I really dislike being asked to plan a project. It's hard to predict the future accurately.

In spite of the future being -- well -- the future, and utterly unknowable, we still have to have the following kinds of discussions.

Me: "It's probably going to take a team of six."

Customer: "We …

Received

"it seems that software development has caught the agile religion. Personally, I have an issue w/ being unimodal."

What?

First. "agile religion". As in the deprecating statement: Agile is nothing more than a religion? As in Agile is nothing more than a vague religious practice with no tangible value …

It occurs to me that much of "Big IT" creates a well-oiled organization that makes broken software seem acceptable. The breakage is wrapped in layers of finely-tuned process. Consider a typical Enterprise Application. There's a help desk, ticket tracking, a user support organization that does "ad-hoc" processing, and a development …

I've seen some discussion on Stack Overflow that is best characterized by the question: "What is Strictly Agile?", or "What's the Official Agile Approach?".

Someone shared this with me recently: "Process kills developer passion".

I have also heard some great complaints about organizations that claim "Agile" and actually do nothing …

Check this out: "IT Is Too Darn Slow".

This article is packed with helpful advice on how to improve "velocity" and the pace of innovation.

Good quotes: "Once IT decides to focus on speed, two obstacles get in the way: security and governance." This is important. Manage security without it …

A quote

"What sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense."

—Napoleon Bonaparte

There's no authoritative source for this quote. Since Fulton was commissioned to …

Check out this little item in eWeek. "Transforming DIY Projects from the Painful to the Productive".

As an outside consultant in a large number of organizations, I've seen a lot of DIY projects—what we used to call "end user computing". Indeed, I've even been hired by the user organizations …

In general, Software Engineering Metrics are not without value.

Expecting magic from metrics is what devalues them, reducing metrics to dumb numerosity.

Once code is in production, plenty of metrics are readily available. For example, the trouble-ticket history tells you everything you need to know about code that's in production …

ComputerWorld, November 22, 2010, has this: "Open Source Grows Up". The news of the weird is "It's clear that open-source software has moved beyond the zealotry phase." I wasn't aware this phase existed. I hope to see the project plan with "zealotry" in it.

The real news is "More than …

Here's an interesting news item: "Red Hat’s Secret Patent Deal and the Fate of JBoss Developers".

Here's an ancient -- but still relevant -- piece from Tim O'Reilly: "Software and Business Method Patents".

Here's a great article in Slate on the consequences of software patents. "Weapons of Business Destruction: How a …