The Economics of Protecting the Red Shirts July 29, 2009
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in .Net Development, ActiveEngine, Business Processes, Coaching, Design Patterns, Mythology, Personal Development, Problem Solving, software economics.Tags: ActiveEngine, bad software, communication, Data Stewardship, new thinking, paradigm
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Recently I came across this post from a fellow lamenting the lack of interest on the part of .Net developers in architecture solutions such as IoC, Dependency Injection, ORMs, and the like. 
This stood out in stark contrast to Java developers who this person interviewed, who either were conversant with the technology or were interested enough to pursue informing themselves further. Some call this the result of Drag -n -Drop design as laid out in a post by Greg Young, a Microsoft MVP and .Net developer who has specialized in high performance applications. Greg maintains in his post Java vs. .Net Developers that drag and drop is mis applied and there needs to be an greater effort the isolate the cases where it is mis used. This practice has arisen, he maintains, from poor training and lack of awareness of other development platforms. (more…)
Revenge of the Fallen July 21, 2009
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Agile, Agile vs Waterfall, Business Processes, Problem Solving.Tags: ActiveEngine, bad software, communication, focus, Problem Solving
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Did you think you were constructing this: 
but you were actually delivering this instead: (more…)
Sensei’s Playlist – Pay the Rent with Rock! July 10, 2009
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Coaching, Mythology, Personal Development.Tags: ActiveEngine, balance, Coaching, communication, concentration, Ego, focus, new thinking, paradigm, Problem Solving, survival
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You’ve asked for it – well you didn’t actually, BUT HERE IT IS ANYWAY!! Yeahhh! Music to pump you up. Rev your ActiveEngine to these tunes, babes, and get stuff done. Decisively. As in total victory.
There’s a new page to the site, Pay the Rent with Rock. Here is the music that get’s me through. It’s powered by Grooveshark. Post a comment with a suggestion if you like. If it cranks and you’re lucky, I’ll include it. Describe what scenario your song helps you pull things off, helps you get things done, cranks, whatever.
Here’s a sample:
This bloke to the left loves it!!
Clarity of Thought Only Comes From Practice November 21, 2007
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in .Net Development, ActiveEngine, Business Processes, Coaching, Personal Development, Problem Solving.Tags: communication, ProjectManagement411.com, selling your solutions, survival
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All of you code jockeys need to start a new series of mental calisthenics. Your thoughts are blocked, as your set of speech patterns is your worst enemy. If you have used the phrase “I want it to be extensible” in front of you customers this week, shame on you!
The business community is looking to solving problems, but they are not looking to you for help; rather, they want you to just make things work based on what they tell you the software should do. Because of that fact alone you may not be offering the value that will sustain your gigs, period. “Open to extension, but closed to modification” – who cares, because your customer base can’t understand you what you mean.
ActiveEngine Sensei says head over to ProjectManagement411.com, and learn what the business community wants to hear and how to best communicate with them. You should read the series on value selling your projects, because you’ll notice that NONE OF IT MENTIONS THAT MODIFICATIONS TO YOUR BUSINESS LAYER .DLL’s WILL BE CHEAPER BECAUSE YOU USED THE DECORATOR PATTERN!!!! That’s not on their minds, and hearing that from you maybe why they want to ship your job offshore. You need to learn how to measure value through their eyes.
ProjectManagement411 is focused on how the enterprise can become lean, how agility is going to become their ActiveEngine. Don’t let this synergy pass you by. Concepts like Data Stewardship may make you snicker, but that is the way your stay will extended.
Hang-Dai Wu, Hang-Dai November 15, 2007
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Business Processes, Mythology, Problem Solving.Tags: ActiveEngine, communication, language, Problem Solving
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Two groups of people talking past each other, goals missed, frustration abounds. You are lying if you don’t admit that this is common when the business units interface with the technical folks. Are they speaking English? We are but they aren’t. They’re lazy. They don’t get it. How do they get along in society?
This inhibits your strategy. The goal is to win, go home, come back tomorrow and do it even faster the next time, yet with people talking over each other’s heads there is no way you can start to run the race. Pitiful when you think about it.
One of the most memorable scenes from Deadwood involved conversations between slum lord Wu and evil anti-hero Al Swearengen. Neither could understand each other, and gesticulations added to additional confusion so they resorted to cartoon stick figures and and shouting matches until they communicated their meaning to each other. Al and Wu threw out all convention and stuck to what worked because they had no other choice. This clip shows the such a scene. Watch here.
You need to force your teams to do this. You’re all speaking the same language, why can’t you get it together. Start with nothing, don’t accept “You use words I don’t understand”, and win the day with cartoon-ish stick figures telling the story.
An active mind needs this unfettered communication to truly create and execute. Consultants, drop your charts and grab a crayon. When you capture what is necessary and sufficient, then you can unleash all your talents to jump start your ActiveEngine of creativity.
(For those who are interested, the whole can be viewed here. Be warned, the language is foul.)
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