A pragmatic methodology book for programmers of any level and language
Grok Headline matches for A pragmatic methodology book for programmers of any level and language
The Pragmatic Programmers Interviewed
The Pragmatic Programmers Interviewed
06/26/2004 12:34 PMReasonable Salary for Entry Level
Programmers?
Reasonable Salary for Entry Level
Programmers?
04/20/2004 07:27 PMC# programmers will enjoy new book on
.NET database access
C# programmers will enjoy new book on
.NET database access
12/30/2002 02:40 AMCNET Dec 30 2002 1:02AM ET
PHPMagazine: Free APress Book - "A
Programmers Intro to PHP 4"
PHPMagazine: Free APress Book - "A
Programmers Intro to PHP 4"
06/06/2005 12:15 AMPHPMagazine has a
new post today for those out there looking to find a good
beginners resource for learning PHP (in book for at least) -
for free!
High Level Assembly Language 1.59
High Level Assembly Language 1.59
10/30/2003 04:58 AMA higher level 80x86 assembly language.
High Level Assembly Language 1.70
High Level Assembly Language 1.70
09/24/2004 03:30 PMA higher level 80x86 assembly language.
High Level Assembly Language 1.69
High Level Assembly Language 1.69
08/28/2004 12:34 AMA higher level 80x86 assembly language.
Hiring Programmers: A Programmers a
Programmer, right? by David K. Every
Hiring Programmers: A Programmers a
Programmer, right? by David K. Every
11/12/2003 01:23 PMHuman Resources people, Managers, and general users, have no idea how
simple or complex computer programming is. They think that they can
just throw programmers around from one task to another, then some HR
people select computer programmers based on language (Syntax), and not
what really matters (skills and abilities). This would be like hiring
an employee based on what school they attended and not what subjects
they studied! This article will give some non-programmers a better
idea of what Programming is about, and what they should be looking for
when hiring programmers.
Pragmatic move
Pragmatic move
04/28/2004 06:09 AMCNET Asia Apr 28 2004 10:25AM GMT
Pragmatic Project Automation
Pragmatic Project Automation
08/31/2004 03:08 PMPragmatic Version Control Using CVS
Pragmatic Version Control Using CVS
12/30/2003 01:18 PMPragmatic JUnit Testing
Pragmatic JUnit Testing
03/06/2004 02:09 AMNew connections: the progressive and the
pragmatic
New connections: the progressive and the
pragmatic
03/14/2005 05:05 PM Thomas Friedman, NYT, on a geo-green strategy: "combining
environmentalism and geopolitics is the most moral and realistic
strategy the U.S. could pursue today." Bill Greider, in The Nation on
new thinking about investment strategy: high returns over the long
term, as needed, for instance, by large public pension funds,...
Methodology
Methodology
11/14/2003 05:16 PMFrom an e-mail exchange last night: I think there's an important
relationship here: if content is the focus (as it should be),
usability means structuring that content appropriately. Structuring
that content appropriately means designing it properly, but you can't
design...
Advanced Fee Methodology
Advanced Fee Methodology
09/14/2004 12:50 PM
« Three smiths, three hammers, one bra. »
I've been thinking about enrolling in the University of Nigeria's
courses in economics lately since it seems to work pretty well for the
graduates. It made me wonder what such a business proposal would look
like if it came from Finland instead of Nigeria. Just think of what
advanced fee methodologies could do for Finnish enterprise!
URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL
ATTN:PRESIDENT/CEO
REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS PROPOSAL
My name is Väinämöinen from Kaleva and I am in dire need of
assistance. Your name and address from a mutual close friend who
indicated that you would be discreet and helpful.
My people have lost an item of unimaginable wealth to the Mistress
of the North, Louhi. The sampo, forged by my good friend the smith
Ilmarinen, is capable of producing unlimited amounts of salt, flour
and money for those who possess it. Ilmarinen was rewarded for his
creation with a wife as he was promised, but I have led many ill-fated
attempts to recoup the sampo from the evil Louhi and we need your
help.
The sampo is in a Pohjola safe deposit box but, alas, I cannot get
to it because of Louhi and my people are starving and dying of the
cold. If you can send us $150,000 to buy food and munitions with, we
will give you a 25% share the endless wealth of the sampo when we have
recovered it.
