Beyond Maturity

Since the development of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) by the Carnegie Mellon University Software Institute (SEI) and the US Air Force, every man and their dog have come up with their own maturity index's that are essentially the same as or close to the CMMI.

My premise is that there must be something beyond a simple assessment of a management process and I think that is the actualisation of that management process.  The idea is to not measure the theoretical effectiveness the organisation's management process but to measure how productive and effective is the output of the management process. ie the value of rapid actualisation.

 I think this draws some broad similarities to the ISO System Engineering, Design for Six Sigma, AGILE, CMMI and my own rapid value actualisation method.

ISO 15288	Six Sigma	AGILE	Capability Maturity Model Assessment	Rapid Value Actualisation
Stakeholder Requirements Definition Process (Clause 6.4.1) Requirements Analysis Process (Clause 6.4.2)	Define	Discovery	Initial	Benefits Identification/ Earned Value Framework
Architectural Design Process (Clause 6.4.3)	Measure	Design	Managed	Model Based Design
Implementation Process (Clause 6.4.4) Integration Process (Clause 6.4.5) Verification Process (Clause 6.4.6)	Analyse	Develop	Process Defined	Rapid Prototyping/ Initial Benefits/EVM
Transition Process (Clause 6.4.7) Validation Process (Clause 6.4.8)	Design	Integrate & Test	Quantitatively Managed	Change Management
Operation Process (Clause 6.4.9) Maintenance Process (Clause 6.4.10) Disposal Process (Clause 6.4.11)	Verify	Release	Optimised	Application Implementation/ Benefits Realisation

I would have liked to have worked Prince2 into the above table but its more a management framework to be overlaid onto a product development cycle. This article has the best view I have seen of the seven Prince2 Management processes.

Although this article does have a good view on overlaying Prince2 onto a project/product development process.

Agile Development (aka The Fast & The Furious)

Came across an agile development management platform called TargetProcess. I am not sure about their product or approach but I do like this graphic.

The app can be trialled for 5 users or less and installed with Microsoft's Web Platform free kit. Yes I know its Microsoft but I think there is a case for using their free tools to RAD prototypes given the level of investment and close integration to the MS windows development roadmap. Oh and the small issue of 80% odd market share.

Handle Leaks & High CPU Usage (aka Throwing Sand)

I have had a bug bear that seemed to affect the reliability of system.

I eventually traced it down to the slow leaking of system handles. After endless searching I finally came across this very simple tip to view the system handles by process in the Task Manager. Bob's your uncle I found the culprit and killed it!

On a roll I decided to attack the high idle CPU which appeared to be caused by the various IM app's I had running. It turned out to be predominantly Microsoft Live Messenger 2011 and by following this tip to block the advertising it seems to have work.

It did not work immediately but eventually it settled down to a near 0% rather then the previosus 10% CPU utilisation.

Me 2 Microsoft 0 (at least today!).

Bill you are on notice

I am getting a bit sick of the memory leaks, vulnrablities of Windows OS and the persistant requirement to add whatever MS decides is a good idea (.net framework 1.0 to 4.5, Silverlight, etc). Unfortunately it appears even more are coming with Win8.

At the moment I am moving away from vendor dependant apps into the open space. This is the only way I can be assured that the functionality I require can be maintained under my current OS and hopefully developed for any future OS.

I have some pretty mad requirements for my OS

• Minimal kernel foot print that doesnt clog up with crap
• Low latency under my high use demands
• Run for days without gradual increasing utilisation of resources (memory/CPU)
  
• When you shut down apps ... memory frees up
• When you uninstall apps ... no residual crap

Bill you have to harden up or I will look at other operating systems :>

Project Management Applications

I need an online, free, colaborative tool for project management. I have reviewed what is available from a list on wikipedia. Initially all I wanted was something easy to share a project plan but what it has done has made me rethink what project management software is all about.

I have long held the opinion that Gantt charts are only pretty drawings that every project seems to require and are just as quickly discarded as the project comences. What is requires is a document that is more engaging and dynamic.

From the list the following have jumped out for not much reason at all appart from their relative completeness and some unique features that I think make them interesting for further review.

OpenWorkbench (obw.1.1.6.exe) - is a stand alone app that I have used before. It appears to be going through some sort of update as the owner CA has taken down the app's website. It can still be found on wikipedia and the exe on the web (and 1.1.4 on SF). Cant say I used it much and there are issues with round trips to MS Project and only supports 2003+ xml based project files for export.

OpenProject - is a nice stand alone that has a very basic interface. I am a bit more inclined to use it because f this reason. Still has issues with round trips to MS Project and only supports 2003+ xml based project files for export.

OpenERP - seeing this app listed in a project planning software list really made me start to think left field in what I need. Integrating planning into the project execution at an enterprise level is really what is

Endeavour - is really right out there with a spectifically targetted industry and functionality required to execute and manage the required tasks. Specifially agile based software development, user requirements, functional planning and task execution.

phpGroupWare - looks like an interesting group of functionality that could be implement on a colaboration portal. Not sure what to do with it but I guess something will come up.

FireFox Addons

As we all know there are many weird and wonderful addons for Firefox. But to quote Mal ... there is no such thing as a free lunch. Addons do take time to load on start up (some majorly shamed back in April 2011) and do consume memory/cpu processing time.

These are the ones I use in order of frequency of use.

ScrapBook - this is one I would not and could not live without. I have about 1.6gb of data saved in god knows how many categories. I have customised the settings to store in a remote location for backup purposes and I have set my list of recently used categories to 20 (which seems to work for me). I would love to see the following features added;

• Bug - Save Page does not save direct linked files eg PDF's
• Option to add to top of category list
• Citation data extraction
• Better search function
• Temporary sorting function
• Tags
• Better note function (eg HTML editor)
• Document the potential for customisation
  

DownloadHelper - for all those "useful" vids you just need to keep. It did have some issues with startup which apparently have been addressed as it has come off the shame list.

Dictionary - always add your Aussie dictionary for Firefox and Thunderbird.

Search Engines - great way to add your fav search engine.

EPUBReader - reads ePub Files in Firefox.

Firebug - I usually have this one disabled but its damn useful to check out HTML source.

Autopager - seemed like a good idea at the time but really not that useful. Disabled.

SQLite Manager - dito.

Zotero - a citation database that I still have to get my head around.

Measuring the Value of Information Technology

Measuring the Value of Information Technology
(ISBN: 047194307X )
John S. Hares, Duncan Royle

Dusting off the bookshelves I ran across this old tried and true reference. The frist book to introduce me to (but still doesnt give definitive guidance) intangible benefits from projects. About the only thing it doesnt address well are the unintended benefits/consequences associated with project business cases.