Re: Project management melee
Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2012 16:43:05 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <efa7e6ee-417b-4f43-84a8-e38e430a5796_at_x6g2000pbh.googlegroups.com>
On Jun 8, 1:37 pm, John Hurley <johnthehur..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Mladen:
>
> # The debate is about agile methodology and DBA personnel, which mix
> well, just like oil and water. If someone is interested, plese join
> the melee.
>
> As smart as Cary he ( and he is scary smart ) once he takes up a
> position he does not back down ( nor change his position ) easily.
>
> He believes in an ideal world and a best way of doing things ... it is
> all black and white no shades of grey.
I don't think it is so much he believes it, as that is how he knows to present it. I think he is really good at taking a problem and deconstructing it, following the leads where they may go. Once you've done that, it is easy to have a mechanistic view of things, and easy to be convincing about it (because it is right!). Where it breaks down is where determinism breaks down - whenever there are too many unknown variables. So project management has a big people component, and is largely non-deterministic. You'll never convince management or management consultants of that, though. They have strong motivation to reduce it to dollars, at best you can throw in a completely arbitrary "goodwill accounting" or "institutional memory" component, which will be mostly ignored at tactical decision time. It's business, after all.
He's a math guy, so he should know http://www.cut-the-knot.org/manifesto/right_answer.shtml (thanks to Eddie Awad for the serendipitous pointer).
jg
-- _at_home.com is bogus. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/howlett/has-oracles-ellison-finally-stepped-over-the-line/4209Received on Fri Jun 08 2012 - 18:43:05 CDT