Welcome
Welcome to the Foresight Newsletter, a free monthly publication of Prevoyance Group Inc. This newsletter shares tips for high performance IT organizations and observations that we hope will prove informative and enjoyable.
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Contents
CONTENTS
Foresight is published by the Prevoyance Group, and this month contains four sections:
Work
Life
Heard in the Hallways
Travels with Patrick
Work
While the myriad charts, curves and “laws” of university economics classes are a distant memory for most of us, one of them deserves revisiting as applied to the modern corporation.
Whole organizations, methodologies and rooms full of books have been created on the subject of determining the cost of organizational projects. Some more complex than others, they can be distilled to the process of determining the size of a piece of work, deciding how many resources to assign to that piece of work, and determining a cost for the effort, based on the unit cost of the individual resources times the amount of work that is required. So if there are 100 hours of work, one could assume using two similar resources, the work could be completed in 50 hours.
This all seems well and good, but when any large organizational endeavor begins to go awry, one of the usual suspects is costs that have spiraled out of control, despite carefully calculating work estimates, hiring the right people and tracking hours and costs to the minute and penny. Where dusting off those old Economics textbooks might help is in regards to the Law of Diminishing Returns.
Simply stated, the Law of Diminishing Returns says that resources cannot be added infinitely to make a process perform better. In some cases, adding resources offers no benefit. For example a pregnant woman will take 9 months to have a baby, no matter how many other people are added to the process. Where this rule applies to any organizational endeavor is calling into question the simple mathematics of most project management methodologies. As more resources are added to a task, the task will rarely get completed in a linear manner. A 100-hour task usually will not take 1 hour if you hire 100 people, despite the fact that this is what most project management tools will predict.
In our case, there are two factors at work feeding the law of diminishing returns. First, each resource, be it man or machine, requires setup time when introduced to a process. The more resources that are added, the more setup time. Secondly, each additional resource adds an element of ongoing administrative overhead, be it something as simple as a desk and phone line, to complex interactions with a project team or external vendor.
While creating a model to predict and monitor each of these areas is a science in itself, keep the law of diminishing returns mind whenever additional resources are presented as the solution to a difficult problem. The law is unavoidable, and the savvy decision maker will frame resource discussions around the law and save potential budget overruns and resource headaches in the long run.
Life
I have been doing quite a bit of traveling lately, and this month would like to share some travel tips:
- Invest in a universal charger. I have a model from iGo but several other companies make such a product. Most will charge a laptop, mobile phone, Bluetooth headset, iPod and any other assortment of gadgets through the use of various plugs that are compatible with each device. I have gone from carrying two to six cords and adapters to a single universal charger. Most universal models also work with airline power adapters and 12V car plugs, adding even more utility.
- If you are traveling within the United States, http://www.fly.faa.gov is infinitely useful. It shows a map of the US and the status of all major airports at a glance. You can quickly tell if there are problems at your origin or destination, or see if major hubs are backing up that may affect your travel.
- Similarly, http://www.seatguru.com is a great resource. You can enter most US and international air carriers, and select the type of plane you will be on, which can usually be found by looking at airline’s online flight schedules. Seat Guru will show a map of all the seats, and list which ones are good, and which might have problems like limited recline, proximity to a toilet or galley, or a narrow seat. It also lists the amenities of each airline and plane combination, so you can tell if there are individual video monitors or power outlets at each seat.
- For the tech junkies, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo now offer mobile phone portals and applications that you can download to a Blackberry or smart phone that allow you to get directions, find local points of interest, or check the weather in many US and international cities. Most are as easy to use as Google, allowing you to type “Sushi near Peoria, IL” into a search box, and get a listing of restaurants with phone numbers and directions. This has been invaluable for me when arriving in an unfamiliar city or making plans at the spur of the moment.
Heard in the Hallways
I have rallied against poorly constructed emails in the past, and unfortunately noticed a similar trend in other business communications. From presentations that are displayed to key associates complete with the red squiggly “you misspelled this word, jerk” notation that automatically flags spelling errors, to poorly formatted documents and spreadsheets. The message is the same: this communication is so unimportant, or my value for the audience so low, that I will not even perform basic quality checks. Is that the message you want to send?
The silver lining of this problem is that it is so widespread, a proof-read and well-formatted document is refreshing and noteworthy. Taking a bit of time to show the audience that you care enough to deliver a high quality and well-formatted message is an instant differentiator. For better or worse, the bar has been set so low being outstanding is quite an easy task.
Travels with Patrick
Your accoutrements can be an instant conversation starter in an unfamiliar place, and source of camaraderie in otherwise alien surroundings. When traveling by motorcycle I have met all manner of individuals with the only bond being our common choice of transportation.
On one trip, a friend and I were stopped at a tiny gas station fueling up when four heavily modified cruisers thundered into the station. The men that dismounted wore Hell’s Angels jackets, the notorious worldwide motorcycle gang frequently making headlines for stomping an opponent or nefarious underworld dealings. The man who appeared to be the leader of the pack approached, his face weathered from countless days on the road and skin bearing numerous tattoos that had faded into intimidating smudges hinting of skulls, gang affiliations and stern mottos. Fearing a showdown out of Easy Rider, I braced as he approached, his sleeveless leather vest with the winged skull contrasting with my Kevlar moonsuit. He regarded my gear and motorcycle for a moment, smiled broadly and asked how I liked the bike and where we were headed. He had helpful advice about which roads were best and where one could find a good meal and we spent several minutes chatting, two different people with more in common than my initial superficial assessment ever imagined!