"People who think they know it all are especially annoying to those of us who do." Anonymous. As you build up your knowledge about your particular OSS you will become increasingly important to your team. But over the years I've also learnt that it is more important to promote autonomy in your team-mates rather than being the centre of all knowledge by taking the time to…
Read More »"People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things." Edmund Hillary. As most people know, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first two people to climb Mount Everest, back in 1953. What I hadn't realised until recently was that there was a team of around 400 people that contributed to placing these two men on the top of the world. One…
Read More »"At its most basic, a story begins with a character who wants something, struggles to overcome barriers that stand in the way of achieving it, and moves through a series of actions—the actual story structure—to overcome them." Jack Hart. Does the description above sound like the plot from a New York Times best-seller or does it explain every OctopOSS project you've ever worked on? I wonder whether this is…
Read More »"For the first time in my life, I found my passion. I was spending all my time practising. It took me hours and hours a day to take my skills to the next level." BLACK. The embedded video has nothing to do with OSS, but has a lot to do with sharing a passion. Do you know anyone who has skills with an OSS that can…
Read More »"A huge chunk of the brain power we have sitting on our shoulders is devoted to processing visual images. It's how we communicate. It's how we share information. It defines who we are... All the great theories of the world are not equations, [rather] they are based on simple principles which can be manifested as pictures, as video images." Dr Michio Kaku. As this blog regularly…
Read More »"The word “simple” has become so cliché that I try not to use it anymore, but ultimately the point is that things are pretty easy and simple until you make them hard and complicated. So we’re always trying to keep them as simple and easy as they naturally are. So if we have a big idea, let’s chop that idea in half. Let’s chop it in…
Read More »"Enterprises able to successfully innovate at a breakthrough level are far more likely to dominate and prosper in the new markets they create" From a recent survey conducted by Accenture In the survey discussed above 93% of executive respondents indicated their long-term success relied on innovation. However only one-third felt their organisation were well placed to innovate. This blog has discussed previously what a threat the OTT providers…
Read More »"Feedback is the breakfast of champions." Kenneth Blanchard. Many CSPs are realising the benefits, to themselves and their customers, by diversifying their customer touch points to include new channels. This includes offering self-help and "instant" customer interaction channels (ie web chat, instant messaging, social networking, etc) in addition to the traditional channels such as email, retail outlets, call centres, leaving messages via web forms, etc. It is…
Read More »“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” Bruce Lee. Whether you're a vendor or a customer, there is a tendency to get lost in the complexity of your OSS. Just as Bruce Lee did with his training, there is complexity waiting to be hacked away from most OSS. There are seven key areas where simplicity can be achieved: Simplified processes…
Read More »"There's a battle between what the cook thinks is high art and what the customer just wants to eat." Mario Batali. If you're an OSS developer, it's easy to see all your work as high art. And in many cases it is. There is an amazing sense of achievement to build something so powerful. Unfortunately for OSS chefs, the customer doesn't care much for the art…
Read More »"Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement." Peter F. Drucker. Peter Drucker was born in 1909 and was a leader in corporate management education. His statement above rings true today and is particularly true for OSS practitioners. I've experienced some corporate cultures when knowledge is hoarded, possibly in the hope that power can be hoarded. I don't subscribe to that theory. I…
Read More »"Get the habit of analysis - analysis will in time enable synthesis to become your habit of mind." Frank Lloyd Wright. If you were asked to provide an impartial analysis of an OSS, what factors are important? Every OSS has vastly different functionality but there are several factors that affect the overall experience a user has with a product: Usefulness: is the product useful, with a clear…
Read More »"Don't be so familiar and so much into the details. Keep people dreaming. Close the window, and make them wonder." Celine Dion. The story behind today's post still vexes me to this day. Yes, Celine Dion vexes me too but that's a whole other story. In the early 2000's I was tasked with building a vendor's first ever auto-discovery engine. We were assigned a brilliant young developer to…
Read More »"For many people a job is more than an income – it’s an important part of who we are. So a career transition of any sort is one of the most unsettling experiences you can face in your life." Paul Clitheroe. As a consultant, I've had many new roles at many different organisations in different countries and different cultures over the years. So I guess you…
Read More »"We aren't in an information age, we are in an entertainment age." Tony Robbins. The second half of the information age is definitely progressing along the lines of Tony Robbins's quote above. As information commoditises, it becomes the content, the entertainment that differentiates. Does this lead to the line of thinking that B/OSS of the future will be part OSS, part content/media server, part billing engine,…
Read More »"It takes two men to make one brother." Israel Zangwill. POI or points of interconnect are interesting places. They are the place where CSPs meet and hand off information between each other. Is it just me or are POIs also the place where size does matter? Is it really true that the bigger CSP will generally assume the position of bigger brother when it comes to billing irregularities,…
Read More »"Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?" T. S. Eliot. We all know OSS hold lots of data. But why? What is the knowledge gained from the information? I believe there are five main types of data that are essential for true business intelligence: Operational data - the near real-time data that allows the organisation to track how efficiently it is functioning Network performance -…
Read More »"Beware the barrenness of a busy life." Socrates. Further to yesterday's post, why is it that almost everyone I have met in the world of OSS is busy now and has a backlog of incomplete activities piled up to the roof? Why have I averaged 80 hour weeks for months at a time and still haven't got close to keeping up when on OSS projects? Why…
Read More »"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." Donald Porter. I only recently heard a saying that is apparently commonplace - "No wrong doors." It wasn't immediately apparent what it meant. In effect, it means that if a customer asks you a question then you need to go away and resolve it even if it's not…
Read More »"You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data." Daniel Keys Moran. OSS technologies will undergo changes from any number of directions in coming years and disruptive approaches will undoubtedly morph OSS from their current form. Irrespective of this evolution, we can simplify. The reason that OSS are relevant now and will continue to remain relevant in their modified form in the…
Read More »"If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine." Jim Barksdale. I was discussing performance reporting with a friend yesterday and he made a simple, yet profound statement that I agreed with wholeheartedly. When it comes to performance reporting, it's not the information presentation that is important but how easy it is to extract the data. Every…
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