This is a totally risk-free proposal and the return on your
investment to save my people will be infinite wealth! Please treat
this matter as very urgent.
Best regards,
Väinämöinen
Choice Is Pragmatic, Undramatic (Los
Angeles Times)
Choice Is Pragmatic, Undramatic (Los
Angeles Times)
07/07/2004 04:55 AMLos Angeles Times - WASHINGTON — With the selection of North
Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Sen. John F. Kerry tapped a running mate
who combines obvious strengths with subtle risks.
Antarctic Response to Climate Change -
Not Pragmatic
Antarctic Response to Climate Change -
Not Pragmatic
09/23/2004 05:56 PMEarly in 2002, this website published an excellent article which
documented the activity among the various ice shelves on the perimeter
of the Antarctic. At that time, there had recently been several
significant calving events, rendering vast, floating islands of ice.
Also discussed was the complete collapse, in 1999, of an ice shelf
known as Larsen B, which was formerly the largest ice shelf on the
Antarctic peninsula - the northernmost and warmest part of the
continent. The disintegration of the Larsen B shelf was called a
"profound event", because it was thought to be stable. Fortunately,
when massive icebergs are calved from ice-shelves, and even when they
collapse and disintegrate completely, there is no resulting rise in
sea level. It turns out though, that these same ice shelves serve a
surprisingly important role in "holding back" the glaciers and
land-locked ice on Antarctica which, if released into the ocean, would
raise the world's sea level an estimated 20 feet (7m). Now it's
much clearer just how important that role is.
Define, support PM methodology
Define, support PM methodology
12/30/2002 02:40 AMCNET Dec 30 2002 1:02AM ET
Disruptive Innovation: The Need for a
Better Methodology
Disruptive Innovation: The Need for a
Better Methodology
06/05/2005 11:12 PM
The
Innovator's Solution tells you what you need to do to cannibalize the
markets of incumbents and create entirely new markets, by focusing on
the needs of over-served customers and non-customers. But it's a lot
harder in practice than in theory, and it needs some unique skills and
hard-to-obtain knowledge.
[Posted from Orlando]
In
previous articles, I've summarized Clay Christensen's approach
to innovation (established companies focus on what he calls
'sustaining' innovations while new entrants focus on 'disruptive'
ones), and about the research approach that he suggests for
identifying and assessing innovation opportunities.
His second book, The
Innovator's Solution, looks
in greater detail at
disruptive innovation,
which he breaks into two types:
- Low End Disruptive
Innovation: This entails offering a
lower-cost product to existing
over-served customers, which incumbents don't care
about because they're at the low-margin end of their customer base;
then as
technology improves, the disruptor gradually eats into the incumbents'
primary markets from
below.
The classic example
of this is steel minimills, which initially focused on the low-end,
low-margin rebar market (which the integrated steel makers were
pleased to vacate), but then used new technology to move upscale to
the
point they have now stolen even the high-end market (sheet steel) from
the giants. To achieve this, it's essential that the innovation not be
suitable to or
adaptable by the incumbents -- that they don't find the disruptor's
initial business model attractive; otherwise, the incumbents will
bring
their considerable resources and strong customer relationships to bear
to make the innovation a 'sustaining' one for them, and ward off and defeat the
disruption attempt.
- New Market Disruptive
Innovation: This entails developing and offering a
product with benefits previously not
available at all or which are very inconvenient to customers, and
hence creating entirely new markets for entirely new groups of
customers. The
personal computer and personal copier are examples of this. In some
cases a New Market Disruptive Innovation can later be applied to
become
a Low End Disruptive Innovation as well.
The part of Innovator's
Solution that most intrigued me was the section on how
to identify potential disruptions and how to identify customers for
them. To identify potential disruptions, he suggests, you should
'segment' the market by
the circumstances
of use of the product or potential product
(i.e. what the product gets 'hired to do' or
what 'job it does' that needs to be done), rather than by customer
identity
(demographics) or product attributes (category). The focus is
therefore on when/why/how
it would it be used, not what
it would feature or who would
use it. This is a needs-driven
strategy, requiring a lot of
research & cultural anthropology. It means discovering who needs
'coolth', and when and how they need it, not who needs an air
conditioner.
