Category: Baseline

The Stress Test Smoke Screen

The Stress Test Smoke Screen

| May 7, 2009 | Reply

At 5:00 PM Eastern today, the treasury will finally release their “Stress Test” results. Not to belabor this, but you should largely ignore them. From the Wall Street Journal: Results of the government’s stress tests of the nation’s largest 19 banks started to trickle out Wednesday, highlighting the burgeoning gaps between the industry’s strong and […]

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The five books every IT manager should read…right now

The five books every IT manager should read…right now

| November 20, 2008 | Reply

I’ll add “software engineers” as well, not to mention CIOs and CTOs. My latest Baseline column is up, and in it, I discuss just why you should read these books — or, if you have read them already, why you should re-read them.  ..bruce w..

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The latest Baseline columns

The latest Baseline columns

| September 24, 2008 | Reply

The first column, “Second Class Software Quality for Major IT Projects”, talks about the curious fact that organizations are willing to spend millions, tens of millions, even hundred of millions of dollars on major IT project and yet still nickle-and-dime their software quality assurance (SQA) effort. It doesn’t help that SQA personnel are pretty much […]

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Latest Baseline column up

Latest Baseline column up

| August 22, 2008 | Reply

My latest Baseline column is now up: Last week, I talked about some of the reasons why large organizations often reject the best solutions for a troubled IT project: fear, pride, budget, and the ever-present internal politics. This week, as promised, I will talk about what it takes to champion the right solution. I can’t […]

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New Baseline column up

New Baseline column up

| August 15, 2008 | Reply

I have a new Baseline column up on the tendency of large organizations to reject the best solutions for a troubled IT project: The consultants, usually with the help of the employees in the trenches, would use their time, effort, and expertise to analyze the system under development or in production. They would arrive at […]

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IT projects: fooled by success

IT projects: fooled by success

| August 7, 2008 | Reply

I’m currently reading (and enjoying) Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb; his concepts inspired my latest Baseline column, which talks about the risks that follow a successful IT project: But sometimes with projects that really shouldn’t succeed—that are attempting too much, too fast, with too many risks—enough things go right, particularly along the critical paths, […]

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Using a maintenance architect

Using a maintenance architect

| July 25, 2008 | Reply

My lastest Baseline column is up, in which I argue that setting up one or more maintenance architects within an enterprise can help reduce maintenance costs while at the same time providing a training path for chief software architects. Let me know what you think. Sorry things have been a bit quiet here; both Bruce […]

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Latest column up: distributed development (part 2)

Latest column up: distributed development (part 2)

| July 17, 2008 | Reply

My latest Baseline column is up, discussing how to make a distributed software development project work.  ..bruce..

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Latest column up: wrapping up IT project metrics

Latest column up: wrapping up IT project metrics

| June 19, 2008 | Reply

My newest Baseline column is up: “Lies, Damned Lies, and Project Metrics (part 3)“. In it, I wrap up my discussion on IT project metrics, outlining a possible approach using instrumentation and heuristics.  Go check it out.  ..bruce..

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