Continual Improvement

• Secure agile software development an oxymoron?
  An article describing some ways to keep security issues from getting out of hand while doing agile software development.
  (tags: agile software development process security)
• Mike Lunt - Daily Standup Meetings
  So, after many months (or years) of successful Agile projects, does the daily standup fallen into the “process” side of the equation instead providing real meaning to the individuals?
  (tags: agile process mikelunt development standup)
• People Over Process: RedMonk Radio Episode 30 - Enterprise Agile, Agile QA, Agitar, FITness
  “In this episode, Coté follows-up with Chip Holden and Mike Lunt, his former co-workers at BMC on their use of Agile in the large.” - The sound is a little rough, but it works.
  (tags: fitness agile quality testing software)

• Mike Lunt - Introduction on TalkBMC
  “Overall, the goal for our software engineering teams (and most others) is to create “working software” faster and with more relevance to our customers; consequently, the posts on this blog will be focused with that objective in mind.”
  (tags: software blogging mikelunt agile development)

I’m guessing many dear readers have been waiting day and night for the details on the money saving method mentioned in Part I, and some may have delayed their closing date. (OK, I’m being delusional that anyone even read Part I, much less believed it could be true.) Well, I wouldn’t spend those saved $1000’s before finishing the rest of this post.

As it turns out, my friend was able to enact this transaction and actually did save the purported $1000’s mentioned in the original story using a little known discount called a reissue rate, which can save up to 50-60% of a full policy. This effectively involves using the existing owner’s insurance company to “reissue” the policy to the new owner. It makes sense that a discount would be in order since the insurance company has already done a significant portion of the work for the existing owner and won’t be starting from scratch. Many brokers won’t mention this due to existing relationships with certain title companies, and there’s no motivation for the insurance company to mention it either, so the catch is to know the discount exists and to ask for it.

In the end, the reissue method was adequate enough for my friend’s mortgage company to endorse the mortgage, but whether this is the case in all mortgage applications can only be determined on a case-by-case basis. As more of the deed and mortgage processes are handled by computers, the risk afforded by title insurance will continue to decrease, and it’s likely title insurance companies will have to look for other ways to generate revenue. That’s when we can really start saving.

• How to Change the World: Defensibility
  Common sense list on why your company will succeed and/or why someone should invest in your company.
  (tags: startup web2.0 defensibility)

• Mike Lunt - First steps in Agile
  Some of my internal blog posts are being published to the company's external blog site. I will soon have an external blog site as well and will be publishing some of my software-related information there. Of course, I will post links to that materi
  (tags: agile software quality)

A friend was recently explaining how he saved thousands of dollars purchasing his new (yet previously-owned) home. Knowing there was a strong likelihood I would someday upgrade my own home, I listened intently to the story and was amazed by the simplicity.

Effectively, my friend described a loophole in the Texas title insurance system, where the owner’s previous title insurance company can sign over the title insurance to the new owner for a nominal fee ($100’s), which is much cheaper than purchasing new title insurance ($1000’s). The argument for this makes a lot of sense since most liens in Texas have to be registered with the state and easement issues in well-established neighborhoods are virtually nonexistent. Great, I thought to myself. I’ll use this in the future to save a few bucks, or at worst, it’ll make a great conversation piece at parties. Before any bragging rights could be claimed, I wanted to do a little research to verify the method.

The first person I mentioned this story to was a recently licensed real estate agent from my neighborhood. She began to explain why someone would be crazy to avoid purchasing title insurance, but I was still skeptical of this advice knowing she probably gets a cut of the insurance fee. This put my curiosity in a whirlwind, and after many additional conversations and a couple hours of research, the facts behind this fee-saving method have been uncovered. Stay tuned for an exciting second post explaining the particulars of this loophole. In the meantime, if you have any insight to offer on the subject, comments are welcome.

• Study: Sixth Street has too many bars, must diversify
  “We would like to see more restaurants as opposed to just bars and more live music.” - I definitely agree with the restaurant part.
  (tags: austin sixth-street bars entertainment downtown)

• How to detect lies - body language, reactions, speech patterns
  Some of these would lead you to believe almost everyone you meet is lying about just about everything. It’s an interesting list nonetheless.
  (tags: psychology lies language)
• 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog
  I really like this list. I immediately thought of Cauvin when reading #10. Which ones do I need to work on?
  (tags: blog comments blogging blogs howto traffic)

As a wise accountant once told me (i.e. my CPA mother), all financial decisions should be first weighed against one thing: The Pillow Test. What do bedding and money have in common you might be wondering at this point. I had the same question, when I first heard it, but after many years of managing my own personal finances, I have come to fully understand and appreciate its simplicity.

The Pillow Test is a simple measure of a person’s capacity for handling risk. Plainly put, if a new financial transaction is going to cause a person to lose sleep, the investment or venture is mostly likely not worth the time, regardless of its potential. This measure of one’s tolerance for risk is not only a litmus test for going into new transactions; it can also serve as a wake up call for getting out of transactions. In other words, if money woes are creating sleepless nights, it might be time to consider unwinding some financial risk, because the best test is how well you rest.

• My Top 10 Best Wordpress Plugins
  I currently use 3 of these and am planning to add a couple more.
  (tags: Plugins wordpress blog plugin)
• Educational podcasts with flare: Casting The Web
  A neighbor’s Web company. This idea sure beats some of the less entertaining corporate videos. I bet participation rates within companies would drastically increase if the material had some flare as proposed by these guys.
  (tags: e-learning podcast comedy entertain webcast)

This Men’s Health article on fatigue in men mentions that men typically fail to take even 4 days of vacation per year. It seems hard to believe, regardless of the industry, but it does bring up an issue discussed quite often. The issue revolves around the idea that vacations are often more stressful than not taking vacations. The core concern doesn’t involve the stress of dragging the kids across the desert with a rabid dog or the back pain of sleeping on the in-law’s foldout couch.

