It’s tempting to quote Ton and explain away my break from blogging as a period of attending to “the mundane task of broadening the base of [my] knowledge pyramid“. Perhaps true on one level or another but also a period of being very busy with work and generally enjoying the outdoors rather than being in front of the computer…
In terms of reading, as usual I have had several books on the go at once, but the one that seems to have kept its presence in my work bag for those snatches of reading-catchup on the Tube has been Guns, Germs and Steel
With my “work hat” on I’ve been filling up my research time reading around topics such as Agile Modelling and QFD for Software Development
Cultural highlight of the last month has to be my first visit, last Saturday, to Shakespeare’s Globe, to see “Dido, Queen of Carthage”. If you are not familiar with this reconstruction of what the original Globe theatre is believed to have looked like, one of the most striking features is “the Yard” – basically if you are prepared to stand for the whole production you get the best view in the house and the cheapest tickets. As a “Groundling” you get a great sense of engagement with the actors, you can almost touch them if you go right to the front… And it’s from that vantage that you begin to get a real sense of the dynamic interaction between the players (this isn’t a recording it’s live!) and the audience. Addictive (and affordable) stuff, now checking out when to see the other four plays in this season!
August 21st, 2003 at 19:57
I am interested to see how you can apply QFD to software development, because I have seen the process used with already manufactured goods ? The only problem was that it wasn’t innovative, because you can’t interpret what the customer wants when the customer hasn’t seen it. That is, it’s good as a development model ‘What they want – how to meet it’ but not for innovation. The thing about the Japanese perhaps is that their belief in the customer is longer term, that is for the whole product lifecyle. Perhaps that’s going to happen here, with environmental responsiblities for disposal or whatever, or perhaps that’s not relevant.