I'd rather play golf

Earlier this month I posted an article that (very) briefly summarized two papers from the 2008 and 2009 International Conference on Software Engineering that studied causation between software development project characteristics and defect rates. In particular, the more recent [1] CACM paper describes the defect rate in Windows Vista, and the statistics for that project [...]

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“Post-Project Reviews to Gain Effective Lessons Learned” [1] is a 2007 research report authored by Terry Williams, Director of the School of Management at the University of Southampton, available (for a fee) from the Project Management Institute. A summary of Williams’ findings appear in [2], which I commented on previously. In the report, Terry Williams [...]

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Last September I penned some thoughts on documenting project failure and its importance in the product development process, prompted by reading similar views held by Don Reinertsen in his book Managing the Design Factory [1]. Recently I came across a paper [2] by Terry Williams, Director of the School of Management at the University of [...]

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A significant difference between Computer Science and Engineering curricula is that management of the Engineering process is a formal discipline within Engineering, whereas, in my experience at least, management is given very little emphasis in Computer Science programs. Hence it is useful for engineering and product managers to pay attention to the IEEE’s Technology Management [...]

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This afternoon I received an email from Barbara Muir, the Director of Information, Communications and Manufacturing for Research Partnerships at NSERC, Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. In it, Barbara announced a significant change to NSERC’s policy on intellectual property for NSERC-sponsored research in Canada. In a nutshell, NSERC’s IP policy has been modified [...]

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In two previous posts, part un and part deux, I briefly summarized three of the important themes Don Reinertsen describes in The Principles of Product Development Flow [1]: Economics, Queuing, and Variability. In this final part, I’ll briefly summarize two other themes, Batch Size and WIP constraints, and present some closing remarks. Batch Size Understanding [...]

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In my previous post I began this book review by concentrating on the first two important themes Don Reinertsen describes in The Principles of Product Development Flow [1]: Economics and Queuing. In this part deux, we briefly summarize another important theme: Variability. Variability Completely eliminating variability in the product development process is often seen as [...]

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In his latest book, The Principles of Product Development Flow [1] to be released next month, Don Reinertsen challenges what he calls the “current orthodoxy” of product development, which in his view suffers from its failure to recognize, and correctly quantify, economic factors and their essential role in management decision making. Tightly coupled to this [...]

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The value of Don Reinertsen‘s latest book, The Principles of Product Development Flow [1], is that his insights, embodied in the theory and principles within the book, can be applied to a wide variety of situations in product development. Testing is no exception: Reinertsen discusses the benefits of queue size reduction with respect to software [...]

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