February 4, 2012

BigVisible Blog

Might as well admit it, you’re addicted to story points

One of my favorite teachers in college was a former managerial consultant and our class enjoyed being regaled with stories of her former clients – a veritable who’s who of major companies – and the challenges they faced. I recall one lecture when she was telling us about reports and communications and how you need to understand the psychological impact they may have on an organization. She was working with a major department store in the early 90′s when the organization was in a steep decline. [Read more...]

Some Thoughts on Agile QA

I have spent a good portion of the last 15 years trying to go back to the future. For the first 15 years I worked in companies where Quality was paramount and their common approach shaped my thinking and actions. Names like Fisher Price, Parker Brothers, Eastman Kodak, Wang Word Processing, speak to the power and importance of quality. With their respective demise I also learned another important lesson about quality. It is not just about how well the product is built. It is the value the product adds to a customer’s quality of life that separates a fad from a staple. This, it turns out, is the one item I have found that moves business and management to understand the importance – to their success – of having quality at the front of the train. [Read more...]

Irrational Loss Aversion

Recent events allowed me to catch up on light reading and I found myself going through “Sway – The Irreresitable Pull of Irrational Behavior” by Ori and Rom Brafman. The book is a generally enjoyable light read, but it delved into one topic I found very fascinating: irrational loss aversion. [Read more...]