My Sock Drawer

Here's some stuff that I want to share. While its not along the theme of my blog, it is the product of what I've learned in the process.

30 Nov 2008 Inspired/incited by Seth Godin. Empowered by Garr Reynolds & Dan Roam (under 7 minutes)

Permission granted to post

• Seth Godin & his book Tribes
• Garr Reynolds & his book presentationzen
• Dan Roam & his book The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
• Nancy Duarte & slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
• John Sweitzer and Carl Kessler of IBM SWG's Outside-in Software Development: A Practical Approach to Building Successful Stakeholder-Based Products
• Pragmatic Marketing, Rich Mironov
• Rubicon Consulting & Online Communities and Their Impact on Business: Ignore at Your Peril
• istockphoto.com

Do you have positions like this in your organization? If so, how's it working out? If not, would you consider one like this? What tips could you offer up?

30 Nov 2008 Whiteboarding about Social Maps and Software follow-up (under 3 minutes)

Permission granted to post

• Dan Roam & his book The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
• John Sweitzer and Carl Kessler of IBM SWG's Outside-in Software Development: A Practical Approach to Building Successful Stakeholder-Based Products

Can you visualize your organization's social map? Are you already using social software? What advice could you offer up?

26 Sep 2008 The Role of Social Software and Outside-in Agile Development

Background

So if you've been following some of the folks mentioned in my post About Me - Not, perhaps read Outside-in Software Development: A Practical Approach to Building Successful Stakeholder-Based Products by John Sweitzer and Carl Kessler
of IBM's Software Group, or are simply into social software and finding its business value in the enterprise, then you've probably already thought of this post. But in case you haven't here's the main point:

Executive summary

The further software development moves away from the waterfall process, the more we need to embrace customer/stakeholder interactions. Not only on a more frequent basis, but also on a more informal basis. (Think of Twitter's 140 character limit.)

Like an onion

Armed with Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, I've been playing around with this image in my mind's eye and in the event my artistic skills are somewhat lacking, I'll explain everything layer-by-layer.

This is my social software compass. To the north, I have customers and the marketplace outside the firewall. To the south, there's folks like me in the software development labs. On the west side, I have the traditional Waterfall development approach. And on the east side, the Agile process.

Waterfall layer

Now let's map a simplistic view of Waterfall tools used.
In the In-Waterfall quadrant, I have huge documents and testing procedures. In the Outside-Waterfall quadrant, I have a few phone conversations and face-to-face meetings.

Agile layer

I may have have gotten out of hand on the Agile side of the map so things got a bit messy.

All I'm trying to illustrate here is how all the social software tools have a role to play in our quest for outside-in Agile software development. We could be tapping into Facebook, Twitter, wikis, blogs, news feeds, instant messaging like Sametime and e-meetings like Sametime Unyte. We should be leveraging the social networks for helping us write smaller, more practical User Stories and getting more frequent feedback by getting betas outside earlier & more often.

Mapping the tools and the process

So here's the suggestion.

Let's use Rational Team Concert, the Agile/Scrum Process and Lotus Connections for outside-in software development.

Do you have any thoughts, or, experiences you'd like to share? Is this doable,or, suicidal? Can you understand my drawings?

26 Sep 2008 Lots of pictures

I'd like to thank Guy Kawasaki for his How to Change the World: The Art of Visual Thinking post and introducing me to Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. If the posting doesn't inspire you to read the book, take a look at the book's slick web site http://thebackofthenapkin.com/ for a another perspective. In addition to all the glowing reviews out there, I'd just like to add a few of points that may hit closer to home for all those folks out there engaged in Geographically Distributed Development (GDD):

1. Not all developers are born public speakers. Over the years I've had the pleasure of working with some brilliant folks - from coders to architects. However, there are times when this talented group of people can't seem to net-it-out. They're so immersed in their code, or, diagrams, that its difficult for us less savvy folk to get the point. Now even if you never share your picture (which based on my own experience is a giant leap of faith), the exercise of attempting to draw it has huge benefits. With each iteration, you not only clarify the physical image but you clarify the one in your "mind's eye" - which in the end simply improves your code, or, detailed diagrams
2. Not everyone's mother tongue is English! Pictures transcend language. So look upon your creations like the Egyptians looked upon their hieroglyphics.
3. Not everyone can draw. True. Neither can I. But I still read the book and benefited from it. It's easy to read - lots of picures!

So read the book anyway and post your thumbs-up, or, thumbs-down comments here, or, on my postings featuring my creations