OSS Transformation is all about managing change – organisationally, functionally and operationally during in-flight projects. This is the most commonly overlooked factor when planning OSS projects
“3.Our thinking is often constrained by the complexity of the challenges, so which 10 complexities would you like to snap your fingers and remove?” Here are ten ideas: Don’t let Engineers define the requirements 🙂 (I have an Engineering degree, so perhaps I’m included in this list). Just because you CAN deliver a feature doesn’t […]
James Altucher’s Idea Machine concept will form the basis of a series of upcoming posts. An earlier post, “Just 10 ideas” posed 10 questions, one being “What are the 10 things that you’d like to get better at?” From that question, and each of the other questions, I’ll attempt to generate 10 ideas. So, the […]
Ruthless simplification is a common theme here on PAOSS. Here’s a concept for you to try – a “simplification index” or “subtraction index” to classify how much simpler your OSS projects make your operations. The concept forces business cases to have subtraction projects built in.
Yesterday I posed 10 questions, including the following, “What should be the first 10 events scheduled at an OSS Olympics?” This is a concept I’ve pondered for years – who are the best of the best in the world of OSS? It’s a tough one to determine though because one operator may be brilliant on one […]
In yesterday’s post, “Just 10 ideas“, I talked about James Altucher’s “Idea Machine,” of coming up with 10 ideas every day, regardless of whether they’re good or not. I took a slightly different twist on the concept and posed a series of 10 questions, which in turn will probably have at least 10 idea responses. […]
“You can’t trust the old style of thinking anymore. You have to come up with a new way of thinking. A new way of having ideas. A new way of interacting with the outside universe.” James Altucher. I’m currently reading James Altucher’s latest book. It has nothing to do with OSS but it has a […]
“A need to differentiate products and services in the market is forcing greater specialisation. Specialist organisations that do one or two things well will naturally rely more on partnerships. At the same time, other companies have little time to both develop similar expertise internally and keep pace with technology-driven changes in their own industry or […]
“2016 will be a pivotal year for companies adapting to digitally savvy and empowered customers. Companies moving along the age of the customer path will begin to thrive, while laggards will begin the slow descent to failure.” Dane Anderson, in a new report from Forrester Research. The report also highlights the following trends for 2016: […]
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. l often speak about the urgency for simplification here on PAOSS and it has me wondering why it is such a challenge, for me included, within the realm of OSS. I suspect the ambiguity of simplicity scares many people as it requires us to think in terms […]
“Imagine that it’s Winter, you’re walking in the forest, and you see a frozen pond with a hundred people skating on it. Now, imagine walking past the same pond with nobody, or just one person skating on it. Would you be more likely to go skating on the pond in the first case or in […]
“A contingency plan is a plan devised for an outcome other than in the usual (expected) plan.” Websters dictionary. This week we’ve used the metaphors of black swans, elephants in the room and boiling frogs to highlight some of the challenges that could be faced by the OSS industry. Once you’ve gone through your own […]
“The idea of ‘boiling frogs’ relates to the anecdotal frog that, in theory, doesn’t jump out of the pot if you raise the temperature very gradually and ends up being boiled alive. Apparently the latest biological research is that the frog actually would jump out, which is perhaps encouraging for him and for people trying […]
“The ‘elephant in the room’ is something that everyone is well aware of, but they deliberately or subconsciously choose to ignore it. Sometimes we encounter clients who refuse to face the fact that their industry is declining or that something hugely impactful is about to happen.” Alan Iny. There are a number of elephants that […]
“A synonym for ‘wild cards’ in many ways is the Black Swan. We’re talking about unexpected, high impact things. We have to recognize that no matter how much data we have about trends and predictions of what’s going to happen in the future there will still be wild cards. This could take the form of […]
“It is unrealistic that any organisation, regardless of size, can have all the expertise they require in constant employ. Sometimes you need expertise or advice that is a little bit niche, or maybe you only need it for a short amount of time. It is just that you don’t want people like me running your […]
“First, explore how to doubt everything you think you know, and remember that all your ideas, even the most successful, are hypotheses within you – and not set in stone. Challenge the boxes that determine how you perceive the world, and think creatively about how you’re defining the specific problems you’re hoping to solve.” Luc […]
“As you work on your project (your presentation, your plan, your speech, your recipe, your…) imagine that it’s the sort of thing that could be reviewed on Amazon. Now, write (actually write down) two different reviews: First, a 5 star review, a review by someone who gets it, who is moved, who is eager to […]
“The day before yesterday, for the first time this attempt for us, we have conducted a “throw away meeting”.” Susumu Fujita (quote has been Google-translated from the original Japanese blog into English) [Another translation could be – “The day before yesterday, we held our first “throw away meeting.” This meeting was proposed in a recent […]
This is the sixth in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to We don’t have enough skilled people. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry […]
This is the fourth in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to Our requirements keep changing. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry via technologies such as […]
