Category Archives: Technology

Australia is training more personal trainers than IT professionals – really?

Posted on March 2, 2013 by

I spoke at a conference this week where a CIO made this headline observation, noting that they had not been able to validate it in any way, but the horror of their claim was that it might be possible. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, People, Technology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Ground Hog Day

Posted on September 17, 2012 by

I just saw this graphic of American Print Newspaper Advertising (adjusted for inflation) and had a strong sense of deja vu: Exhibit A: Newspaper Ad Revenue in the US Exhibit B: US Recorded Music Revenue in the US Business Insider … Continue reading →

Posted in Agile, Disruption, Strategy, Technology | Leave a comment

Luna USA Field Trip: the lunar lander – minimum viable product

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

We’ve already referred to the Lunar landing Module (LM in NASA parlance) as the greatest machine ever built. The chance to see a replica in Washington DC was very exciting. So imagine my amazement to discover that the machine is … Continue reading →

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Luna USA Field trip: more skunkworks reflections

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

The 14 rules of the Skunkworks, written by Kelly Johnson of Lockheed Martin in the 1940s are are clear antecedents of the 2001 Agile Manifesto, and the Agile Principles behind the manifesto. James talks about Skunkworks in our YOW! presentation, … Continue reading →

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Luna USA Field Trip: Wright Brothers – less money, less resources, more innovative

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

Simon Sinek has a great talk on the rivalry at play in the early part of the 20th century to successfully fly a heavier than air, powered aircraft. It is an important tale for agilists, as the small budget and … Continue reading →

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Luna USA Field Trip: Space Shuttle – a monumental engineering achievement

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

In our YOW! 2011 talk we discussed the space shuttle era that began in the late 1970s – an era of USA and Soviet rivalry based foolishly on strategic parity (‘our goal is just to have what they have’). Horrifically, … Continue reading →

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Customer expectations are bringing uncertainty to your doorstep – an infographic

Posted on March 20, 2012 by

Eric Ries defines a startup as: A human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. So what does ‘extreme uncertainty’ look like? Po Bronson coined the phrase ‘radical uncertainty’ 13 years ago in … Continue reading →

Posted in Agile, Customers, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Challenger 1986: NASA’s most explosive retrospective.

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

As I read this week’s Telegraph obituary of a great American rocket scientist, I was moved to thinking about how we deal with the whistleblowers and truth-tellers in an agile world. How can we strike a balance between encouraging transparency … Continue reading →

Posted in Agile, Communication, People, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

NASA’s Gemini Mission Photos

Posted on February 6, 2012 by

After a spate of distracting Agile, Lean and generally serious posts let me drag us back into space with beautiful photographs from some of the first iterative missions NASA launched in to space. More at WIRED

Posted in Space, Technology | Leave a comment

YOW! 2011 Australia Conference – something for everyone, even the economists!

Posted on January 29, 2012 by

As the lunatics in charge of the Luna Tractor, James and I are fortunate to spend time with the 25% of Australian agile professionals who actually give a shit, who we often meet at industry conferences. The smarter among you … Continue reading →

Posted in Agile, Development, Lean, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment