It looks obvious

I like Microsoft’s SQL Reporting Services. It is a nice tool that allow me to roll tools to users fast. I usually use the reports at the beginning of projects as a way to understand the real needs, while providing a first phase useable tools. The relative easiness producing report also allow me allocating developer times better by building the report by analyst and not by programmers.

That being said I really don’t understand why can’t Microsoft get over themselves and avoid producing confusing, and unnecessary, additional functions and buttons. If someone will be able to explain why does any user need two different button - "refresh" and "View Report" button beside of the obvious reason of confusing the hell of them?

If you ever wondered what happen when the process takes first priority and the organization become purpose for itself, instead of what it produce - go and read this:

So that nets us a conservative estimate of 24 people involved in this feature. Also each team of 8 was separated by 6 layers of management from the leads, so let’s add them in too, giving us 24 + (6 * 3) + 1 (the shared manager) 43 total people with a voice in this feature. Twenty-four of them were connected sorta closely to the code, and of those twenty four there were exactly zero with final say in how the feature worked. Somewhere in those other 17 was somebody who did have final say but who that was I have no idea since when I left the team — after a year — there was still no decision about exactly how this feature would work.
By the way “feature” is much too strong a word; a better description would be “menu”. Really. By the time I left the team the total code that I’d written for this “feature” was a couple hundred lines, tops.

Technorati Tags: Feature Creep - Program Management - Bureaucracy - Process - Agility

Blaugh is a new comic blog with sharp humor, but it has more than that. Friday Fred Wilson pointed out to the hardship of embedding comics from Blaugh in other blogs. It didn’t take Blaugh long, and by Monday they already followed Fred’s good advice. That is how reaction to demand should be!

Another day , another Google product – and today it’s a Firefox extension :

Although it seems as one of those 20% projects it seem to be more in line with Google’s core. For someone like me it will be very helpful, if only Google will make it work:

Here is our latest finding of unique and original technology development. This time we bring you mobile TV:

(via urban legend ) 

I really looked hoping to find, but I found nothing exciting in the new Google’s calendar service. Yes it provides RSS and it integrates with Gmail, so what?

I understand that a calendar service was long expected, by Google’s users and investor, but the expectation was to something special, something that will represent the brilliancy of Google’s developers.

But, as with the new version of Google Talk , Google decided to release a mediocre service. Pity.

 Link: It’s about time

Keeping track of schedules isn’t easy, and frankly we haven’t been too happy with the tools available. So we invite you to try Google Calendar — a tool that simplifies keeping track of events, special occasions, and appointments — whether they’re on your own agenda or on the calendars of contacts who opt to share their schedules with you.

When it comes to development I like people that know how to think out of the box and come with fast, not expensive, solutions.

Ehud, from this Israeli blog, got tired from all the talkbacks and comment all around. And just that you, the non Israeli readers, understand – Israelis cannot ignore an opportunity to let everybody to know what they think.

Ehud didn’t like the existing shelf software solutions to hide comments from his favorite newspapers and blogs. So, in the spirit of Web 2.0, he developed cross platform and open source solution:

Steve McConnell’s book “Rapid Development ” was, and still is, a must read book to anyone who manage software development.

Dealing with software development and with software project management this book is one of the best guides I ever had (together with PMBok ). Yesterday I discovered Steve’s web site with references to his books and articles. I recommend adding it to your favorite bookmark list.

In the “Rapid Development” section Steve McConnell provide very useful excerpts. Here for example the summary of classic mistakes done in software development, and other type of, projects. As one that made more than one of these mistakes, and was witnessed for other making a handful of them too I can attest to the usefulness of this list.

Fled is ranting about the huge branding campaign planned by at&t . It is amazing how after all the discussions and planning done in these corporations they never come with a conclusion that in order to sale more they need to improve the product, not its image.

In contrast I’m considering to test basecamp to improve projects collaboration. I’m doing so because I read and heard from people that this application really work. I do not think that 37signals invested as much in branding, in fact I’m sure they didn’t.

Link:  The Deathstar Rises

“Apparently, they’ve spent lots of high powered marketing energy (and money, I expect) replacing the “Reach out and touch someone” slogan with “Your world, delivered.”  Excellent.  If I’d been on the “branding committee”, I would have recommended “We Suck Less.” 

Eric Schmidt and Hal Varian wrote for Newsweek an article about how to get the most out of knowledge workers, Issue many companies struggle with.

I liked the most rule number eight:

“Don’t be evil. Much has been written about Google’s slogan, but we really try to live by it, particularly in the ranks of management. As in every organization, people are passionate about their views. But nobody throws chairs at Google, unlike management practices used at some other well-known technology companies. We foster to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect, not a company full of yes men.”

Do you know who do they refer to? (Via this Israeli Blog )