!
No pics because I’m in Oklahoma City doing initiation at my new company, but I got the word this morning that Mr Kitteh is cleared to come home!
For those following along at home, his creatinine levels continued to drop all the way down to 3.8. Then yesterday he kicked out his IV, so the vet agreed that it was time for the challenge of not being on IV fluids should begin. Today he was at 3.1, so they agreed he could come home! Hurray!
