Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Those who don’t program still seek the Holy Grail of business: the ability to flush programmers from their lives.

Google recently launched its App Maker. Its a tool kit that allows persons who don’t know how to program to write programs. Well, sort of. I guess Google’s product, similar to other similar products, moves non-programmers closer to programming without programmers.

That is the Holy Grail of business and those persons who love to work in business without really working:

If we, the cool kids,  can just get rid of those nerds once and for all.

Whoa! Wait a dog gone minute here. This is all about technology and bringing the promise of technology to the masses and spreading wonderfulness to all and stuff like that. Why am I bring back the crass concept of the cool kids and the nerds in the high school cafeteria?

Well, sometimes we hate to admit what is happening. In computing, the cool kids—those with the grand ideas—have always been forced to talk at the nerds—those who know something about “ones and zeros.” Without the nerds, the cool kids never saw their ideas come to fruition, i.e., money.

The trouble with the nerds is that they are nerdy. You know, well, I won’t go into details about …

The big trouble with some of the nerds is that they realized their nerdiness really bothered the cool kids. And, what is worse, some of the nerds realized that the cool kids NEEDED them. Aha, power! We can nerdly rub our nerdiness in the face of the cool kids and they can’t run us away from the cool table in the cafeteria like they did in high school.

Hence, the cool kids constantly pay some nerds to invent a technology that removed the need of the nerds. The programming tool for non-programmers is always on the horizon. It has been for at least 35 years (my professional lifetime). Older persons have told me that this Holy Grail was almost invented the day after 20th-century programming was invented.

The search continues. Until it ends, some nerds will continue to torment some cool kids with glee.

by Dwayne Phillips

What does this thing do? Exploring the question is the act of analyzing a black box. Reveal the results of black box analysis carefully.

I often encounter systems for which I have no knowledge of their inner workings. Airline reservations, online retail, job listings and applications, etc. I don’t know how they work. I don’t know their design and structure. Continued poking, however, from the outside reveals much. This poking from the outside is black box analysis.

I am not a professional analyst— just ask any hiring manager. Nevertheless, I have years of analysis experience, and so do most persons I know.

Black box analysis often provides an incorrect understanding of how a system works. For example, the vast majority of us have an incorrect understanding of how our kitchen refrigerator works. Still, we are able to use it. Hence, just as often, black box analysis provides a useful understanding of how a system works.

Black box analysis often bruises egos. It reveals how a system actually works. Some persons don’t want to know that. They believe their system works the way they intended it to work. They also believe that their employees use their system the way they are told. Reality often destroys these beliefs.

Hence, reveal the results of black box analysis at your peril. Always ask first, “Would you like me to tell you the results of black box analysis of your system.?”

by Dwayne Phillips

If your organization is to begin an endeavor that will take time and patience to bear fruit, employ the right type of person.

Some endeavors require years to come to fruition. A college degree is one example. It comes after four years, not four hours, of sustained effort.  Some companies sponsor college degrees and hire those graduates that they sponsored. Such a program requires time and patience.

If an organization is to seriously attempt one of these long-term endeavors, I strongly suggest employing an ISTJ person to lead it. ISTJ is one of the types in the Myers-Briggs types. This link goes to one article about the ISTJ type. There are many others available.

At its core, an ISTJ person will patiently work at a task and do it well. Exciting? No. Steadfast? Yes.

Employ the right person for the right job. Things seem to work better than way.

by Dwayne Phillips

Companies will often request a writing sample from potential writer hires. Without adequate notice, the companies have a license to steal.

I am writing a few posts about copyright. I am compelled to do so by recent interviews with employers who seem ignorant of copyright basics. There is much good information on copyright and intellectual property rights online. The Wikipedia article is one good place to begin learning.

I have interviewed with several companies for tech writer positions. One frequent request is for a writing sample. It is unfortunate, but some companies have stolen from me via these writing samples. I have no recourse, because I gave them the right to steal.

There are ways for a writer to protect themselves.

First: the money. My words are money. If I am to be a professional writer, I have to understand and tell that to others. It is not arrogance; it is fact.

When a potential employer asks for a writing sample, they are saying, “Please give us some of your words. (Please give us some of your money.)” A profitable company, with money in the bank, is asking an unemployed writer for money. Hmmm, doesn’t sound too good, but writers almost always comply.

Second: the protection. Attach the writing sample to an email. On the top of the writing sample and in the email include something like:

“I own the content of the attached writing sample. I grant permission to the single first recipient of this email to read my writing sample. I prohibit distribution in all forms of my writing sample to any other person. (The single first recipient cannot forward, print, show on the screen, etc. the writing sample. The single first recipient cannot discuss the writing sample with any other person.) If the prohibition is violated, your company must pay me $10,000 within seven days.”

“But being this tough will cost me a job!” That may be so. If you are desperate enough for a job to give money to a potential employer, do so. I have been this desperate at times and I know the awful feeling. Nevertheless, understand what you are doing, i.e., giving money to a hiring manager so that the hiring manager will consider your application. (Some people refer to such a gift as a bribe. Ooh, that is a dirty word.)

by Dwayne Phillips

Words written in the employ of a company belong to the company. Still, others will ask for them. Beware as you could be an accomplice to theft.

I am writing a few posts about copyright. I am compelled to do so by recent interviews with employers who seem ignorant of copyright basics. There is much good information on copyright and intellectual property rights online. The Wikipedia article is one good place to begin learning.

Sometimes writers don’t own their words. I have written many pieces while employed by a company. I wrote those on the job in the pay of the company. The company O W N S those pieces and those words. If I take a copy of those words home and give them to others, I am a T H I E F.

Excuse the over emphasis, but the content of the above paragraph seems to be unknown to many writers, other creators, and potential employers.

I have interviewed for jobs as a proposal writer. One frequent request is, “Can you provide us with copies of proposals you wrote in the past?”

This is a horrible request. Proposals written for companies are owned by those companies. Per above, if I take home the proposal (all or part), I am a thief, and the interviewer is requesting stolen property.

“Oh, but you can extract the parts of the proposal that you wrote and remove any proprietary information, and …”

No. I cannot. The above requests that I steal property, edit it, and hand it over.

Sorry. I hate to break the news to some persons, but that is the law regardless of what “everybody does all the time.”

by Dwayne Phillips

Facial recognition is easily fooled. So when will our law enforcement stop using it? The polygraph is one example from history of technology barred from court.

Facial recognition is one of the latest hot technologies in law enforcement. Facial recognition software scans huge databases to identify a person at the scene of a crime. Viola’ Got the suspect, bring ’em in and so on.

Recent research shows that a quarter, yes, 25 cents, can buy glasses that not only mask my face from the software, but also trick the software into identifying someone else instead. And I can pick the celebrity that I want to be at the scene of the crime. Oh well.

Let’s step back in history to another law-enforcement technology that was going to solve all crimes for all mankind, i.e., the polygraph. Connect witnesses to the lie detecting machine and all would be wonderful. Well, that is until persons demonstrated that they could lie all day and the polygraph wouldn’t detect anything.

So, given recent demonstrations of the folly of facial recognition, how long will it be before our courts toss it and our law enforcement stop wasting time and money?

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes, all that is needed is to explain the other people. This may be the most difficult task in the world.

Some people just don’t understand some other people. Why not? Because those are other people who are somewhere else. The two groups of people need someone who lives with one group for a while and lives with the other group for a while.

Then:

Explain to these people in this place what is obvious to the other people in the other place.

Oh, that is all that is needed. So, why doesn’t it happen? Some reasons:

• No one is paid to live among groups who “oppose” one another.
• Anyone who lives with the other group has been poisoned by their thoughts.
• I don’t have the time to do this.
• No one will listen to me anyway.
• Life is busy enough without wasting time on those other people and their silly notions.

We could go on. Understanding those people is one of those simple things that seem almost impossible to accomplish.

by Dwayne Phillips

Working software is more valuable than documentation—except when it isn’t. And we have Dwayne’s Declaration.

Part of the Agile Manifesto states:

We…value working software over comprehensive documentation

Some of us are old enough to have known this years before the manifesto was manifest. Of course we wanted working software, except when we didn’t.

So here I go, kill me, but

Documentation is more valuable than working software (in some cases).

Valuable documentation…

• is that which comes from thoughtful and rigorous analysis
• explains the situation for which software is assumed to be the solution
• shows when it is better to just do the right thing at work and not waste money on new software

Finally, valuable documentation

• shows us when we don’t need any more software

Please note the first bullet above. Documentation that is more valuable than working software comes about only after thoughtful and rigorous analysis. That type of work is common sense, but not common practice.

Let us Think before we Work.

Hmmm, perhaps that should have been in the Agile Manifesto. Let’s call it Dwayne’s Declaration. Of course it isn’t new. Many of us are old enough to have known this for years.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes I work in groups of persons; sometimes I work alone. Why don’t I have a workspace for each of these types of work?

This is a silly request; I realize that. This request, however, reflects reality and it would certainly improve productivity. I want two work spaces for myself.

One is a large room with big blank walks. The walls would be best if I could write on them and stick magnets to them. This group work space allows for planning. That includes planning tasks for a project or planning the content of a product. Big walls allow for groups of persons to see what others are thinking and contribute to those thoughts.

The second is a room that has one essential item: a door that closes. Sometimes I create content by myself. I am assigned this content in the group work in the first work space. Now, I must work alone and create. Solitude is good for that type of work.

Of course I will never have two work spaces. That is not efficient. That is not affordable. That is not practical. I could go on with the that-is-not list. What that is is that is productive. I guess productive isn’t high on the list of what most organizations desire.

by Dwayne Phillips

Government contractors use a new form of the Agile methods.

I have met an ever increasing government contractors who claim to use a method they call Agile Lite. This is quite simple. The government official who directs the contractor tells them:

(1) Tell everyone that you are doing Agile.

(2) Every day, do what ever I tell you to do that day. And I change my mind often.

Only in government. It would be funny if it weren’t taxpayers’ money being wasted.