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Forrest Christian, consultant with The Manasclerk Company, is the author of most of these pages. Unless noted otherwise as written by another author, all of this site's content is Copyright 2002-2010 E. Forrest Christian, Valparaiso, Indiana, USA. All Rights reserved.
Category Archives: Computers/IT
Software Architecture: There Is No One Right Way
I spent some time perusing the programming stacks at Seattle’s main library today, and skimmed through some texts on software architecture. Perhaps the most interesting was 97 Things Every Software Architect Should…
Why Managers Should Not Write Technical Job Postings
A friend of mine encouraged me to tell this story which I watched unfold first hand while a software development manager for a mid-sized consulting firm. One of my best developers — a software architect, really — started laughing in…
Posted in Computers/IT, Managing
Tagged management, software development, stupid job postings
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Using Timespans to Solve Communication Problems
Ever wonder if timespans has any practical usefulness? Here is how I used timespans to clear up a communication problem in…
Posted in Computers/IT, Theory
Tagged Information Technology, IT architecture, timespan, work levels
1 Comment
Different Worlds: My Experiences with AT&T/RIM vs. Apple
Recently, I had two problems come up. Neither of them are really horrifying but the experiences that I had show why…
Posted in Computers/IT, Tools
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Kinston's & Algie's guide on how managers can approach decisions
For Friday, here’s “Seven Distinct Paths of Decision and Action” by Warren Kinston and Jimmy Algie from 1989. This paper describes the seven different approaches to decision-making, but note that it’s really about action. Continue reading
Posted in Careers, Change, Coaching, Computers/IT, Decision-making, GO Conference, Governance, Managing, Motivation, Networks, Ontologies, Organizations, Outsourcing, Overachievers, Quality, Resources, Reviews - Articles, Reviews - Books, Risk Management, Social Network Analysis, Strategy, THEE, Theory, Uncategorized, Underachievers, Warren Kinston, Wilfred Brown, elliott jaques, podcast, requisite organization
Tagged Action, Decision-making, management, Warren Kinston
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Retraining Mainframers to Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
I’m going through my old email archives, and discovered a note from a project I ran to help a very large US property & casualty insurer to better retool their mainframe-oriented programmers (procedural using COBOL) to client-server paradigms (mostly Object-Oriented…
Posted in Computers/IT, Theory
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New MacUpdate Promo Bundle
Since I got so much grief from some of y’all for failing to mention the last one, here’s the news: a brand new MacUpdate Promo bundle is available. You get some great apps, plus the chance that they will unlock…
Posted in Admin, Computers/IT
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Greybox Really Is a Popup Window That Doesn’t Suck
I’ve been evaluating several technologies for a small web project I’m working. One of the things that I’ve seen lately are these popup windows that display on top of the original page, graying out the original and “floating” on top…
“We are breaking the Von Neumann Assumption”: Burton Smith’s Keynote
Facing up to parallelism: Multicore means today’s HPC is tomorrow’s general purpose” by Martin Banks
The Register has an interesting article on the International Supercomputing Conference keynote speech by Burton Smith, who used to be Chief Scientist at Cray and…
Posted in Computers/IT
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Structured Process vs. Drift: A Question of Worklevel?
Claudio Ciborra, who unfortunately died too early recently, left a rich quantity and breadth of writings on information systems from a sociological perspective. Here I look at one of thisClaudio Ciborra. 2002. “Design, Kairos and Affection“. From Managing as Designing:…
Posted in Computers/IT, Managing, Organizations, Reviews - Articles
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How Standardization Creates Dis-Order
Hanseth, Ole and Braa, Kristin. 2001. “For the Treasure at the End of the Rainbow: Standardizing Corporate IT Infrastructure”. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. 10:261–292.
Hanseth and Braa, both of the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo, examined a…
Posted in Change, Computers/IT, Reviews - Articles
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Changing, IT, Improvisation and What Work Really Is (meandering)
After recently finishing a gig with a company that has hit a spate of bad luck, both self-inflicted and environmental, I have taken to reading. And as always when I read, I like to meander aimlessly through the thoughts of…
Posted in Change, Computers/IT, Managing, Theory
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Using Mobile Phone Numbers For ID
In an attempt to thwart spammers, Google Mail has started using mobile phone numbers to provide customers with gmail invitations. This is an interesting development, one that has been predicted for at least since the miniaturizaion of mobile telephones. With…
Posted in Computers/IT, Uncategorized
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Offshore Outsourcing: Undeniable Failure?
One the biggest problems facing outsourcing projects stems from the cost savings themselves. Most companies determine the size and level of a project or work by its cost. They don’t assign work based upon its strategic value or (following Dr. Jaques and Lord Brown) on a measure of complexity. They simply assign it based on cost. Let’s look at what this does for outsourcing work. Continue reading
Posted in Computers/IT, Managing, Organizations, Outsourcing
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Requisite CIOs
CSO (Australia) Magazine had an interesting article last month by Sue Bushell on IT organizations and their spectacular failure to the business ["Just Deserts", 2005 May 5]. Bushell quoted Kathryn Cason of Requisite Organization International Institute on the problems of…
Posted in Computers/IT, Managing
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Requisite Retooling for Mainframe Shops Moving To Object Oriented Programming
A few weeks ago, I talked about the basics of Requisite software developmen and organizational design affects the quality of software projects. Today, I will continue that, answering Paul’s questions about retoolling a mainframe shop to object-oriented programming (OOP). …
Posted in Computers/IT, Managing, Organizations
1 Comment
A Coder’s Look at Agile and Complexity
JMMJ, a once frequent commenter on this site’s predecessor, has started studying Agile Programming. He has an interesting article on his first impressions of Agile methods, including how religious the entire “Agile Faith” is. He talks about the issues of…
Posted in Computers/IT
2 Comments
Requisite Software Development
Software development groups almost always form a shadow hierarchy or pecking order of merit. Elliott Jaques’s theory of Requisite Organization explains why. Continue reading
Posted in Computers/IT, Theory
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CSC gets Renault contract
Consulting Times reports this week that Computer Sciences Corporation won part of Renault’s outsourcing of US$790M worth of IT. The french automobile manufacturer also gave chunks to Alto Origin and HP.
Under the terms of the £175 million ($236
…
Posted in Computers/IT
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Rapid Talent Pool Evaluation for Merger and Acquisitions
A new periodic feature. I wrote the following for another website. It describes the success that Glenn Mehltretter of PeopleFit has had in using Requiste Organization informed practices to create a better merger of two companies. Continue reading
Posted in Computers/IT, Managing
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