Tag: management

Scrum, by Jeff Sutherland — Book report and highlights

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland is part memoir and part introductory practical guide to the Scrum method for software development, which the author invented in the early 2010s and which is hugely popular and influential in business and management more generally. I gave the book five…… Continue reading Scrum, by Jeff Sutherland — Book report and highlights

Big data in a historical context

Excellent stuff from Alan Patrick on his Broadstuff blog, talking about the 70s, 80s and 90s versions of big data – or “data”, they were calling it back then… And you know what – you just cannot simulate the minute operation laden details of a shop floor or logistics network reliably. No matter how big…… Continue reading Big data in a historical context

Ada Lovelace Day: Shona Brown

Suw Charman has asked people to join her today on Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of the first computer programmer, in writing about women in technology that they admire. Now, I’m a cultural rather than a tehcnical geek, so the woman who leapt to mind that I admire most in the tech industry is Shona…… Continue reading Ada Lovelace Day: Shona Brown

Comrade Excel and the Glorious Five Year Plan

Spreadsheets aren’t strategy, as Umair Haque is fond of saying. Turns out they can actually be quite dangerous, for the temptation they bring to reduce a business (a complex, human enterprise) to a set of numbers on a page. Even more dangerous when they trick us into thinking we can predict the future and call…… Continue reading Comrade Excel and the Glorious Five Year Plan