Why I sometimes buck KPI thinking.

Another link from Darren’s weekend read. The article is about the negative impact that KPIs can have on an organisation. I’ve seen this at other organisations in the technology industry where you can see the behaviour change when someone is given their new KPIs. In one case I know of an employee that exactly meets his KPIs each year but ultimately he doesn’t provide any value to the business because the KPIs are too narrowly defined. They are narrowly defined because they are fed into a quantitative measure.

As Readify grows we will come under increasing pressure to establish quantitative measures around individual performance. On the surface this sounds great, with quantitative measures it’ll be easy to identify those people who perform well, and those who need some more coaching. However, in the process we may lose some of the free thinking radicals which make the company smart. So you have to choose - do you want to know exactly when things are going down the tube - or - do you want to take the risk and come up with something truly inspired.

You can’t quantify or measure the rate of innovation because innovation will always challenge the systems that are doing the measuring.

My 2c.

P.S.: I talk about Readify a lot, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that Readify is unique in the kinds of challenges it faces as a business. What is important is how we react to these challenges once they are acknowledged.

Recession? Bring it on.

Darren Neimke posted up some interesting links in his Weekend Read. One of the ones that stood out for me was this one about who gets laid off during a recession. I’ve been through two recessions in my lifetime. The first was when I was a child so I don’t think that it really entered my consciousness although I am sure that my parents had their stresses.

The second was an industry-local recession that happened around the year 2000, most people refer to this as the dot-bomb, dot-bust or dot-crash referring of course to the number of online enterprises that went to the wall. During that period, for the first time in my professional life I was given notice that I would be unemployed - I was working on a product that was not going to be commercially viable and I wasn’t otherwise providing value to the business.

Within the few days I was out in the field spending time with other consultants and I eventually landed an engagement doing some integration work between Tivoli, ZENworks on top of WebSphere. A short while later my notice was recinded and my stress levels went back to normal. I think it was at this time I started to realise that ultimately - those people that provide value to a business never get laid off which is what I think the article linked to above, and the ones it links to are saying.

So why the title of this post? Well, the existentialist in me thinks that a recession is good medicine. If we look at all of humanity as one big biological entity, a recession is a biological function that has evolved into existence to regulate something. In this case the pressure in the economy is like of like our natural body heat, and a recession is like sweating which cools it down. If you are hot, you want to sweat otherwise you are going to end up in a very bad way.

Of course on a personal level, its bad to see people getting laid off, but ultimately it serves as a reminder (like it did for me) that you need to provide value. If you don’t then the natural biological tendency is to jetison that waste from the body of humanity.

Seems harsh - but that is the way the world works. If heaven forbid I get laid off in some future recession then you can bet that I won’t be sitting idly waiting for the world to pick me up off the floor. I’m going to fight for survival.

Recession? Bring it on.

My West Coast Tour draws to a close.

Well, my USA trip is almost over. I have to say that it has been a great experience. Whilst I didn’t completely switch off I took the time to do the things that I wanted to do. I’ve never been much of a traditional tourist, so going around checking out co-working locations is actually quite enjoyable for me.

One of the things that I’ve enjoyed about this trip over other trips to the North West is that I’ve taken the time to just observe the culture a little bit - and I think it is something you can’t do if you go somewhere and just do tourist stuff. You have to pretend to live somewhere. For the past two days I’ve been working from BLANKSPACES again and so I have a feel for what it would be like living and working in LA from a co-working location. You know what? Not a lot different from Australia.

The next thing for me is Code Camp Oz 2008. If you are in Australia and want something geeky to do this weekend send an e-mail to Greg Low or myself at registration@codecampoz.com and head on down to Wagga Wagga. My flight lands in Melbourne on Thursday and I pretty much fly straight up to Wagga Wagga for the weekend, then back to Melbourne for a day and a bit before I head up to Sydney to present at the Sydney Business and Technology User Group.

Whilst I am tired from all the travel I have been doing I’m going back to work with a refreshed perspective on the world. Ideally I’ll be presented with some new challenges when I get back to work helping carve out a brighter future for Readify.

Congratulations to @davidlem

Well - this is interesting news. It looks like Dave Lemphers is heading north to Redmond to take up a role working on Microsoft’s cloud services. Pretty cool stuff. Of course he announced it on Twitter - which is why everyone knows about it so fast.

Congratulations Dave - don’t forget us little people!

International Citizenship

Whilst I was in the car yesterday I was listening to a few Multiple Choice podcasts by Susan Maushart. One of the podcasts included an interview with Geraldine Brooks who is an award winning author.

This episode was interesting because Geraldine Brooks has for a long time been a slave to two homes, Australia and the USA. Through marriage Geraldine would have been able to flip between countries having to deal only with the realities of the continual relocations but I don’t think it is that easy for everyone.

Most countries aim to protect their domestic social security infrastructure and employment markets by imposing restrictions on who can live and work in their country. However - I wonder if this is now an outmoded concept, is it possible that some people could simply designate themselves as a Citizen of Earth and through desire and capability be highly migratory?

As technology enables us to get away from our desks isn’t it possible that people might decide that they want to travel to other countries and be able to work freely? Do Visas make sense? Where can I apply for my Citizen of Earth passport?

Pumping gas and I18N.

Well arrived safely in Los Angeles last night after a very long drive down from Ashland. I made a few stops along the way for a bite to eat and to fill up the car with fuel. Interesting filling up the car has been a bit of a challenge on this trip - and its all down to a localisation (I18N) problem in the software used at the pump.

I assume that drive offs at the pump is a bigger problem in the USA than it is in Australia. Typically in Australia you’ll only encounter a locked pump later in the evening unless it is a particularly large station where the counter operator can’t keep an eye on all the pumps. By contrast, in the USA I am yet to encounter a pump that I can just start pumping then go in and pay.

Fortunately, most of the pumps support some kind of electronic payment mechanism such as a credit card. Unfortunately for me I don’t live in the USA, and can’t provide "my five digit zip code" as validation for credit card.

Heading south to Sacramento, then onto Los Angeles.

As Andrew Parsons quite rightly pointed out, I am actually flying out of Los Angeles late on Tuesday night, not Wednesday which I had first thought. That means I had less buffer to deal with diversions which is why I really had to get moving this morning. The first thing I had to deal with?

There was about an inch of snow on my read windscreen this morning and a little less on the front. I grabbed a plastic insert from one of the gadget boxes that I had in the boot and scraped it off with the assistance of the cars defroster.

In the end I decided that I wouldn’t need chains (yeah, in my expert opinion :P) and head south over the pass. Right now I am sitting in a town called Willows about 140km north of Sacramento. I decided to pull over here because I saw that they had a Starbucks and an abundance of parking which might not have been available in the city. The drive down has been fantastic and the car didn’t loose its grip once. I also managed to take a few shots.

Along the way I’ve been listening to a mixture of some of my more recent favourite tracks (I didn’t bring my entire collection with me so I’ve been limited). On the way I’ve been listening to Susan Maushart’s podcast called Multiple Choice (it’s an Australian ABC Local Radio feed downloaded via iTunes).

Anyway, nearly time to hit the road again, it is a long way to Los Angeles and I want to get there tonight if I can.

Some more snow pictures in Ashland.

Well the snow has really come down in Ashland. I went for a walk before and I took a few shots. Interestingly when I was here last week there was only a tiny spot of snow up on a hill and I took a picture of it. I took another shot today from around the same spot - so here are the before and after shots.

I was talking to the guy that looks after the front desk at the motel that I am staying in tonight and he suggested that I check out a site called TripCheck. The site is run by the Oregon Department of Transportation and they update the site with hazard information. According to the web-site status information I am going to have to pick up some tyre chains tomorrow.

Before I sign-off for the evening, I thought I would post two more photos. The first is a picture taken from the side of the service station net more. You can see the ice packed onto the sign and on the side of the road.

This second shot is of the hills from the photos at the top of this post. Its just a bit closer without the service station (another one) in the road. After taking this I walked into a pub for a drink to warm me up a little bit (didn’t really bring snow wear with me).

Signing-off.

There are different kinds of snow.

As I mentioned in my previous post today I was headed to Ashland today. Well I made it and I am sitting once again up at the counter at The Wild Goose Cafe. I predicted that I would see more snow today and boy was I right. Outside the snow is coming down and slowly starting to pile up on my car.

I’ve heard a rumour that a largish storm is going to be coming through and that they might close down the pass down to the south (for safety reasons). On the way up into the mountains I actuall encountered about four traffic accidents which clagged up the I-5 North Bound so I guess the danger is real. Some folks are asking about the availability of chains for the tyres of their cars; never driven with chains before so that could be interesting if I need to get some.

One of the things that I have I have learned on the way up is that there are all different kinds of snow that you encounter. First first kind is the disney snow, you know, the type that forms in the flakes and wafts through the air. I’ve seen a little bit of that. The other kind of snow is the more hail like snow which actually makes a sound when it hits the car - I’d call it actual hail but it is so tiny, and I’ve never driven through wave after wave of "hail" for five hours before - but then again I’ve never driven through snow for five hours either.

