Main
Tradeoffs on buy vs. build
My newest Baseline column is up, talking about the dilemma faced in deciding whether to acquire software or build it yourself: The other day, an IT colleague of mine mentioned a conflict at a corporation where he’s working. The corporation has a mission-critical application deployed across a large number of workstations. The set of corporate […]
“Inside-Out”: IEEE presentation in Longmont (09/02/08)
On September 2nd, I’ll be speaking at a meeting of the Denver IEEE Reliability Society. It will be held at 5:30 pm in the Seagate Building in Longmont (CO), on Nelson Road between 75th Rd and Airport Rd. Here’s my abstract of the talk: INSIDE-OUT: Organizations too often treat software reliability as an ‘after the […]
The thermocline of truth — at NASA
Rand Simberg at Transterrestrial Musings (an outstanding blog, BTW) points to this e-mail from someone leaving NASA due to a litany of frustrations. I may parse out more of the e-mail later to note some of the classic troubled/failing project attributes, but this passage caught my eye: Then between us workers and the highest levels […]
How to champion an IT project solution
My latest Baseline column is now up: Last week, I talked about some of the reasons why large organizations often reject the best solutions for a troubled IT project: fear, pride, budget, and the ever-present internal politics. This week, as promised, I will talk about what it takes to champion the right solution. I can’t […]
They’d rather be wrong: rejecting project solutions
I have a new Baseline column up on the tendency of large organizations to reject the best solutions for a troubled IT project: The consultants, usually with the help of the employees in the trenches, would use their time, effort, and expertise to analyze the system under development or in production. They would arrive at […]