“Are these guys really Robin Hood and his Merry Men as they claim, or Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes?” Robert Miller The concept of swarm engineering, using many capable but cheaper resources to swarm onto discrete pieces of a complex, lengthy task and deliver a faster, cheaper outcome has its merits. There are many discrete pieces of your OctopOSS that could be done by resources…
Read More »"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." Daniel J. Boorstin Auto-discovery is a tool of great power in the OSS tool-kit. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when planning this part of your OctopOSS: You don't want auto-discovery to auto-populate your OSS database. There are too many misleading events that appear like an inventory…
Read More »"I don't believe you outsource your convictions and principles to people." Jeb Bush When there are under-developed countries generating hundreds of thousands of highly educated engineers, developers, analysts, etc each year who will deliver at a fraction of the labour rates of the developed world. This provides a massive shift of opportunity for CSPs and vendors. Some people see the advantages (relatively cheap labour to build…
Read More »"Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status." Laurence J. Peter In the past all CSPs were big and their associated OctopOSS were also big. Many million dollars big. But those projects were also complex, time consuming and often delivered little of what they originally intended. It is interesting that enterprise-grade OSS tools are increasingly being snuck in…
Read More »"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing." Thomas Sowell In many large CSPs, bureaucracy is a way of life. Procedures provide the bureaucrats with a port of consistency within a sea of change. An OctopOSS project is a very threatening beast because it changes organisations and their associated procedures. An OctopOSS project needs a team…
Read More »"The most successful people in business work differently: 1. They don't create back-up plans 2. They do the work... 3. ...and they work a lot more 4. They avoid the crowds 5. They start at the end... 6. ... and they don't stop there 7. They sell 8. They are never too proud" Jeff Haden in his report on INC.com Does this relate to you and…
Read More »"Success comes from doing things differently" Steve McKnight Change is happening faster and faster, so significant investment in innovation is essential for any modern organisation, enforcing ongoing rapid evolution. And if ever there were an industry that thrives on innovation, then OSS would be it. OSS are the product of the information age and it has yet to be mastered, possibly because of the vast amounts…
Read More »"An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore." Edward de Bono In what ways can you increase your expertise as an OctopOSS wrangler? The following methods will help guide you: Start with the data. The OctopOSS's data sets will always give insights into how the system works. This includes -…
Read More »"'It's impossible' said pride. 'It's risky' said experience. 'It's pointless' said reason. 'Give it a try' whispered the heart." Author Unknown as sent by InspirationPeak. What is the "it" that your heart is telling you to try? This site is one of mine. There are many more on my list in various states of development. You undoubtedly have many more. That's what makes OSS so exciting.…
Read More »"Remember, you're trying to control a market, not out-feature another product" Bob Rice in Three Moves Ahead Bob Rice's quote above is really relevant in the OSS marketplace. Vendors appear to compete on the number of features. This is an admirable approach, but is it the equivalent of a car-maker putting a 43rd cup-holder in their new off-road vehicle? There is a diminishing real value of…
Read More »"It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served." Napoleon Hill Have you ever noticed that the most successful* OSS integrators/vendors are more heavily focussed on providing services than products? * Note: The term successful is in terms…
Read More »"Customers are the centre of the universe" Anne Mulcahy What are the resources that stop a company from growing? Capital? Yes, companies are measured on KPIs like Return on Equity and other accounting terms. Skilled resources? Yes, each OSS vendor's solution is so unique that there is a dearth of resources able to be highly productive for them, even if there are many other OSS experts…
Read More »"The whole is other than the sum of the parts" Kurt Koffka Early proponents of Gestalt Theory like Koffka indicated that humans perceive a whole solution (eg water) quickly and intuitively before taking the time to consider the constituent parts (eg rain drops, water molecules, etc). The 80/20 rule of human perception?? User Interfaces generally adhere to Gestalt Design whether the designer knows it or not.…
Read More »"Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one" When it comes to the OctopOSS, the Jack of all Trades tends to be the only one capable of bringing all of the pieces together. In the modern world of increasing specialisation, it is easier to find (or replace!) someone with skills in a single domain (eg programming, transmission networks, service management…
Read More »"Herbert Simon, who won a Nobel Prize for economics... identified a decision strategy he calls satisficing: selecting the first option that works. Satisficing is different from optimizing, which means trying to come up with the best strategy. Optimizing is hard, and it takes a long time. Satisficing is more efficient. The singular evaluation strategy is based on satisficing. Simon used the concept of satisficing to describe…
Read More »"The formula in a nutshell: 1. What I’ve got for you 2. What it’s going to do for you 3. Who am I? 4. What you need to do next" Joan Harrington on workwithjoanharrington.com So let's apply this formula to PassionateAboutOSS.com 1. What I’ve got for you PassionateAboutOSS provides tools, insights and information to help you to implement OSS project (that's Operational…
Read More »"No organisation claimed that its success was due to the superior MIS, at least in terms of any formal IT-based systems.... However, the winning organisations were in general rather critical of their IT-based systems." Hubbard et al in "The First XI - Winning Organisations in Australia" The above statment reads like a call to arms for software vendors. The above-mentioned book is an in-depth analysis of Australia's…
Read More »"The 5 Whys is a question-asking technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem" Wikipedia It is well known that many OSS projects fail to deliver against their initial objectives, some failing to deliver any outcomes at all. There are many reasons why. As mentioned in…
Read More »"Agility means that you are faster than your competition. Agile time frames are measured in weeks and months, not years." Michael Hugos Our Requirements Capture Page has just been updated to include a template showing how we capture requirements using the Agile User Stories method.
Read More »"It is very difficult to get a project approved at Lend Lease, because: - An enormous amount of due dilligence is required to be undertaken in order to understand all the risks - It must be clear that the project has drawn on existing expertise and experience within Lend Lease - The project faces high financial hurdles for approval - The project must have access to the…
Read More »"There's no other breakthrough in management that I know of that has as much bang for the buck as information technology." Bask Iyer, CIO of Juniper on CIO.com The link above is an interesting article describing how IT is seen to be a mechanism for driving efficiency, but not often as a means of driving growth. The same would ring true for almost all CSPs and…
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