I recently gave a Pecha-Kucha Presentation on PDCA (Scientific Method adapted to LEAN).
I liked the way this presentation style really forces you to be precise and deliver the real message, it took ages to produce for such a small presentation time, this I guess is the point, i.e. deliver maximum value in the shortest time period.
The content blends my recent ramblings based on the “trousers of reality” book as well as a few other insights.
I have updated my original deep structure thoughts to incorporate the scientific method (or the similar concept of Plan, Do, Check, Act). The diagram aims to show why LEAN in particular thrives across the enterprise, rather than within just teams – It works with the whole and ensures process is part of the routine reflection and change cycle.
By adding the scientific method I’m trying to demonstrate that simply inspecting and adapting isn’t enough, you need to know where you intend to go and have the ability to assess the true impact of any proposed changes.
Given informal and positive comments about my automatic “mind map” experiments I have decided to write a Java applet demonstrator.
Having no experience of Java Applet writing (or Java for that matter) I have decided to not learn another very similar language and go a lazier route, namely via processing. Ok, it is basically Java, but it removes the irritation of needing to read up all about swing etc. just to draw a line and have a simple update loop.
Tonight I played with traer physics and animation libraries and reckon with some minor tweaks and a bit of networking magic I can get the random arboretum demo to fit my needs.
How the world waits in anticipation…
I’m going to push for the company to purchase some wireless photo-frames. These would make really cool information radiators for the office.
Place them in social areas e.g. the kitchen and beam useful and interesting stuff to them! I like the “API” i.e. just images. Can imagine all sorts of fun data and feeds – Burndown’s, build stats, mash-ups of company stock performance and random interesting data and pictures.
Change the recycle bin so that when its emptied the content is distributed randomly to other people’s recycle bins. Would need an opt in scheme and some filters – Total mayhem, content keeps increasing.
OK – It opens a channel for more spam, bad-ware and major content leaks, but ignoring reality…
What if we made a messaging system for code based on something like Twitter (might even be possible to use it?).
Instead of humans entering text, services would broadcast information (say XML encoding simple types only) along with a “theme” tag. Other services would decide to listen to broadcast events based on theme and data and even go on to produce their on data feeds – ad infinitum. Essentially automated mash-up’s of all sorts of data.
This would be akin to listening to RSS feeds and generating endless new ones based on who was listening, this would repeat to whatever depth the system could handle.
The system would be very dynamic and if services dwindled in attention flocking of mashed up data would also occur.
Possibly Twitter could be subverted to handle this – through sending XML
Why should I pay for plastic bags? The supermarkets package to the hilt, why can’t I bring along containers for the food I wish to purchase?
No, I have to take all the packaged content from them and then if I forget to bring a bag pay for one – Which quite frankly has a minimal impact environmentally compared to all the packaging its containing. More pressure should be put on the sources of waste rather than the consumer?
Take a search term “seed”. Pass it to a search engine: Google, Yahoo etc. Examine the content of the top “n” results for “themes”, take each theme and repeat the search – Hey presto you get a “mind map” from the web.
As I commented, this is sucking up some of my time at the minute. My simple first attempt, searching on the word “moon” gave the following. Ok, its not brilliant but more than I expected, this could become a real time suck…
Still playing! I have reduced the depth of the tree and tuned (slightly) the way words are chosen. The tool produces different and interesting results on each run. I really must stop playing with this!!! It’s cool though, enter some words and get a new perspective on them.
Here is a mini mind map for “extreme programming”:
Recently I had to provide some references for a friend. Part of this process involved me clicking on a link and typing/reflecting my opinions. Now, this got me wondering, what if this wasn’t a genuine site?
So, if you want to find out what your friends really think of you then set-up a spoof “reference” site and send them the link with the pretence you are changing job, applying for a course etc. Hey presto they will reveal their true feelings.
Ok, nasty, but possibly a business for people who think this way. Maybe they already do and I have been scammed!
Boys seem to look to their mothers and girls their fathers, is this evolution trying to program them to pick a future partner with traits similar to their parent (of the opposite sex?) – Because if their parents show some success in mating then their traits might be a good choice for the children to follow when they look for a mate?
