Category: Systems Thinking
Thinking tools
December 27, 2006
While looking for advice on improving my critical thinking, I came across this article – http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~ctwardy/Papers/reasonpaper.pdf Interestingly, there are a bunch of tools listed here that claim to help with the technique of argument mapping. I haven’t had a chance to try any of these yet. Hopefully, encouraging others to check them out will yield […]
Rolling your own methodology
August 14, 2006
I came across someone asking for an answer to the old “How do you test a stapler” question, and in light of my new role, I thought this was a good opportunity to start taking up James Bach’s methodology challenge, using the stapler example as a starting point. I’m starting with the meta-questions, those which […]
The practice of simplicity (or Methodology perils)
February 13, 2006
Michael Bolton talks about the perils of simplicity in XP, especially when it comes to defining the word ‘work’. I’ve shared some ‘perils of XP’ conversations with Michael of late, so I wanted to consider my experiences on the topic. One thing that strikes me about software methodologies is that like many things which are […]
Valuing early feedback – Why wait until the end?
June 7, 2005
I suspect that my boss has helped focus this thought for me.� I began wondering about why people wait until finishing something before seeking feedback.� Underlying assumptions behind checking something at the end might be – – that you’re going to get it right first time. – that nobody knows better than you do. – […]
Values
January 14, 2005
Jon Eaves was blogging about problems related to development goals not aligning with business objectives and it resounded with some thoughts I had been having on company values. In addition to goal alignment, I’m thinking at the moment that alignment of values is equally important, or at the very least it helps when the true […]