This is hard for established, risk-averse, inflexible companies to do
because:
- they have a fear of too
much focus (putting all their eggs in one basket, in case it's the
wrong basket);
- their shareholders and existing line managers insist
on being able to quantify outcomes in
advance;
- their existing channels are organized by product
or customer demographic, not circumstances of use; and
- their
advertising and branding are
also done
by product or customer demographic.
Hence it is often best
to have the innovation in established companies done by a
new, autonomous division or group, free from the constraints,
prejudices, risk-aversion and 'why rock the boat' thinking of the
existing operations.
To identify customers for disruptive innovations, Christensen says you
need to look for:
- People and companies who have a need
but lack the money or skill to meet
it with existing products;
- People and companies who have no alternative way
today to do the job your product or service could help them do; and,
of course,
- People and companies who are over-served,
interested in a
lower-cost, simpler product without all the extraneous and rarely-used
bells and whistles of current products.
It's important that these potential customers perceive the product to
be 'foolproof': easy to use, easy to learn, easy to buy (though if the
product is for recreational use, customers may buy a product with a
steeper learning curve if the learning is fun).
Equally important is that there be available, and hungry, channel
partners (sources of supply, distributors,
retailers, marketers etc.) to help you get it to market -- if these
partners and their materials and skills are scarce, or disinterested
in
you, customers may give up on you before you're able to deliver
reliably.
The rest of the book provides suggestions on the right
roles for your company in developing the
innovation, how to partner with other appropriate companies to
optimize
competencies and synergy, how to find the
non-commodity, high profit points in the customer
value chain, the importance of setting up the right
people, process, values, alliances and
organizational structure for innovation, how to align your strategy to
support innovation (using an emergent,
complex system-friendly
strategy), and how to address financing and risk issues in innovation
ventures.
The final section addresses the role of senior management in
disruptive
innovation. Leaders, he says, must exercise three key
responsibilities:
(a) allocate appropriate,
patient resources; (b) establish a process to continuously generate
disruptive innovations; and (c) detect and adapt to changes in markets
and
other elements of the system. The four elements of a 'disruptive
growth
engine' therefore are:
- start before you need to
(don't wait for a crisis);
- put a senior manager in charge
(executive sponsorship is essential);
- create an expert
team of movers and shapers (and allow them to 'self-manage' the
people,
processes, and values to keep them in sync with the commercialization
process for disruptive innovations); and
- train the troops
(i.e. customer-facing people to discover and tap into emerging and
potential needs)
In these areas, Christensen is on comfortable and solid ground.
But I keep coming back in my thinking to how an organization can
actually apply his earlier
advice
on how to identify potential disruptive innovations and how to
identify
customers for them (and which comes first anyway?) It's a lot easier
in theory than it is in practice, as I can tell you from personal
experience.
Let's take the example of a company that has expertise in the textile
industry, for example. They have an established market in specialized
blankets, and some scientific expertise in weaving and in thermal
properties of materials. If they're threatened by new low-cost Asian
competitors in this mature market space, how would they go about
becoming a disruptive innovator? They wouldn't talk to existing
customers -- that's for sustaining
innovation not disruptive innovation. They wouldn't do competitive
analysis -- except perhaps if they could identify some over-served
customers. Other than raw imagination and a lot of serendipitous
reading and lateral thinking, it's hard to imagine how such a company,
even with a separate, empowered innovation team, could begin to
identify either the unmet needs within their competency to deliver, or
the customers that have these needs.
What Christensen needs to add is a whole process to surface these
needs
and customers. Who, other than established buyers of blankets, might
be
interested in textiles with thermal properties? Hospitals and doctors
dealing with hypothermia? Insulation companies? Gardeners and farmers
seeking to protect crops from frost? Swimming pool cover
manufacturers?
Expedition outfitters? And since good thermal properties also insulate
against heat, should we also consider cooler manufacturers,
refrigerators, umbrella makers, UV-ray protectors etc.? The
possibilities are endless. How do we effectively brainstorm and then
filter the potential customers and potential opportunities?
The answer, I think, is a discovery process, but one somewhat
different
and more dependent on brainstorming, creativity, very broad
environmental scanning, research, cultural anthropology and
exploratory
conversations than the one I have suggested<
/a> for achieving understanding in complex situations.
