Category Archive for 'Technology'

Jakob Nielsen on Agile/Lean

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Today’s Alertbox on useit.com discusses how Agile software development is improving the focus on user experiences, and provides summary data showing the internal organizational satisfaction with the methodology.
Here’s the data:

Project Methodology
Integration of User Experience
Satisfaction with the Method

Waterfall
2.5
2.9

Agile
3.1
3.7 […]

Alright, enough with the jargon already, just tell me where it hurts!

Friday, February 6th, 2009

About to go on a rant…a rant about marketing speak.  I guess this isn’t the first time I’ve done this.  I guess what is probably frustrating for me is that seemingly a lot of people swoon and end up in a trance at the horse and pony show a lot of companies produce.  "Yes, oh […]

Lean people on Twitter, anyone up for FriendFeed?

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

Hopefully making for some more useful conversation, I’m starting to find some more lean people on Twitter.  I’m starting to connect with people around the world that I otherwise would never meet.  Here they are in no particular order:

Mark Graban: http://twitter.com/leanblog.  His focus is on healthcare and you can also read his blog here: http://www.leanblog.org
Ron […]

Tools for your lean belt and your tech belt

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Rob Tracy at Intek Plastics (one of my customers) has written this excellent synopsis on Driving Lean through Your Supply Chain.  Aside from discussing how the breakdown of your supply chain can negatively impact you and your customers and including a supplier checklist for your use, he also talks about the incorrect assumption that going […]

Software doesn’t innovate, software doesn’t make decisions

Monday, July 21st, 2008

…and software can’t manage people.  This is the tag-line for our Thrive product.  Why?  Because this is true.  Software by itself typically adds no value to the process it is analyzing (this is a very scary thing for a software vendor to say!).  It is the interaction with software…the entering of data, the analysis of […]

What do I need shoes for?

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

A couple weeks ago I posted about the relevance of a football coach knowing how to tie his shoes.  I argued he doesn’t need to know how to do this as long as he has a great strategy and someone else to oversee the proper selection and use of said shoes.  Well, today I read […]

Does the coach need to know how to tie his shoes?

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Let’s imagine that Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts didn’t know how to tie his shoes.  We actually don’t know if he knows how to tie his shoes.  We assume he does.  But let’s say he didn’t.  Let’s say he has Mr. Equipment Manager on his staff ensure that he always goes onto the field […]

Alltop: do you really like staring at a magazine rack?

Monday, March 17th, 2008

Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t.  Guy Kawasaki (author of one of my favorite books, The Art of the Start) recently launched Alltop.com, which he has branded as "the online magazine rack" for information from the "top publications and blogs".  I’m sure in a lot of circles (okay, maybe most circles), there has […]

Ain’t technology sumthin’

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Yesterday, did all of the following to work and stay connected with the world:

Remotely administered three computers in three different cities (and printed documents on a printer during one of those interactions)
Talked on my cell phone
Used Skype to call people (when my cell phone battery was dying and had no outlet nearby)
Used instant messenger to […]

Another resource and some blogger accountability

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Had a great conversation with Scott Whitlock of Flexware Innovation last Friday. Sometimes I feel like I’m on a little island working on technology solutions for manufacturing companies (and I guess a tech company in rural Iowa kind of is a little island), but it was good to talk with Scott because we could […]