Francis Dion on Software Process

New Look for the Blog

Today we have implemented a new look and a new structure for this Blog. A change, one could say, that was way overdue! :-)

Amongst other more cosmetic changes, we’ve added more syndication options (Subscribe to…), categorized archives, a collection of truly spectacular photos taken at the lake last year and links to the most recent posts from Eric Sink, the guy who inspired me to start this Blog.

Hope you’ll appreciate it, and please let me know what you think!

GTD for my Blog

One of the (many) benefits of David Allen methodology for Getting Things Done is what he calls the Natural Planning Model. I’ve used it here for planning my Blog-writing project. The items (unlike David’s sections) are in no particular order. They are also to be taken with a grain of salt.

Purpose

• Gain visibility for myself, my company, our products and our services.
• Establish credibility.
• Reach-out and link-up with like-minded people.
• Further/Clarify my thoughts on those topics.
• Start gathering material for, maybe, some day, writing a book.
• Give back to the community (it’s true you know).
• Leave some sort of mark and/or legacy (ok now, I can hear you laugh from here).

Principles

• Never hurt anyone (at least not intentionally, unless of course they really deserve it!).
• Entertain (otherwise it won’t work).
• Touch (otherwise it won’t last).
• Educate (otherwise it won’t matter).
• Keep it coming (target level of at least 1 up to 5 posts per week).

Vision/Outcome

• Establish a large (?) reader base (means I got both their attention and interest).
• Get track backs / references from other Blogs / sites (means they find the topics and ideas worth mentioning, if only to object to them).
• Get feedbacks / comments on the posts (means they find it useful and/or important enough to react).

Brainstorming (potential Blog entries / subjects)

• Refactoring Fatigue.
• Estimation, Long Term Planning and Budgeting for Agile Projects.
• What if (insert your favourite Software Guru Name here) is not on your team?
• What would (insert your favourite Software Guru Name here) bring to your team?
• What Value (if any) Do non-Programmers Add to a Software Development Project?
• Standard Operational Procedures for Software Development and Maintenance.
• On the Nature of Software Maintenance.
• What to Track, When and How?
• Test Driven Development.
• Configuration Management Essentials.
• [For Each] CMMI Process Areas.
• [For Each] CMMI Generic Practices.
• [For Each] ITIL (ITSM) Process Areas.
• [For Each] PMBOK Knowledge Areas.
• [For Each] PMBOK Process Groups.
• Mapping / Comparison of CMMI and PMBOK.
• Mapping / Comparison of CMMI and Agile.
• Mapping / Comparison of Agile and PMBOK.

Of course, defending a thing one day and destroying it the next will always have its appeal:

• Why Agile is Good, followed by Why Agile is Evil.
• Why the PMI is Good, followed by Why the PMI is Evil.
• Etc.

Organizing (Themes for the next year)

• Book reviews (at least once a month).
• Reactions to other people’s ideas (from books, magazines, the web, conversations) that catch my attention and/or resonate with me.
• Methodology and Models (Agile, PMI, CMMI, ITIL, Gemba Kaizen).
• Quality.
• Productivity.
• Technology.
• The Business of Software.
• Process Academy News and Events.

Next Actions (Subjects and Required Research for the next month)

• GTD for my Blog (this entry!).
• Gemba Kaizen.
• Gemba Kaizen 5S applied to Software.
• Gemba Kaizen Muda applied to Software.
• Time Tracking for micro-ISVs.
• Web 2.0.
• Office 2007.
• XpertDoc.

Ambitious? You bet!

Realistic? We'll see...

(:-)