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CLARK'S MISCELLANY: MANAGEMENT EDITION

READING LIST

  • Slack (DeMarco)
  • Mythical Man Month (Brooks)
  • Exponential Organisations (Ismail, Malone, van Geest)
  • How to win friends and influence people (Carnegie)
  • The Toyota Way (Liker)
  • Our Iceberg is Melting (Kotter, Rathgeber)
  • Peopleware (DeMarco, Lister)
  • The Phoenix Project (Kim)
  • Deep Work (Newport)
  • Accelerate (Forsgren, Kim, Humble)

UPTIME

          Day     Month   Year
90      - 2h 24m   3d 1h    36d 12h
95      - 1h 12m   1d 13h   18d 6h
99      - 14m 24s  7h 18m   3d 16h
99.5    - 7m 12s   3h 36m   1d 20h
99.9    - 1m 26s   43m 50s  8h 46m  (three nines)
99.95   - 43s      21m 55s  4h 23m  (three and a half nines)
99.99   - 8.6s     4m 23s   52m 36s (four nines)
99.999  - 0.9s     26s      5m 16s  (five nines)
99.9999 - 0.1s     2.6s     32s     (six nines)

DIKM

Data

Metrics - 10 req/sec

Information

What? - 10 req/sec for system x

Knowledge

How? - 10 req/sec for system x is good

Wisdom

Clarity through experience, understanding of consequences - 10 req/sec for system x is good because

FALLACIES OF DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING

  • The network is reliable
  • Latency is zero
  • Bandwidth is infinite
  • The network is secure
  • Topology doesn't change
  • There is one administrator
  • Transport cost is zero
  • The network is homogeneous

LAWS, PRINCIPLES, PHENOMENA AND NUMBERS

Baader Meinhoff

Experiencing something shortly after learning it

Benford's Law

http://www.rexswain.com/benford.html

Brooks' Law

Adding manpower to a late project makes it later

Dunning-Kruger

Dumb people think they're smart, smart people think they're dumb.

Pareto Principle

80/20 - 80% of effects from 20% of causes

Peter principle

People are promoted to the level of their incompetence

Parkinson's Law

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion

Postel's law

Be conservative in what you send, liberal in what you receive

Conway's law

Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of those organisations

Waterbed theory

Eliminating something (e.g complexity) in one place requires it to be added somewhere else

Hawthorne/observer effect

Individuals modify/improve performance in response to being observed.

Chesterton's fence

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up

Kerninghan's Law

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.

Dunbar's number

150. The limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.

10/10/10 rule [Welch]

When stuck making a decision, ask yourself whether making the wrong decision will matter in 10 minutes, 10 months or 10 years. Prioritise accordingly.

Gall's law

All complex systems that work evolved from simpler systems that worked. If you want to build a complex system that works, build a simpler system first, and then improve it over time.

Jevons' paradox

Increased efficiency doesn't necessarily lead to reduced consumption as overall demand will increase due to the reduced cost.

Broken windows theory

Tolerance of minor infractions leads to normalisation, leading to more serious infractions.

Disagree and commmit

Management principle which states that people are allowed to disagree during the decision making process, but most commit to the final decision – whatever it is.

PROGRAMMER'S VIRTUES

Laziness

The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer.

Impatience

The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer.

Hubris

Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you for. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about. Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer.

MY MAXIMS/QUOTES

  • Don't optimise for the uncommon case
  • Do something when you can afford to, not when you can't afford not to
  • Aggressively reduce variance
  • Simple > Complex > Complicated
  • Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change
  • Care more by caring less
  • One plus one is many
  • Hire slow, fire fast
  • A "maybe" is a "no" when hiring
  • Don't try and build good systems. Build good teams and you get good systems as an emergent property
  • Doing the wrong better doesn't make it right
  • One-size-fits-all fits nobody well
  • The only thing harder than naming things is renaming them
  • Debate, don't dictate
  • Throw them in at the deep end with armbands and a lifeguard
  • Hire "smart" and "kind"
  • Regularly ask yourself whether you're mostly doing good or stopping bad
  • If there's no "us" then everyone is "them"
  • Perfection is asymptotic