The real apprehension around taking vacations often deals with (1) the amount of work piling up while gone, (2) missing important decision making process, and (3) not being able to defend against a work bully. To avoid these pains, people will give up unused vacation time and show up for meetings while on paid time off. Some might argue this shows real dedication, but as the article above proves, this is most likely creating a situation where the lack of a recharge will start to slowly take little bites from your mental health. (And hence, the weak piranha analogy is revealed.)

Some people deal with this by hooking up to the corporate email on vacation and just checking important emails while gone. (Absolute time boxing is essential.) This may seem counterintuitive, but for some, the decreased pressure can make the vacation more relaxing. I’ve seen others setup a designated substitute (possible a trusted peer or senior employee) while gone, who can make decisions and defend against a tear-down artist. This method has the added effect of building trust relationships with others in the group, which can ease the pressure during future vacations.

Another tactic for those having difficulty with time away from the office is to schedule vacation time when others are likely out of the office. While somewhat limiting to the family schedule, the chances important decisions are being made are lessened, and the amount of work piling up is often significantly decreased. Along the same lines of adopting one’s schedule, I’ve seen people take a series of 3-5 day vacations (ex. Fridays off for Nov and Dec), such that some time is spent in the office every week. Granted, short stints of time away may not completely clear one’s mind; it’s better than taking no time away or being tormented while sitting on the beach.

• LinkedIn adds yellow-pages-like services directory
  I always wondered how LinkedIn made money: revenue comes primarily from premium service subscriptions that start at $60 a month and go up to $2,000
  (tags: linkedin social-network)

• Food may be like a drug for some, study shows
  I’m not sure this should be isolated to only obese people as the vast majority of Americans are eating well beyond their needs.
  (tags: health food fitness)
• “Flags of our Fathers” Interview : Clint Eastwood
  A film centred around the tragic Battle of Iwo Jima… I have high hopes for this flick.
  (tags: movie flags war Iwo-Jima WWII)
• 50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work (Write)
  Good tips for writing a novel or working on a blog.
  (tags: writing blog motivation procrastination)

It seems like the term ‘inertia’ has become washed-out in The Noughts, just as the term ‘paradigm’ was overused late in The Nineties. I often hear inertia as the key culprit for nearly every business problem encountered in the past 25 years. Inertia in this case can be defined as the force that keeps people and processes behaving in the same ways, even in light of superior methods. While there’s no doubt that changing the behaviors of 6.5 billion people isn’t going to happen overnight, not all problems can legitimately be blamed on this mystery force of forward momentum. In fact, as a general rule, one should question and further scrutinize any situation where the basis for some problem has been associated with “inertia”.

For instance, I’ve had several conversations where the creation of various roles in a business has been deemed questionable and mostly likely a product of corporate inertia. While this may be true in some aspects, especially with the standard approach used in handing out titles, there can be no denying the power of specialization in this process. If enough individuals existed with all the abilities to engineer, market, sell and support a product, market forces would soon push this new wave of white collar workers to the top of the food chain. Unfortunately/fortunately, these superhuman workers do not exist in significant numbers; thus, the need for most existing job roles continues.

Another similar situation often blamed on inertia is the existence of management within large institutions. Is the existence of VPs and CxO positions at Google a product of inertia at the enterprise level, or is this approach just the reality of not having a better system of organizing large numbers of people to accomplish a similar goal? If there has ever been a chance to rethink common ways of doing things, I believe Larry and Sergey would have found and promoted a different way. If innovation is the nemesis of inertia (and I believe it is), Google would be the Jedi force facing the Sith-based corporate mandate.

In general, pinning the responsibility on the “inertia effect” will typically provide little help in solving a problem. In fact, blaming inertia will most likely provide a red herring excuse for giving up on attacking a problem due to the overwhelming nature of tackling such a mystic force. Looking for smaller solutions to problems and taking baby steps to tackle a larger problem will lead to much more productive solutions, and in many cases, these smaller solutions may lead to the generation of superior methods which alter the state of the bodies in motion.

This short article in Men’s Health has an awesome list of five reminders in boosting self-confidence. Every person has areas where he/she may be lacking in confidence, and if left unattended, these feelings often develop into harmful insecurities that can hurt personal relationships or an entire career. In fact, I would venture to speculate that the vast majority of interrelationship troubles can be attributed to some sort of insecurity in one or more of the individuals involved. My favorite bullet point in this article is:

‘Self-image is the mental picture you have of yourself. It is not fixed, it is not objective, it can be changed and you can change it.’

Even as a firm believer in trying to find the objective part of any problem, I believe this cannot be said any better. It reminds me of something a friend recently told me about a recent blind dating encounter, where it was mentioned that the other person became magnitudes more attractive as they conversed. Granted, this story didn’t come with a visual reference point and may sound a bit superficial, but the point is proof in the power of changing one’s persona.

My second favorite bullet in this article deals with the issue of boredom in developing a lack of confidence. While I’m not a fan of busy work or delegating work for the sake of image, there is a good memento for managers hidden in this idea, because people with nothing to do or with mundane work will often become paranoid about their value to the organization and ultimately themselves.