As I mentioned before, my employer is requiring everyone to read the management book, The Oz Principle. So I have periodically been out on the internets and checking it out. Curiously I can find hardly any negative reviews! I found a couple of 1- and 2-star reviews on Amazon but otherwise, nada. Just to show what kind of guy I am, this makes me very skeptical of the enlightenment value of this tome. Oh, sure, it could be that it is such a superior read that no one would ever have a bad word to say about it. That could happen. Except that I read the first chapter and it blamed the collapse of Enron on a lack of accountability! All that fraud must have been simply a symptom of their failure to live Above the Line® !
First of all, how can I take seriously someone who registers "Above the Line"?
More to the point, this buzz and lack of critical response indicates that this is probably all hype and management fad. I'll read the stupid book and go to the Zigglaresque training session and then get on with my job. However, I will never be able to escape the nagging knowledge that the men and women running this company think that this codswallop is a great idea...
Update: Changed Trademark to Registered
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The Case Against Q
I just finished reading Mark Goodacre's The Case Against Q.
What strikes me first is this: Given that two examples of writing share substantial features of wording and order, the prima facie conclusion is that the author of one work knew the other. Any other supposition is multiplying entities and must bear a high burden of proof and the wrath of William of Ockham. Does Q pass the test?
The funny thing about Q research is how much of it resolves to - "well, I wouldn't have written it like that so how could Luke?" After indulging in a review of Greek verb forms, invariably a scholar will claim that Luke would have to have been a "crank" or "unstable" to have redacted Matthew in such a way. Is this really all it comes down to? I have yet to read a comment questioning Q's motivation or mental stability and yet Luke is second guessed continually.
In his book, Goodacre describes how the Q-ists will divide the double and triple tradition material into "Q", "Mark-Q Overlap" and the "Minor Agreements" and then declare that you are not allowed to analyze the material as a whole. Aside from enjoying the spectacle of an epicycle introduced to address each new difficulty, I was reminded of the trends I see in my own line of work.
In the software industry, someone is always writing a book which claims that their "new" way of doing things will eliminate all the nasty and unpopular parts of our jobs. Unfortunately, when you look more closely they have not eliminated anything, merely re-categorized the same - essentially unavoidable - tasks. Software engineers are supposedly trained in information theory which demands that a critical eye be kept on the overall information content of a system. Sadly, like a fundamentalist kicking the tires on a used car, developers all too easily compartmentalize the principles of actual programming and that of managing the project.
In much the same way, by dividing the Luke-Matthew material in to discrete piles, it seems that biblical scholars can indulge in word counting and the minutia of Greek grammar while mistaking their man-made framework for reality itself.
Early on in The Case Against Q, Goodacre describes how the reputation of Q skeptic Michael Goulder has suffered because of his tangential claim that the author of Matthew's gospel probably created much of his unique material himself. On reading this, my little heart went pitapat! This is an idea I have been struggling with for some time. How exactly do we know that the Evangelists were not making up stories/sayings/parables to suit their aims? They certainly felt free to rearrange and modify the material in their sources as they saw fit. What kept them from stepping over the line and creating pericopae from whole cloth? I realize that individual elements can be attested through other sources suggesting that they come from a shared pool of material, written or oral, but are there general guidelines for discriminating between sourced material and pure creativity? Is the appeal to Oral Tradition a pitfall that prevents us from seeing the true nature of the work?
All in all, Mark Goodacre's work has further convinced me that Q as a theory has become brittle in the last 150 years and is subject to challenge from Farrer's theory or perhaps an insight we haven't even heard yet. Not that my opinion really matters... :)
What strikes me first is this: Given that two examples of writing share substantial features of wording and order, the prima facie conclusion is that the author of one work knew the other. Any other supposition is multiplying entities and must bear a high burden of proof and the wrath of William of Ockham. Does Q pass the test?
The funny thing about Q research is how much of it resolves to - "well, I wouldn't have written it like that so how could Luke?" After indulging in a review of Greek verb forms, invariably a scholar will claim that Luke would have to have been a "crank" or "unstable" to have redacted Matthew in such a way. Is this really all it comes down to? I have yet to read a comment questioning Q's motivation or mental stability and yet Luke is second guessed continually.
In his book, Goodacre describes how the Q-ists will divide the double and triple tradition material into "Q", "Mark-Q Overlap" and the "Minor Agreements" and then declare that you are not allowed to analyze the material as a whole. Aside from enjoying the spectacle of an epicycle introduced to address each new difficulty, I was reminded of the trends I see in my own line of work.
In the software industry, someone is always writing a book which claims that their "new" way of doing things will eliminate all the nasty and unpopular parts of our jobs. Unfortunately, when you look more closely they have not eliminated anything, merely re-categorized the same - essentially unavoidable - tasks. Software engineers are supposedly trained in information theory which demands that a critical eye be kept on the overall information content of a system. Sadly, like a fundamentalist kicking the tires on a used car, developers all too easily compartmentalize the principles of actual programming and that of managing the project.
In much the same way, by dividing the Luke-Matthew material in to discrete piles, it seems that biblical scholars can indulge in word counting and the minutia of Greek grammar while mistaking their man-made framework for reality itself.
Early on in The Case Against Q, Goodacre describes how the reputation of Q skeptic Michael Goulder has suffered because of his tangential claim that the author of Matthew's gospel probably created much of his unique material himself. On reading this, my little heart went pitapat! This is an idea I have been struggling with for some time. How exactly do we know that the Evangelists were not making up stories/sayings/parables to suit their aims? They certainly felt free to rearrange and modify the material in their sources as they saw fit. What kept them from stepping over the line and creating pericopae from whole cloth? I realize that individual elements can be attested through other sources suggesting that they come from a shared pool of material, written or oral, but are there general guidelines for discriminating between sourced material and pure creativity? Is the appeal to Oral Tradition a pitfall that prevents us from seeing the true nature of the work?
All in all, Mark Goodacre's work has further convinced me that Q as a theory has become brittle in the last 150 years and is subject to challenge from Farrer's theory or perhaps an insight we haven't even heard yet. Not that my opinion really matters... :)
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Polyglot Meme
Jim McGrath has launched the Polyglot Meme so here are the languages I have made some attempt - be it ever so abortive - to learn.
Special thanks to Jim and Dr Platypus for allowing me to crib their notes:
English (a work in progress)
French
Spanish
Russian
German
Latin
Gaelic
Swedish
Finnish
Ukrainian
Klingon
Quenya
Esperanto
American Sign Language
I had no idea I was such a geek (well, maybe I had a clue)
Special thanks to Jim and Dr Platypus for allowing me to crib their notes:
English (a work in progress)
French
Spanish
Russian
German
Latin
Gaelic
Swedish
Finnish
Ukrainian
Klingon
Quenya
Esperanto
American Sign Language
I had no idea I was such a geek (well, maybe I had a clue)
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
A Slightly Softer Wimper
As a follow up to my missive on Agile Failure in my organization, I must point out that a recent planning session with another team led to some useful activity in rating the stories in the team backlog. That said, the previous avatar of the Scrum Master was in the form of a PMI certified project manager from a Waterfall shop. Those skills were very much in evidence during the meeting. It seems more and more clear that the training, experience and quality of the team members deteremine the outcome of a project far more that 5x7 cards, stand up meetings or manifestos.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Flaubert on Parenting: 2010
I also can't help but wonder if all of the effort poured into creating the perfect child, like the haute bourgeois attention to stylish food, is a way of deflecting and rechannelling adult disappointment. Are these parents, so virtuously exhausted, so child-drained at the end of one of these busy days, compensating for something they have given up? Something missing in their marriage? Some romantic disappointment? Some compromise of career or adventure? One can't help but wonder, in other words, what Tolstoy or Flaubert would make of our current parenting style.
"Modern Parenting: If we try to engineer perfect children, will they grow up to be unbearable?"
Katie Roiphe, Slate/Financial Times
With a Wimper
The other day I ate lunch with a colleague. She argued that training the entire company on The Oz Principle and having each employee participate in eight two hour evaluations each quarter was worth the expense and bother even if only she and I were inspired to demonstrate responsibility-taking behavior before our co-workers. My position was that not a single management fad I have ever witnessed emerging from the executive suite had had any impact on corporate culture or effectiveness. The Oz Principle walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and, more to the point, smells like a duck. The most disappointing part is that seasoned businessmen and women actually buy these books.
I have made no secret of my doubts about Agile Development. To be sure, my company showed all the signs of an Agile Failure environment - top heavy decision making, Agile by mandate, lack of top-level buy-in, a culture of just-get-by. You can't just flip a switch and change the corporate culture. Now, after only a few months, the course of events is unfolding exactly as I anticipated based on my two decades experience at various companies.
First, at the sprint planning session, the so-called User Stories are written based on the steps required to complete some system design that each developer holds in his or her head. Instead of "As a call center rep, I want ..." every card begins, "As a developer I need to ...". Since our product owner comes out of IT instead of the user organization (she says she KNOWS what they need) no one blinks. When I brought this up, I was told that according to some Agile books, this is allowed. I shut up after that. Next each user story is assigned a complexity based on an unstructured discussion in which the senior members of the team dominate - no input from the underlings. Finally, the programming manager, who is on the team, provides the task estimates and then assigns each task to a developer before the first sprint has even started!
Here's what has happened: the manager nixes any self-organization and the focus remains on IT delivering the functionality that they believe the user needs. To top it off, the higher-ups are demanding hard deadlines and treating every problem as a fire, yanking team members around like manic chess pieces. This process reflects the exact sequence of events that went into planning a project before we went all Agile. As I expected, the members of IT have found a way to do exactly what they were doing before but pay lip service to being Agile. It was that way at the phone company and it's that way now.
The challenge to management is to cancel their Management Book of the Month subscription, do some real research in organizational behavior, look hard at the culture they have to deal with and find creative, insightful ways to move the company out of the 1980's. Good luck.
I have made no secret of my doubts about Agile Development. To be sure, my company showed all the signs of an Agile Failure environment - top heavy decision making, Agile by mandate, lack of top-level buy-in, a culture of just-get-by. You can't just flip a switch and change the corporate culture. Now, after only a few months, the course of events is unfolding exactly as I anticipated based on my two decades experience at various companies.
First, at the sprint planning session, the so-called User Stories are written based on the steps required to complete some system design that each developer holds in his or her head. Instead of "As a call center rep, I want ..." every card begins, "As a developer I need to ...". Since our product owner comes out of IT instead of the user organization (she says she KNOWS what they need) no one blinks. When I brought this up, I was told that according to some Agile books, this is allowed. I shut up after that. Next each user story is assigned a complexity based on an unstructured discussion in which the senior members of the team dominate - no input from the underlings. Finally, the programming manager, who is on the team, provides the task estimates and then assigns each task to a developer before the first sprint has even started!
Here's what has happened: the manager nixes any self-organization and the focus remains on IT delivering the functionality that they believe the user needs. To top it off, the higher-ups are demanding hard deadlines and treating every problem as a fire, yanking team members around like manic chess pieces. This process reflects the exact sequence of events that went into planning a project before we went all Agile. As I expected, the members of IT have found a way to do exactly what they were doing before but pay lip service to being Agile. It was that way at the phone company and it's that way now.
The challenge to management is to cancel their Management Book of the Month subscription, do some real research in organizational behavior, look hard at the culture they have to deal with and find creative, insightful ways to move the company out of the 1980's. Good luck.
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