OTHER MAXIMS/QUOTES

  • Done is better than perfect
  • Now is better than never
  • The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.
  • Perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, but when there's nothing left to remove
  • When planning scalability, think x100, design x10, deploy x2 of current traffic
  • It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
  • If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses -- Henry Ford
  • Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
  • Occam's razor: Other factors being equal, simpler explanations are generally better than more complex ones
  • Price is what you pay, value is what you get
  • If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
  • You can't fix what you don't measure
  • If you plan you can have evolution, if not you need revolution
  • What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence. -- Samuel Johnson
  • Treat servers like cattle, not pets
  • It's a fallacy to assume someone who writes incomprehensible code can write a comprehensible comment
  • The manager's function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work
  • Integrity is when your beliefs, your words, and your actions are all in alignment
  • As large as necessary, as small as possible
  • Let chaos reign, then rein in chaos
  • What you've said hasn't been understood until proven otherwise
  • Criticise in private, praise in public
  • When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow and exclude people. So create.
  • Hire for values fit and culture add
  • In an emergency, first wind your watch
  • You can do anything, but not everything
  • Buy cheap, buy twice
  • Underpromise, overdeliver
  • "We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training." -- Archilochus
  • "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" -- Peter Drucker
  • Don't panic -- Douglas Adams
  • Trust is not a control
  • If you risk nothing, you risk everything
  • If you can't change the people, change the people
  • If you can't change the company, change company
  • Stop starting and start finishing
  • "The cost of failure is education" -- Devin Carraway
  • "In God we trust – all others must bring data" -- Deming
  • An expert is someone who has made all the mistakes
  • "Quality is value to some person" -- Jerry Weinberg

BIG O NOTATION

O(1)       - Constant
O(log n)   - Logarithmic
O(n)       - Linear
o(n log n) - Linearithmic / loglinear
O(n^2)     - Quadratic
O(n^3)     - Cubic
O(n!)      - Factorial
O(n^n)     - Exponential

ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE

10^-24 yocto (y)
10^-21 zepto (z)
10^-18 atto  (a)
10^-15 femto (f)
10^-12 pico  (p)
10^-9  nano  (n)
10^-6  micro (u)
10^-3  milli (m)
10^3   kilo  (k)
10^6   mega  (M)
10^9   giga  (G)
10^12  tera  (T)
10^15  peta  (P)
10^18  exa   (E)
10^21  zetta (Z)
10^24  yotta (Y)

DATACENTRE TIERS

Tier 1

Single non-redundant distribution path serving the IT equipment Non-redundant capacity components Basic site infrastructure guaranteeing 99.671% availability

Tier 2

Meets or exceeds all Tier 1 requirements Redundant site infrastructure capacity components guaranteeing 99.741% availability

Tier 3

Meets or exceeds all Tier 1 and Tier 2 requirements Multiple independent distribution paths serving the IT equipment All IT equipment must be dual-powered and fully compatible with the topology of a site's architecture Concurrently maintainable site infrastructure guaranteeing 99.982% availability

Tier 4

Meets or exceeds all Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 requirements All cooling equipment is independently dual-powered, including chillers and heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems Fault-tolerant site infrastructure with electrical power storage and distribution facilities guaranteeing 99.995% availability

AAA

  • Authentication: Who are you?
  • Authorisation: Can you access this?
  • Accounting: What have you done?

STATISTICS

  • Poisson mean
  • Holt-Winters
  • Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient
  • 3-sigma
  • Markov-Chain Montecarlo

LEADERSHIP (POWELL)

  1. Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off
  2. The day your staff stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
  3. Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often posses more data than judgement. Elites can become so inbred that they produce haemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
  4. Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard
  5. Never neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant
  6. You don't know what you can get away with until you try
  7. Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find
  8. Organisation doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds
  9. Organisation charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing
  10. Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it
  11. Fit no sterotypes. Don't chase the latest management fads. The situation dicates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission
  12. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier
  13. Look for intelligence and judgment, and most critically a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego, and the drive to get things done
  14. Great leads are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution that everybody can understand
  15. 40-70 rule: I: Use the formula P=40-70, in which P is probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information required. II: Once the information is in the 40-70 range, go with your gut
  16. The command in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise
  17. Have fun in your command. Don't always run at breakneck pace. Take leave when you've earned it. Spend time with your family. Corollary: surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves. Those who work hard and play hard
  18. Command is lonely
  19. Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.

SDI COLOURS / MOTIVATIONAL VALUE SYSTEM

Altruistic–Nurturing (Blue)

Concern for the protection, growth, and welfare of others

Assertive–Directing (Red)

Concern for task accomplishment and concern for organization of people, time, money and any other resources to achieve desired results

Analytic–Autonomizing (Green)

Concern for assurance that things have been properly thought out and concern for meaningful order being established and maintained

Flexible–Cohering (Hub)

Concern for flexibility… concern for the welfare of the group… concern for the members of the group and for belonging in the group

Assertive–Nurturing (Red-Blue Blend)

Concern for the protection, growth, and welfare of others through task accomplishment and leadership

Judicious–Competing (Red-Green Blend)

Concern for intelligent assertiveness, justice, leadership, order, and fairness in competition

Cautious–Supporting (Blue-Green Blend)

Concern for affirming and developing self-sufficiency in self and others… concern for thoughtful helpfulness with regard for justice

EIGHT STEPS OF CHANGE (KOTTER)

  1. Create a sense of urgency
  2. Build a guiding coalition
  3. Form strategic vision & initiatives
  4. Enlist volunteer army
  5. Empower employees & enable action by removing barriers
  6. Generate short term wins
  7. Consolidate gains & produce more change
  8. Anchor new approaches in culture

FOUR STAGES OF COMPETENCE (BURCH)

  1. Unconscious incompetence
  2. Conscious incompetence
  3. Conscious competence
  4. Unconscious competence

14 POINTS ON TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (DEMING)

  1. Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.
  2. Adopt the new philosophy.
  3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
  4. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.
  5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service.
  6. Institute training on the job.
  7. Adopt and institute leadership.
  8. Drive out fear.
  9. Break down barriers between staff areas.
  10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce.
  11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.
  12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
  13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
  14. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation.

PROJECTS (RACI)

  • Responsible
  • Accountable
  • Consulted
  • Informed

PROJECTS (RAID)

  • Risks
  • Assumptions
  • Issues
  • Dependencies

MOSCOW

  • Mo: Must Have
  • So: Should Have
  • Co: Could Have
  • W: Won't happen

OODA (BOYD)

  • Observe
  • Orient
  • Decide
  • Act

PICK

  • Possible
  • Implement
  • Challenge
  • Kill

SWOT

  • Strengths
  • Weaknesses
  • Opportunities
  • Threats

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Believe
  • Behave
  • Become

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRIANGLE

  • Scope
  • Resource
  • Schedule

ESTIMATION

Time = ( P + 4R + O ) / 6

P = Pessimistic
R = Realistic
O = Optimistic

APDEX (performance metric)

M = Maximum response time users will tolerate
S(atisfied)  = T < M
T(olerating) = T > M && T < (4M)
F(rustrated) = T > 4M

Apdex = ( Ns + ( Nt / 2 ) ) / N = 0.xx
* 100 for %age satisfaction

0.94 - 1.00 = Excellent
0.85 - 0.94 = Good
0.70 - 0.85 = Fair
0.50 - 0.70 = Poor
0.00 - 0.50 = Unacceptable

RESPONSIVENESS

0.1

Response feels instantaneous - 'direct manipulation'

1.0

Limit of focus - 'aware that the computer is involved'

10

Limit of concentration - likely to context switch

USABILITY GOALS

  • Learnability
  • Efficiency
  • Memorability
  • Errors

REQUIREMENTS

Functional

  • What a system should do: "The system must do x" - "Product" input
  • Business rules
  • Requirements
  • Functions
  • Interfaces
  • Reporting

Non-functional

  • How a system should do it. "The system shall be x" - "Operations" input
  • Qualities
  • Constraints
  • -ilities
  • Performance, capacity, reliability, availability, security, extensibility, etc

CLARK'S...