At the moment the snow is melting almost as soon as it hits the ground so I suspect that it would take quite a while for any snow to build up on the roads to a point where it became a problem, and I asked some of the folks at OfficeNomads in Seattle before I left whether I should be worried about ice on the roads given the weather.

Whats doing! - a general update.

Well I am back on the road so it is time to write some blog posts. The great thing about spending so much time in the car is that you get a lot of time to think about things so that when you pull over to take a break you usually hae lots of blog fodder.

On the Road Back to Los Angeles

Right now I am sitting in what is easily the busiest Starbucks that I have ever seen whilst here in the USA. However it is in a very unlikely place - Starbucks in Wilsonville, Oregon. The queue has been out the door several times but both the customers and staff seem to take it as normal so I guess this is just a popular little nexus for locals and travellers alike. One of the interesting fittings in the store is a counter - the first that I have ever seen in a Starbucks. I am sitting up at it now typing out this blog post on my MacBook Air.

I have no idea what day I fly out of the USA on, I think it is Wednesday next week so I figure I’ll get to Ashland tonight (I enjoyed Ashland and decided I wanted to go back there). When leaving Seattle last night I was actually driving through snow (first time in my life) so with the increased elevation of Ashland I suspect that there might be a little bit more snow on the peaks around the town which will be nice to see. I’m also looking forward to getting back to this little cafe where I had breakfast last time.

From there I plan to head down to Sacremento, although I probably won’t stop in Sacremento other than to catch a bite to eat, I think I might try and get all way way down to Los Angeles by Sunday night which will give me a few days to spend at BLANKSPACES.

Some Tasks for Next Week

Hanging out in BLANKSPACES will allow me to finish up my prepartion for my talk at Code Camp Oz 2008 on "Software Development for Real Men with Team Foundation Server" which basically covers off the "MUST DO’s" that I think every software development should do when tackling an enterprise software development project. If you would like to attend Code Camp Oz 2008 this year please make sure that you e-mail Greg Low and I via the registration@codecampoz.com e-mail alias just so that we can make sure that catering is covered.

After Code Camp Oz I’ll be presenting on the The Evolution of Enterprise Software Development at the Sydney Business & Technology User Group which is run by Craig Bailey who I have had the privllege of spending some time with whilst I was in Seattle at the MVP Summit. I’ll also be able to knock that whilst I am waiting for my flight to Melbourne. That session was originally going to be just on Software Agents, but in my thinking about how I was going to present some of the concepts I realised that the topic was really much larger than just software agents and really challenged the entire way that we build systems today.

Current MacBook Air Challenges

Well, its nearly time for me to hit the road. I need to go and find a USB key that I can use to transfer files between my MacBook Air and my Tablet PC. I have to say that this little experiment with the MacBook Air has been fun. Since I have been using Windows for such a long time I am finding it quite challenging to work the same way that I used to, and I can see why people that do platform switches often have negative experiences.

I’m not doing a platform switch, I am truly trying to figure out how to seemlessly switch between both since from a professional standpoint I am a .NET developer. I’m looking forward to the new things that I am going to learn in the process and how I am going to overcome any challenges.

My current challenges are listed below for those who are intereted (maybe you can help?):

1. Entourage 2008 can’t talk to the Readify exchange server. It is supposed to be able to but I haven’t been able to get it working yet. The server is exposed to the Internet via HTTP but I can’t quite get the right set of configuration values. I suspect it could be something to do with my oversize mailbox taking a long time to do its initial sync.
2. Transfering files between the MacBook Air and the Tablet PC is a pain. I have a few MP3 files that I would like to load across into iTunes (I picked up a 32GB iPod Touch at Frys before I left Seattle). I couldn’t get both the Tablet PC and the MacBook Air onto the T-Mobile hotspot at the same time so I wasn’t able to use my FolderShare trick for syncing files - hence the low-tech USB approach.
3. Photos - want to know why this post doesn’t have any photos? Well it is because I can’t insert an SD card into the MacBook Air. I use my Ultimate 9520 to take photos, and it isn’t recognised as a drive when I connect it via USB to the MacBook Air.
4. Password Management. I have using Password Minder on my Tablet PC to maintain a heavily encrypted list of passwords. The MacBook has a Keychain function, but I really need to have a password list that is in sync across both machines. The key requirements are - must run on Windows Vista 64, must run on Mac OS X and ideally sync securely in the cloud to something that isn’t run by a dodgy two bit operation.

Well - I’m off, so let me leave you with this interesting little tidbit from Not An MBA on the Twitter Test for articulating your business strategy.