George Dinwiddie’s blog

An article in USA Today (December 12, 2012) about highway projects in New York has the sub-head, “Design errors, planning lapses drove up costs more than 14%.” Among the things listed that “drove up costs” are

• More asphalt than projected due to a math error
• More temporary concrete dividers than planned, as plans called for only half what was needed
• Unanticipated excavation costs.

It’s true that no one likes for costs to exceed estimates, (Continued)

I write this post from Loveland Colorado, the current location of Consultants Camp. This is an international gathering of consultants who share information and lessons with each other. It’s part of my practice of self-improvement.

I invest a lot in my own professional development every year. I attend conferences such as this one. I read. I converse with colleagues.

My career has spanned a number of decades, and I expect to continue to do so indefinitely. I gave a talk at XPDay Manhattan in 2007 on Sustainable Career where I explored this topic. To do so, you not only need to continue learning, you need to learn things that have a long half-life. Learning specific technologies may be valuable, but those technologies quickly become obsolete. Be sure to also learn things with lasting value, such as the principles behind specific techniques.

You need for your career to last a lifetime. Invest in yourself.

When I was a kid, I decided to invent a new kind of battery. I had a pretty good idea of what was required, having cut open my share of batteries and even built them with a lemon, copper, and zinc. It’s just a matter of two metals (or one metal plus carbon) and a corrosive liquid. How hard could it be to create the battery of the future?

I mentioned my aspirations to my father, who was a chemistry professor. “What do you know about valence?” he asked.

“What’s ‘valence’?”

He proceeded to explain about electron clouds and the tendency of atoms to fill or empty their outer ring of electrons.

“So the valence of oxygen is 2.”

“Yes, except when it’s 1 or 4 or 6 or some other value. It’s not always simple.”

I’ve been thinking about that conversation since the end of the Agile 2011 Conference. (Continued)

More and more, I see advertisements and hear people asking for a Coach to come for a period of time and help their organization on a full-time basis. They seem to assume that it’s necessary to Coach the team 5 days a week, every week. This makes little sense to me.

Teams need time to acclimate to new knowledge. They need to try it on their own, making decisions without immediate help. Otherwise they come to depend on the coach making the decisions, and they don’t learn how to make them, themselves. I’ve seen this happen when I’ve been working too steadily with one team.

It’s also important to limit the presentation of new information to the rate at which it can be absorbed. Time the team spends practicing without the presence of the coach is an important part of this absorption. Without such “soak time,” the team will get lost in the details, trying to climb the proficiency ladder without learning to practice the simple things fluently.

If you try to go faster than you can, you’ll only end up going slower.

I’ve heard stories where organizations have “tried Agile” and the results were so bad that they’ll never make that mistake again. In some of these stories the blame is laid at the feet of bad coaches. In some it’s blamed on lack of coaching. In some, the blame is placed on clients who aren’t ready for Agile . If blame is to be lodged, then any of these will do.

The more interesting question, to my mind, is how can we achieve a better result. (Continued)

I’ve just spent the past week at Junior Sailing Camp, helping kids circa age 10 become better sailors. At this age, they’ve learned many of the basic concepts: that pushing the tiller to starboard turns the boat to port, that they need to pull the sail in when going upwind, and let it out when going down.  Yet they often struggle to get the boat going in varied conditions.  They steer too vigorously  in light air or choppy waters, killing the delicate momentum they’ve achieved.  They position the sail inefficiently–sufficient for a moderate breeze, but insufficient for zephyrs. And in heavier air, the wrong sail trim may result in an impromptu capsize drill.

Much of my coaching depends on helping them observe these varied conditions and how the results of their actions are affected by them. Their current skills work fine when the conditions match the way they practice them. When conditions change, the same actions fail. Without keen observation, the cause of that failure is a puzzle.

I’m teaching them to see the wind. (Continued)

Here’s another video interview recorded by Yvette Francino of SearchSoftwareQuality.com at the ADP/West 2011 Confierence. (Continued)

At the SQE Agile Development Practices (ADP/West) Conference last week in Las Vegas, Yvette Francino interviewed me on the topic of cultural change.  Here is the video of that interview. (Continued)

Brian Marick challenged me for an expression of joyful change, especially related to software development, based on the teachings of Virginia Satir.  As discussed in my previous post, he’s come to associate the combination of “Virginia Satir” and “change” with pain and the following:

…blaming… …placating… …anger… …guilt… …stress… …resistance… …denying… …avoiding… …blocking… …deny… …avoid… …anxiousness… …vulnerability… …fear…

This post is, in part, to demonstrate to him that the work of Virginia Satir is not focused on the negative.  Mostly it’s to share, and rejoice in, the freedom we have to reach our goals. (Continued)

Ron Jeffries has written a nice article on some of the effects, both positive and negative, of the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) program. On the positive side, he notes that it does interest people in training. I’m less optimistic that the training they receive will result in many improved projects. The CSM training teaches people how to follow the Scrum process, and tries to give them a little boost in courage for dealing with the inevitable impediments. Is that the difference between a troubled project and an improved one? (Continued)