I listen to NPR on my way to work. Today, as part of the coverage of the impending Supreme Court ruling on the healthcare law, there was a really interesting segment on how the Supreme Court Justices decide cases. More than a decade ago, The Cutter Business Technology Council decided to employ this same method, and thus the Cutter Council Opinions were born. (Here’s a sample Opinion on cloud computing.) In a nutshell, the Council Fellows begin with a simple Assertion, capturing a specific nascent trend. The team debates the idea, and if it still stands after this first round, its champion writes a Syllabus describing the idea in more detail and sketching out his or her rationale. …
Posts Tagged 'agility'

I recently gotten into a bit of hot water with one of my clients – a leading online service in a certain category – when I commented that the kind of things they do in software development and IT is really no different from what various clients of mine do in other industries. In so saying, I seem to have unintentionally pushed the “but it is really different here” button. I should have known better… Feeling a little uncomfortable with the body language in the room, I pulled out the holidays discount coupons a client of mine in the apparel business was kind enough to give me the day before. “But what is the difference?” …
In the early part of the decade Nicholas Cage starred in the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds,” something about stealing cars very rapidly. In the mid-1980’s colleague Ken Orr wrote “The 1-Minute Methodology,” that uncovered the secret to speed—disconnect input from output. If you can steal a car in 60 seconds or execute a methodology in a minute, why not learn to be agile in 90 seconds? I get tired of articles like “The 3 things you must know to be agile,” or “Five easy steps to agile implementation,” or “The secrets of agility unleashed,” or “Agile Mastery in Minutes.” Software development is hard. Agile may be a better way to approach software development, but …




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