We are easy-going travelers. Not for us, the detailed checklists of places to visit, vineyards to taste wine in, or “happening places” to dine at, or “recommended bars to hop”. Instead, our travels are adorned with the fruits of serendipitous discovery and the surprise and delight that comes from having no expectations. And there have been no shortage of those.
A while ago, we stopped in Singapore briefly with no set plans other than staying at the Imperial Hotel and taking the free standard half day tour around Singapore that Singapore airlines offered. We managed to later see Serangoon Road, eat at one of the Indian establishments, take the sky lift to Sentosa Island from the World Trade Center, spend a little time in the Singapore Zoo, shop for T shirts with the transit system commuters at the Ang Mo Kio terminus, and shop and eat at Orchard Road. We later walked down to the Mariyamma temple at the base of the hill where our hotel was located. All in all, a memorable vacation that stills persists as fond memories more than 15 years later.
Another trip, we stopped at Zurich with three days of vacation, stayed in a Gasthaus by the banks of Lake Zurich (Zurichsee) and drove to St. Gallen, saw the cathedral and walked down the quaint streets looking at the shops and ornate 300 year old balconies of solid hewn wood, went to the monastery and then shopped and ate at a local departmental store cafeteria and watched the solid Swiss citizens shop, eat and walk around. We then drove through Austria and into Germany, along the banks of Lake Constance (Bodensee) and picnicked in the city of Lindau by the castle on the banks of Bodensee. We then drove towards Munich and stopped off for the night at a Gasthaus in a little village along the autobahn. Nobody spoke English, but we managed to communicate with each other, nevertheless.
A while ago, we stopped in Singapore briefly with no set plans other than staying at the Imperial Hotel and taking the free standard half day tour around Singapore that Singapore airlines offered. We managed to later see Serangoon Road, eat at one of the Indian establishments, take the sky lift to Sentosa Island from the World Trade Center, spend a little time in the Singapore Zoo, shop for T shirts with the transit system commuters at the Ang Mo Kio terminus, and shop and eat at Orchard Road. We later walked down to the Mariyamma temple at the base of the hill where our hotel was located. All in all, a memorable vacation that stills persists as fond memories more than 15 years later.
Another trip, we stopped at Zurich with three days of vacation, stayed in a Gasthaus by the banks of Lake Zurich (Zurichsee) and drove to St. Gallen, saw the cathedral and walked down the quaint streets looking at the shops and ornate 300 year old balconies of solid hewn wood, went to the monastery and then shopped and ate at a local departmental store cafeteria and watched the solid Swiss citizens shop, eat and walk around. We then drove through Austria and into Germany, along the banks of Lake Constance (Bodensee) and picnicked in the city of Lindau by the castle on the banks of Bodensee. We then drove towards Munich and stopped off for the night at a Gasthaus in a little village along the autobahn. Nobody spoke English, but we managed to communicate with each other, nevertheless.
We went on to see the harrowing sights at the Dachau concentration camp near Munich and the famed BMW auto museum in Munich. We came back by way of Neuschwanstein and Schwangau and saw Mad Ludwig's castle and the turrets poking through the clouds and rain. We even walked up the hill with hastily bought rain ponchos negotiating miles and miles of wet and runny horse scheiss as we trudged up the carriage infested road to the castle entrance only to find a long queue of tourists waiting to get in!
I’d like to think that we are not unplanned travelers in toto, but rather light-weight schedulers. We tend to make spot decisions on the time remaining, resources available and the potential enjoyment factor of visiting places. We also tend to adapt our plans to our state of tiredness, and continuing or lack of continuing enjoyment. As a result we have hugely enjoyed our travels within the US, and around the world.
This brings me to the subject of project planning in the IT world or in general for any type of endeavor. Consider:
I’d like to think that we are not unplanned travelers in toto, but rather light-weight schedulers. We tend to make spot decisions on the time remaining, resources available and the potential enjoyment factor of visiting places. We also tend to adapt our plans to our state of tiredness, and continuing or lack of continuing enjoyment. As a result we have hugely enjoyed our travels within the US, and around the world.
This brings me to the subject of project planning in the IT world or in general for any type of endeavor. Consider:
- Software development is a response to needs caused by changes in business, environment, technology, market preferences, competitive pressures and needs for continuous improvement.
- These drivers result in the creation of plans.
- Plans result in the creation of budget items
- Approved budget items result in contracts and projects
- Contracts and Projects drive software development
- Software Development must be followed by deployment.
- Deployment is followed by use.
- Use determines the degree of success of the response to the original need.
Each of these steps takes non-zero time. And as the gears start grinding slowly, the original needs may start shifting or new needs may spring up not to replace the old, but to supplement the old. This is somewhat analogous to the situation when you are still in the process of reading this week’s TIME magazine and the next week’s issue comes in. You have now increased your reading load. But given your history with not completing the first issue, you can bet the second issue will also go unread or partially read. As the issues start piling up, reading all of them is impossible. This is exactly similar to the mess we call the IT backlog.
And not for small reason, long projects, slow budget decisions, lethargic or elaborate planning, waterfall development of software, and distributed individual machine deployments have all contributed to the mess.
Is it possible to apply lightweight scheduling to projects and let the projects drive what they can achieve, concentrating on speed and end results? And figuratively discarding unread, all those issues of TIME we never read or will never read…
Over time, we as a family have readily embraced the Internet, and now my smart phone, as tools to improve our lightweight scheduling as demonstrated by our recent three day trip to New York City where we walked across the East River on the Brooklyn Bridge, ate at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria under the bridge, took the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island, visited the NY Transit Museum in Brooklyn, walked around Times Square around midnight, went around Battery Park, completed a campus visit of Columbia University, ate in Little Italy in Mulberry Street, and took the tram over to Roosevelt Island as well.
The judicious use of available information coupled with a light-weight non-bureaucratic attitude and extreme familiarity with planning, budgeting, requirements gathering, development and deployment may result in “Mini-Projects” that are three months in duration but put a permanent dent in backlogs.. A dream or a possibility? Or simply a great business opportunity for the right entrepreneur?
And not for small reason, long projects, slow budget decisions, lethargic or elaborate planning, waterfall development of software, and distributed individual machine deployments have all contributed to the mess.
Is it possible to apply lightweight scheduling to projects and let the projects drive what they can achieve, concentrating on speed and end results? And figuratively discarding unread, all those issues of TIME we never read or will never read…
Over time, we as a family have readily embraced the Internet, and now my smart phone, as tools to improve our lightweight scheduling as demonstrated by our recent three day trip to New York City where we walked across the East River on the Brooklyn Bridge, ate at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria under the bridge, took the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island, visited the NY Transit Museum in Brooklyn, walked around Times Square around midnight, went around Battery Park, completed a campus visit of Columbia University, ate in Little Italy in Mulberry Street, and took the tram over to Roosevelt Island as well.
The judicious use of available information coupled with a light-weight non-bureaucratic attitude and extreme familiarity with planning, budgeting, requirements gathering, development and deployment may result in “Mini-Projects” that are three months in duration but put a permanent dent in backlogs.. A dream or a possibility? Or simply a great business opportunity for the right entrepreneur?
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