Variable

C - Equal to whatever value is required to make the answer correct

Maxim

"Simple" is to protocols what "Democratic" is to countries

Razor

Other factors being equal, it's probably the developers

Number

18446744073709551615

PREFERRED NUMBERS

1 2 5 10 20 50 etc

ITSM Journey

  • Chaos
  • Technology (Infrastructure & applications managed as separate domains // separate technology silos)
  • Service (Integration and delivery of end-to-end IT services (business solutions) // - Applications vs Infrastructure)
  • Customer (IT has mature processes and a single strategy and is focused on the customer // Management of IT supply chain)
  • Business (IT is perceived as an internal business partner // IT supports business goals)
  • Value (IT customers are the customer of the organisation / IT is the business)

FCAPS

  • Fault
  • Configuration
  • Accounting/Administration
  • Performance
  • Security

TEPES

  • Talent
  • Education
  • Professionalism
  • Experience
  • Skills

HIRING

Smart

The ability to adapt to change. The technology we use today won't be the technology we use tomorrow

Kind

The ability to fit in to the team. Don't be a douche.

ITIL Components

  • Incident
  • Problem
  • Change
  • Configuration
  • Release
  • Service Request

COMMANDER'S INTENT

  • Here's what I think we face.
  • Here's what I think we should do.
  • Here's why.
  • Here's what we should keep our eye on.
  • Now, talk to me.

HARDWARE (PICK TWO)

  • Fast
  • Big
  • Cheap

HYPE CYCLE

Technology trigger

A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.

Peak of inflated expectations

Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.

Trough of disillusionment

Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.

Slope of enlightenment

More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallise and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.

Plateau of productivity

Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.

STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT (TUCKMAN)

Forming

Team is built. People want to be accepted by others so little controversy or conflict. Administrivia of the team is determined: who does what, when to meet, etc. People are gathering information and impressions on each other and the task at hand.

Storming

Trust has developed so members are more willing to express discontent and challenge others' opinions. A difficult stage for conflict-adverse members. Emphasise tolerence and understanding of differences. Team must be a "no judgement" zone with people free to share views and opinions.

Norming

Team focuses on its goal. Some members may have to compromise their ideals for the good of the team but all members take responsibility and have ambition. People may not want to "rock the boat" by sharing controversial ideas.

Performing

Team is highly optimised. Job is done smoothly and effectively without inappropriate conflict and with little need for supervision. Members are motivated, knowledgeable, competent, autonomous. Dissent is expected and healthy as part of the improvement cycle.

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY

Leadership styles

S1: Telling

Characterised by one-way communication in which the leader defines the roles of the individual or group and provides the what, how, why, when and where to do the task

S2: Selling

While the leader is still providing the direction, he or she is now using two-way communication and providing the socio-emotional support that will allow the individual or group being influenced to buy into the process;

S3: Participating

This is how shared decision-making about aspects of how the task is accomplished and the leader is providing less task behaviours while maintaining high relationship behaviour;

S4: Delegating

The leader is still involved in decisions; however, the process and responsibility has been passed to the individual or group. The leader stays involved to monitor progress.

Maturity levels

M1: Unable and insecure

They still lack the specific skills required for the job in hand and are unable and unwilling to do or to take responsibility for this job or task.

M2: Unable but willing

They are unable to take on responsibility for the task being done; however, they are willing to work at the task. They are novice but enthusiastic.

M3: Capable but unwilling

They are experienced and able to do the task but lack the confidence or the willingness to take on responsibility.

M4: Capable and confident

They are experienced at the task, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. They are able and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for the task.

Development levels

D1: Low competence and high commitment

D2: Low competence and low commitment

D3: High competence and low commitment

D4: High competence and high commitment

TRAITS OF A GOOD LEADER

Honest

Display sincerity, integrity, and candor in all your actions. Deceptive behaviour will not inspire trust.

Competent

Base your actions on reason and moral principles. Do not make decisions based on childlike emotional desires or feelings.