How, do you think, should such a discovery process be structured? If
it
were your job to develop the process to find new customers for new
products meeting new untapped needs, that are within your company's
competency to provide, how would you go about it?
This process just might be the holy grail of entrepreneurship.
|
More on Methodology: Finding Your Exit
More on Methodology: Finding Your Exit
12/18/2003 10:40 AMTheStreet.com Dec 18 2003 8:47AM ET
WebSM - Web Survey Methodology
WebSM - Web Survey Methodology
04/17/2004 06:05 AMWebSM - Web Survey Methodologyhttp://www.websm.org/This
page is located at the Center for Methodology and Informatics at the
Faculty of Social Sciences , University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The
core research team (Katja Lozar Manfreda, Zenel Batagelj, Ga?per
Koren, Vesna Dolni?ar), lead by dr. Vasja Vehovar, studied the Web
survey methodology for three years. They work on two Web surveys, the
national RIS (Research on Internet in Slovenia) project and the RINE
(Research on Internet in New Europe) project. They actively
participate at conferences, and their results are available on the
Web. This is listed in my April 2004 column
Survey Resources on the Internet.
Koreas Sidestep U.S. to Forge Political
and Pragmatic Links
Koreas Sidestep U.S. to Forge Political
and Pragmatic Links
06/25/2004 10:23 PMQuietly ignoring Bush administration efforts to isolate North Korea,
South Korea has become North Korea's most consistent diplomatic
advocate.
Defining and supporting project
management methodology
Defining and supporting project
management methodology
01/03/2003 02:50 AMCNET Jan 3 2003 1:02AM ET
DomainMart Pioneers Parked-Domain
Appraisal Methodology
DomainMart Pioneers Parked-Domain
Appraisal Methodology
04/07/2005 03:41 AMThe industry’s first domain-name valuation methodology based on
parking revenue. [PRWEB Apr 7, 2005]
Paranoia game redesigned using
open-source methodology
Paranoia game redesigned using
open-source methodology
08/06/2004 07:52 AMParanoia, the classic role-playing game in which players battle a mad,
totalitarian computer for their freedom ("a light-hearted game of
terror, death, bureaucracy, mad scientists, mutants, dangerous
weapons, insane robots, and technological satire that encourages
players to lie, cheat, and backstab each other at every turn") has
just re-launched with a new version that was collaboratively developed
with players via a Wiki, borrowing "the tools and methods of
open-source software development for a paper game."
To a large degree, the game was developed online, in public. Fans of
the game contributed enthusiastically via blog, wiki, and online
forum. They wrote text, debated rules, proofread, ran statistical
analyses, and even wrote a computer simulator to test the game's
paper-and-pencil rules.
"Online collaboration made this edition of Paranoia the best yet,"
said Allen Varney (www.allenvarney.com), the game's designer. "We
borrowed the tools and methods of open-source software development for
a paper game, and it worked brilliantly. I plan to create future games
the same way, and other designers should consider it too."
LinkBSA disgusted with critiques of their
inflammatory piracy loss methodology
BSA disgusted with critiques of their
inflammatory piracy loss methodology
06/17/2005 07:13 PMThe BSA's claim were considerable, and they were taken to task for
disingenuous tactics. Now they respond with an air of indignation. Oh,
Scarlet!
""Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical
Unification of Access Points and
Redundancy""
""Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical
Unification of Access Points and
Redundancy""
04/16/2005 10:02 AMA Methodology to Verify and Improve an
Existing Large-scale Information
Architecture
A Methodology to Verify and Improve an
Existing Large-scale Information
Architecture
05/28/2002 08:58 AMAmazon book sales rise 9% faster through
search inside the book feature
Amazon book sales rise 9% faster through
search inside the book feature
10/31/2003 06:21 PMInternetRetailer.com Oct 31 2003 4:44PM ET
Book Review: Windows Admin Scripting
Little Black Book, Second Edition
Book Review: Windows Admin Scripting
Little Black Book, Second Edition
06/12/2004 12:32 PMBook Release: Mad Cow and Cattle
Mutilations Meet the War on Terror in
Brad Steel's New Book Mute
Book Release: Mad Cow and Cattle
Mutilations Meet the War on Terror in
Brad Steel's New Book Mute
03/19/2005 02:43 AMIn MUTE, author Brad Steel has created a gripping and eerily
believable scenario in which the leaders of Western nations band
together to do the unthinkable—convinced it is necessary, however
radical. [PRWEB Mar 17, 2005]
Book Publishers Selling Direct - Pissing
Off Book Retailers
Book Publishers Selling Direct - Pissing
Off Book Retailers
02/13/2004 05:52 AMOne of the struggles that companies have as distribution and sales
mechanisms change is handling legacy channel conflict issues. Dell
became huge by selling direct to customers, but when rival Compaq
started to move in that direction, their retail partners freaked out -
and Compaq had to scale back their plans. It appears that book
publishers are now going through the same process. They've realized
that if someone is looking for info about certain books on their site,
it makes sense to also offer them a chance to buy it. However, it's
pissing off retailers, who don't
want to hear that their suppliers are competing with them. Retailers
say a reasonable compromise would be having the publishers point to
the retailers, which was my first response as well. However, then it
becomes a political situation of who do you link to and why? There's
also the fact that this makes for a less enjoyable consumer
experience. I know that, more than once, I've been annoyed at online
sites where I go for info on buying a product, but when I try to buy
am given a big list of retailers instead of a way to buy right away.
Book review - Book lowers fear of
threats
Book review - Book lowers fear of
threats
12/15/2003 08:15 AMvnunet.com Dec 15 2003 7:11AM ET
For The Programmers...
For The Programmers...
04/22/2004 12:01 PMI've just come across a piece of code with the following comment
(paraphase): "This function returns 0 when is true, and 1 when is
false. Please be aware when testing as a boolean."
AARGHHH!!!!
Vi for programmers
Vi for programmers
08/09/2004 07:51 AMCNET Aug 9 2004 10:09AM GMT
MS Programmers: So Like Us
MS Programmers: So Like Us
02/16/2004 02:46 PMIt turns out Microsoft's Windows programmers have to deal with the
same crap as the rest of the world's programmers.
Kuro5hin.org has put up a
overview of
the comments in the recently leaked Microsoft source code. (Some
of the comments are not rated G. If you use a text-to-speech reader,
cover your kids' ears. )
In the struggle to meet deadlines, I think pretty much all
programmers have put in comments they might later regret, including
swearwords and acerbic comments about other code or requirements.
Also, any conscientious coder will put in prominent comments warning
others about the trickier parts of the code. Comments like "UGLY
TERRIBLE HACK" tend to indicate good code rather than bad: in bad code
ugly terrible hacks are considered par for the course. It would
therefore be both hypocritical and meaningless to go through the
comments looking for embarrassments. But also fun, so let's
go.
The overall conclusion is rather flattering towards Microsoft: a lot
of good code, with the obligatory ugly hacks for compatibility with
other stuff. No stolen open source, either. Better go have a look
before their cease-and-desist shows up.
Click here to comment on this entry
Do We Even Need Programmers Any More?
Do We Even Need Programmers Any More?
07/07/2004 02:47 PMInternetNews is taking a look at the latest development tool releases
from Sun and Microsoft that try to "dumb down" programming to the
point that any old idiot can create applications and
wonder
s if coders are still necessary. The obvious answer the article
reaches (and, yeah, the article includes a quote from me on this
point) is that
of course we'll still need real programmers.
People have been promising the "programmer-less programs" for ages,
and they seem to forget that designing applications isn't like
designing a webpage. There's a lot more to it than just the user
interface, and it's a different mode of thought. That said, however,
it does seem like there is a real opportunity to expand the space of
more personalized "quick and dirty" programs to solve specific needs.
If people can have tools to
build
themselves specific programs it can expand the space, not
necessarily shrink it for traditional programmers.
Programmers So Far Underwhelmed by JSF
Programmers So Far Underwhelmed by JSF
03/08/2004 11:16 PMSome developers say the latest Web application specification needs
third-party vendor tools before they will use it.
UI Design for Programmers
UI Design for Programmers
06/02/2004 04:14 AM
I rather enjoyed reading Gadgetopia's
informal review of Joel Spolsky's book User
Interface Design for Programmers.
Grok Description matches for A pragmatic methodology book for programmers of any level and language
GrokA matches for A pragmatic methodology book for programmers of any level and language
A pragmatic methodology book for programmers of any level and language
