Just completed a number of meetings and discussions among thought leaders in the area of complex project management this week, and I was struck by a number of zombie ideas in project management, especially related to information, that just won’t die. The use of the term zombie idea is usually attributed to the Nobel economist Paul Krugman from his excellent and highly engaging (as well as brutally honest) posts at the New York Times, but for those not familiar, a zombie idea is “a proposition that has been thoroughly refuted by analysis and evidence, and should be dead — but won’t stay dead because it serves a political purpose, appeals to prejudices, or both.”
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The Future — Data Focus vs. “Tools” Focus
The title in this case is from the Leonard Cohen song.
Over the last few months I’ve come across this issue quite a bit and it goes to the heart of where software technology is leading us. The basic question that underlies this issue can be boiled down into the issue of whether software should be thought of as a set of “tools” or an overarching solution that can handle data in a way that the organization requires. It is a fundamental question because what we call Big Data–despite all of the hoopla–is really a relative term that changes with hardware, storage, and software scalability. What was Big Data in 1997 is not Big Data in 2016, and will not be Big Data in 2030.
(more…)For What It’s Worth — More on the Materiality and Prescriptiveness Debate and How it Affects Technological Solutions
The underlying basis on the materiality vs. prescriptiveness debate that I previously wrote about lies in two areas: contractual compliance, especially in the enforcement of public contracts, and the desired outcomes under the establishment of a regulatory regime within an industry. Sometimes these purposes are in agreement and sometimes they are in conflict and work at cross-purposes to one another.
(more…)Talking (Project Systems) Blues: A Foundation for a General Theory
As with those of you who observe the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I find myself suddenly in a state of stasis and, as a result, with feet firmly on the ground, able to write a post. This is preface to pointing out that the last couple of weeks have been both busy and productive in a positive way.
Among the events of the last two weeks was the meeting of project management professionals focused on the discipline of aerospace and defense at the Integrated Program Management Workshop. This vertical, unlike other areas of project management, is characterized by applying a highly structured approach that involves a great deal of standardization. Most often, people involved in this area tend to engage in an area where the public sector plays a strong role in defining the environment in which the market operates. Furthermore, the major suppliers tend to be limited, and so both oligopolistic and monopolistic market competition defines the market space.
(more…)Stay Open — Open and Proprietary Databases (and Why It Matters)
The last couple of weeks have been fairly intense workwise and so blogging has lagged a bit. Along the way the matter of databases came up at a customer site and what constitutes open data and what comprises proprietary data. The reason why this issue matters to customers rests of several foundations.
First, in any particular industry or niche there is a wide variety of specialized apps that have blossomed. This is largely due to Moore’s Law. Looking at the number of hosted and web apps alone can be quite overwhelming, particularly given the opaqueness of what one is buying at any particular time when it comes to software technology.
(more…)New Directions — Fourth Generation apps, Agile, and the New Paradigm
The world is moving forward and Moore’s Law is accelerating in interesting ways on the technology side, which opens new opportunities, especially in software. In the past I have spoken of the flexibility of Fourth Generation software, that is, software that doesn’t rely on structured hardcoding, but instead, is focused on the data to deliver information to the user in more interesting and essential ways. I work in this area for my day job, and so using such technology has tipped over more than a few rice bowls.
(more…)Do You Believe in Magic? — Big Data, Buzz Phrases, and Keeping Feet Planted Firmly on the Ground
My alternative title for this post was “Money for Nothing,” which is along the same lines. I have been engaged in discussions regarding Big Data, which has become a bit of a buzz phrase of late in both business and government. Under the current drive to maximize the value of existing data, every data source, stream, lake, and repository (and the list goes on) has been subsumed by this concept. So, at the risk of being a killjoy, let me point out that not all large collections of data is “Big Data.” Furthermore, once a category of data gets tagged as Big Data, the further one seems to depart from the world of reality in determining how to approach and use the data. So for of you who find yourself in this situation, let’s take a collective deep breath and engage our critical thinking skills.
(more…)The Water is Wide — Data Streams and Data Reservoirs
I’ve had a lot of opportunities lately, in a practical way, to focus on data quality and approaches to data. There is some criticism in our industry about using metaphors to describe concepts in computing.
Like any form of literature, however, there are good and bad metaphors. Opposing them in general, I think, is contrarian posing. Metaphors, after all, often allow us to discover insights into an otherwise opaque process, clarifying in our mind’s eye what is being observed through the process of deriving similarities to something more familiar. Strong metaphors allow us to identify analogues among the phenomena being observed, providing a ready path to establishing a hypothesis. Having served this purpose, we can test that hypothesis to see if the metaphor serves our purposes in contributing to understanding.
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Life, Project Management, and Everything 