Forward-looking

Set goals and have a vision of the future. The vision must be owned throughout the organisation. Effective leaders envision what they want and how to get it. They habitually pick priorities stemming from their basic values.

Inspiring

Display confidence in all that you do. By showing endurance in mental, physical, and spiritual stamina, you will inspire others to reach for new heights. Take charge when necessary.

Intelligent

Read, study, and seek challenging assignments.

Fair-minded

Show fair treatment to all people. Prejudice is the enemy of justice. Display empathy by being sensitive to the feelings, values, interests, and well-being of others.

Broad-minded

Seek out diversity.

Courageous

Have the perseverance to accomplish a goal, regardless of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Display a confident calmness when under stress.

Straightforward

Use sound judgment to make a good decisions at the right time.

Imaginative

Make timely and appropriate changes in your thinking, plans, and methods. Show creativity by thinking of new and better goals, ideas, and solutions to problems. Be innovative!

3 STAGES OF ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Stage I: Chaos (fire-fighting mentality)

  • Crisis/short-term focus
  • Lack of clear direction and goals
  • Shifting priorities
  • Unclear policies and procedures
  • “Us” vs. “them” attitude
  • Blame and lack of ownership
  • Alienated work force

Stage II: Stability (back to the basics)

  • Clarity of goals and direction
  • Consistency in priorities
  • Well-defined policies and procedures (technical and personnel)
  • Agreement on roles and responsibilities
  • Basic management processes rewarded and practiced (goal-setting, performance reviews, etc.)

Stage III: High performance (outstanding, sustainable results)

  • Clear statement of mission that creates sense of esprit de corp.
  • Well defined values which result in distinctive culture
  • Respect for people that is a deeply ingrained part of culture
  • Good communication and information sharing systems
  • High involvement and empowerment of people
  • Design (work flow, structure, systems) that supports mission and values

THEORY OF ORGANISATIONAL SAFETY (WESTRUM)

Pathological

  • Information is hidden
  • Messengers are shot
  • Responsibilities are shirked
  • Bridging is discouraged
  • Failure is covered up
  • New ideas are actively crushed

Bureaucratic

  • Information may be ignored
  • Messengers are tolerated
  • Responsibility is compartmentalised
  • Bridging is allowed by neglected
  • Organisation is just and merciful
  • New ideas create problems

Generative

  • Information is actively sought
  • Messengers are trained
  • Responsibilities are shared
  • Bridging is rewarded
  • Failure causes inquiry
  • New ideas are welcomed

INVEST (User stories)

  • Independent: The user story should be self-contained, in a way that there is no inherent dependency on another user story.
  • Negotiable: User stories, up until they are part of an iteration, can always be changed and rewritten.
  • Valuable: A user story must deliver value to the end user.
  • Estimable: You must always be able to estimate the size of a user story.
  • Scalable: User stories should not be so big as to become impossible to plan/task/prioritize with a certain level of certainty.
  • Testable: The user story or its related description must provide the necessary information to make test development possible.

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION (PINK)

Autonomy

The urge to direct our own lives

Mastery

The desire to get better and better at something that matters

Purpose

The yearning to do what we do in service of something larger than ourselves

TWO-FACTOR THEORY (HERZBERG)

Motivators (satisfaction)

Challenging work, recognition, responsibility

Hygiene factors (dissatisfaction)

Status, job security, salary, benefits, work conditions

  • High motivation + high hygiene: The ideal. Employees motivated with few complaints
  • High motivation + low hygiene: Employees motivated but have many complaints. Work is exciting and challenging but salaries and conditions are poor
  • Low motivation + high hygiene: Employees have few complaints but work isn't exciting. Job seen as a paycheque. Low motivation + low hygiene: The worst. Employees not motivated and have many complaints.

LAW OF DEMETER

  • Each unit should have only limited knowledge about other units: only units "closely" related to the current unit.
  • Each unit should only talk to its friends; don't talk to strangers.
  • Only talk to your immediate friends.

THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM

Dysfunction #1: Absence of Trust

The fear of being vulnerable with team members prevents the building of trust within the team.

Dysfunction #2: Fear of Conflict

The desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles the occurrence of productive ideological conflict.

Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment

The lack of clarity or buy-in prevents team members from making decisions they will stick to.

Dysfunction #4: Avoidance of Accountability

The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents team members from holding one another accountable.

Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Results

The pursuit of individual goals and personal status erodes the focus on collective success.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS

  • Are comfortable asking for help, admitting mistakes and limitations and take risks offering feedback
  • Tap into one another's skills and experiences
  • Avoid wasting time talking about the wrong issues and revisiting the same topics over and over again because of lack of buy-in
  • Make higher quality decisions and accomplish more in less time and fewer resources
  • Put critical topics on the table and have lively meetings
  • Align the team around common objectives
  • Retain star employees

CHANGE MODEL (SATIR)

Late status quo

Things are functioning as normal. Performance is consistent.

An event occurs that affects the status quo and requires change.

Resistance

The requirement for change is resisted. The issue is avoided, ignored or downplayed.

Chaos

The unknown. Previous assumptions no longer hold true. Relationships change. Performance and quality nosedive.

A way of adapting to the foreign element is discovered offering a route out of chaos

Integration

The transforming idea is accepted and integrated in to the system. Performance improves.

New status quo

The idea is fully integrated and performance has returned to or exceeds the late status quo.

FRAMEWORK FOR THINKING ABOUT SYSTEMS CHANGE (KNOSTER, VILLA, THOUSAND)

V S I R A
  x x x x = Confusion
x   x x x = Anxiety
x x   x x = Resistance
x x x   x = Frustration
x x x x   = False starts
x x x x x = Change
  • V = Vision
  • S = Skills
  • I = Incentives
  • R = Resources
  • A = Action plan

MATURITY

  • Adhoc
  • Repeatable
  • Defined
  • Managed
  • Optimizing

MATURITY (ISO 55000)

  1. Innocence
  2. Awareness
  3. Developing
  4. Competence
  5. Optimisation
  6. Excellence

SMART

  • Specific: target a specific area for improvement.
  • Measurable: quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
  • Achievable: state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
  • Responsible: specify who will do it.
  • Time-related: specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

ABBREVIATIONS

  • a11y accessibility
  • g11n globalisation
  • i18n internationalisation
  • l10n localisation
  • p13n personalisation

DREAD

  • Damage: how bad would an attack be
  • Reproducibility: how easy is it to reproduce the attack
  • Exploitability: how much work is it to launch the attack?
  • Affected users: how many people will be impacted?
  • Discoverability: how easy is it to discover the threat?

STRIDE

  • Spoofing of user identity
  • Tampering
  • Repudiation
  • Information disclosure (privacy breach or data leak)
  • Denial of service (D.o.S)
  • Elevation of privilege

AGILE MANIFESTO

  • Individuals & interactions > processes & tools
  • Working software > comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration > contract negotiation
  • Responding to change > following a plan
  • Left > Right

EISENHOWER MATRIX

  +------------+------------+
  |            |            |
I |            |            |
m |   Later    |    Now     |
p |            |            |
o |            |            |
r +-------------------------+
t |            |            |
a |            |            |
n |   Avoid    |  Delegate  |
c |            |            |
e |            |            |
  +------------+------------+
            Urgency

INCIDENT PRIORITY

  • Urgency: score according to how quickly you need to react to prevent the situation getting worse
  • Impact: score according to number of people affected, money lost, criticality of systems affected, risk to life, reputation, etc
      Impact
      +---+---+---+
      | H | M | L |
U +---------------+
r | H | 1 | 2 | 3 |
g +---------------+
e | M | 2 | 3 | 4 |
n +---------------+
c | L | 3 | 4 | 5 |
y +---+---+---+---+

CYNEFIN MODEL

Chaotic

  • No relationship between cause and effect at systems level
  • Novel practice
  • Response: act/sense/respond

Complex

  • The relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect
  • Emergent practice
  • Response: probe/sense/respond

Complicated

  • The relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge
  • Good practice
  • Response: sense/analyse/respond

Simple

  • The relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all
  • Best practice
  • Response: sense/categorise/respond

