Minimise the tentacles on the OctopOSS. Keep it simple
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” Henry Ford. I have an interesting question to pose to you today dear readers, one that I don’t think has a perfectly right or wrong answer, but one you’re bound to have an opinion on. Let me put the contrasting views to you. Let’s […]
“People are too eager to say “This legendary person had flaws!” instead of, “Wow, this flawed human being managed to do something legendary.”” Mishell Baker. Interesting perspective from Mishell above, one which I concur with. As usual, I have a take on this in relation to OSS. I think we often spend so much time […]
“…the term Lowest Common Denominator means appealing to as many people at once as possible. There are varying interpretations on what this implies. Taking an upbeat viewpoint, it might be admirable; making stories that most people can relate to” TVropes.com It has been said that television programming caters to the intellect of an 8 year […]
“Intent doesn’t change as a result of a link going down, a server crashing, changing cloud providers, changing switch vendors, upgrading firmware or any other change to the infrastructure.” David Lenrow, chair of the ONF Northbound Working Group, who recently hosted the Intent-based Summit, which has passed a proposal to commence work on the Network […]
“Employees should never be told to protect valuable assets. If they’re told this, they usually protect an object that may be expensive to replace but is not what creates or could destroy value. How value is created is a business’ most important asset, and that is what people must focus their protection resources on.” Scott […]
“You can think of Docker [a container technology] as a shipping container for the online universe, a tool that lets developers neatly package software and move it from machine to machine. Today, when running large online applications such as a Google or a Twitter or a Facebook, developers and businesses often spread software across dozens, […]
“Essential: Document with just barely good enough detail. Valuable: Document only when we actually need it, not when we want it. Timely: Documentation should be done in a just-in-time (JIT) manner, when we need it.” Ashish Sharma, here The Manifesto for Agile Software Development values “working software over comprehensive documentation”. This ethos is particularly relevant […]
“Do you think that such a role (a Chief Simplification Officer or Project Simplification Officer) is justified? If so, what do you think are the essential traits that this person would need?” I posed these questions in a recent article entitled, “Chief Simplification Officer,” so rather than just leave you with an open question, today […]
“By seeking and blundering we learn.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In the grand scheme of OSS and all its constituent pieces, no one person knows very much at all. That’s why we have to build learning (and teaching) into everything we do in OSS, as individuals, as organisations and as products. It’s for this reason […]
“What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” Tony Robbins. Complexity is the single biggest challenge that stands in the way of us delivering OSS masterpieces. As described in, “The triple constraint of complexity,” the reduction of any complexity should have a multiplier effect towards the […]
“You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals.” George S. Patton. Long-time readers of this blog will be familiar with the use of Seth Godin’s thrashing principle in OSS to attempt to get a scope locked in and developed against. The reality is that despite all the […]
“Inspiration is much more likely to develop from the habit of consistently paying attention to life’s small moments.” Robert Maurer, from his book, “The Spirit of Kaizen: Creating Lasting Excellence One Small Step at a Time.” As we all know, OSS projects are a combination of people, process and technology. However, since most of us […]
“The Toyota production system has been built on the practice and evolution of this scientific approach. By asking and answering ‘why’ five times, we can get to the real cause of the problem, which is often hidden behind more obvious symptoms.” Eric Ries, in his book, “The Lean Startup.” Some time ago, I prepared a […]
“Thrashing: tweaking, updating, revising, sometimes even major surgery; essential, but when to do it? Amateur: all at the end. Pro: early.” Seth Godin in his book, “Linchpin.” One of the biggest challenges facing a new OSS project is gaining a workable and binding set of requirements on which to build a solution. There are all […]
“Most systems deal with complexity by adding more – more systems, more measures, more internal meetings, more units, more custom products, more unique processes, more new initiatives, more coordinators at the interfaces, and on and on. Our belief is that for more companies, the antidote to escalating complexity – and to the greater distance between […]
“A while ago our world exploded. The environment and the world of towns and cities and families and communities blew apart, along with the world of ideas and information, of entertainment and communication, of politics and diplomacy, and of course the world of businesses and organisations. It’s hard to date when the explosion started, but […]
“A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong.” Tecumseh. I have an interesting dilemma to pose for you today. Let’s say you have a migration to undertake that involves your field work-force. The migration requires the re-direction of customer services from one destination to a new destination via re-patching at various points […]
“Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.” James A. Michener. In a recent post, I posed the question about whether we would soon no longer need network engineers. This was slightly cheeky of me. Today I shall note some caveats on posing such a bold question, as well as providing my humble opinions […]
“Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you ALIVE.” Sid Vicious. In many previous posts (including “A new category of OSS“), I’ve pondered how network virtualisation will disrupt the status-quo within OSS. If, in the […]
“Our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.” M. Scott Peck. I was recently discussing the […]
