Posts tagged as:

speed

Why Experiential Workshops?

by Steven M. Smith

I lead experiential workshops. Why? You will learn more from an experience than a lecture. And the learning will stick.
Experiential means you participate in simulations rather than sit in a dark room watching a slide show and listening to a lecture. A simulation speeds up time: Six minutes participating in a simulation may trigger you [...]

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Catch Them Doing It Right

by Steven M. Smith

First published in the Management Chronicles of Better Software Magazine, January – February, 2008 issue. It’s also posted on the stickyminds website.

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A smile formed on Eleanor’s face as she saw me approach her doorway.
She and I were meeting to discuss her views on recognizing and rewarding employees. She had been my manager for three [...]

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Trade-off: Go For Quality

by Steven M. Smith

What typically happens when product development decides to create a superior product? The most likely result is 1. slower delivery or 2. costlier development or 3. both slower delivery and costlier development. Why?

You don’t get something for nothing.
Producing a higher quality product takes more development time, which delays delivery to the customer and drives up [...]

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But Is It Possible?

by Steven M. Smith

Your manager, Ellsworth, asks you, “But is it possible?” He wants you to tell him that it is possible for you to satisfy a project milestone despite the argument you presented him for the past five minutes that the milestone was unrealistic.
You feel like you are on the witness stand. Jack McCoy, the character from [...]

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Trade-off: Go For Speed

by Steven M. Smith

The people whose opinion counts the most choose to go for faster delivery speed. Their thinking may be sound; in this case, they want to beat their competitors to market.
Choosing faster product delivery visibly sacrifices product quality and, in my experience, it often invisibly sacrifices the economy of product support. In this post, I answer [...]

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Rethinking Employee Rewards 2 of 3

by Steven M. Smith

In my first entry on employee rewards, I emphasized the importance of knowing the recipient well enough to reward them with something that is meaningful to them.
But there is more to effective reward programs than providing a meaningful award. Let’s take a step back and explore answers to the questions: What is the purpose of [...]

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Looking Back, Looking Forward

by Steven M. Smith

Have you every compared your skills to another person? How about upping the comparison by comparing yourself to an earlier version of yourself? In this article, I compare my skills today with my skills 20 years earlier.
First published by Software Testing and Quality Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 March/April 2000.
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I’m forty-five, with a mainframe background. [...]

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