BURNOUT (MAYO CLINIC)

  • Has become cynical or critical
  • Lacks motivation to start the day
  • Is irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers or clients
  • Lacks energy to be consistently productive
  • Lacks satisfaction from achievements
  • Feels disillusioned about work
  • Uses food, drugs or alcohol to feel better (or to not feel at all)
  • Experiences changes in sleep habits or appetite
  • Suffers from unexplained headaches, backaches or other physical complaints

VALUES IN ACTION INVENTORY OF STRENGTHS (PETERSON & SELIGMAN)

WISDOM               COURAGE         HUMANITY               JUSTICE       TEMPERANCE         TRANSCENDENCE
Creativity           Bravery         Love                   Teamwork      Forgiveness        Appreciation of beauty and excellence
Curiosity            Perseverance    Kindness               Fairness      Humility           Gratitude
Judgment             Honesty         Social intelligence    Leadership    Prudence           Hope
Love of learning     Zest                                                 Self-regulation    Humour
Perspective                                                                                  Spirituality

ACCELERATE METRICS

Metrics to measure team performance, taken from Accelerate by Forsgren, Kim, Humble.

  • Cycle time: Average time for a commit to make it to production
  • Deployment frequency: How frequently updates are made in production
  • MTTR: Average time to recover from failure
  • Failed deploy %: How many changes fail

PIONEERS, SETTLERS, TOWN PLANNERS (WARDLEY)

Wardley posits that people fall into three broad categories – all brilliant and necessary.

Pioneers

Come up with new and novel ideas. Risk-takers, lots of uncertainty, experimental. High degree of failure, but learning from it. "Move fast and break things". Inventors.

Produces prototypes.

Settlers

Takes prototypes and commercialises them. Builds trust and understanding. Makes it repeatable, reliable, profitable. Innovators.

Produces products.

Town planners

Takes products and industrialises them. Makes things faster, better, smaller, more efficient, more economic and more profitable. Diffusers.

Produces services, utilities and commodities (used by the next generation of pioneers)

20-60-20 RULE FOR CHANGE (NAPIER)

Napier posits that reaction to change will broadly fall into three main camps.

20% Positive

See the benefit of the change and are on board from the start. Supportive cheerleaders.

60% Neutral/Undecided

'Silent majority' who are unsure, but can be convinced with data/evidence.

20% Negative

'Vocal minority' who resist the change from the start, either because the change will affect them directly or because change is intrinsically bad. Possibly former "positives" who have been worn down into cynical pessimists.

Summary

The temptation is often to focus on the 'vocal minority', however the cost/benefit calculus doesn't make sense – they're very difficult (or even impossible) to win over at great cost.

Instead pay attention to the silent majority. Work out what they need to be convinced and deliver it to them. At that point you'll have 80% and the negative 20% will be forced to 'disagree and commit' or get out of the way.

CALMS

Principles popularised by the the devOps movement.

Culture

Embrace change and share responsibility. Operate a safe, blameless environment where people have room to fail and to grow

Automation

Automate where possible. Let people focus on the novel, computers on the repetitive. Operate continuous integegration (CI) and ideally continuous delivery (CD). Bias towards maintaining configuration as code wherever possible

Lean

Continually deliver value in small batches

Measurement

You can't fix what you don't measure. Measure and adjust

Sharing

Maintain transparent communication channels within the team and beyond

LAWS OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (LARMAN)

At large scale culture is born out of structure. If you want to change culture, you need to start with the structure.

  1. Organizations are implicitly optimized to avoid changing the status quo middle- and first-level manager and “specialist” positions & power structures

  2. As a corollary to (1), any change initiative will be reduced to redefining or overloading the new terminology to mean basically the same as status quo.

  3. As a corollary to (1), any change initiative will be derided as “purist”, “theoretical”, “revolutionary”, "religion", and “needing pragmatic customization for local concerns” — which deflects from addressing weaknesses and manager/specialist status quo.

  4. As a corollary to (1), if after changing the change some managers and single-specialists are still displaced, they become “coaches/trainers” for the change, frequently reinforcing (2) and (3).

  5. Culture follows structure.