[Theforum] (was) let's kill it

Marlene Bruce marlene at members.evolt.org
Wed Apr 17 20:02:43 CDT 2002


Martin,

>Someone (Ron?) asked me a few months ago how we'd be able to come up
>with creative ideas if we had more process in place. I've thought
>about that a lot since then, and have realised:
>1) There's a difference between necessary process and process for
>its own sake - take the Zope Fishbowl process
>(http://dev.zope.org/Fishbowl/). It *enables* progress rather than
>holds it back

ABSOLUTELY. To wit (from the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute):

"In most professions, competent work requires the disciplined use of
established practices. It is not a matter of creativity versus
discipline, but of bringing discipline to the work so that creativity
can happen. The use of plans and procedures brings order and
efficiency to any job and allows workers to concentrate on producing
a superior product. A disciplined effort removes waste, error, and
inefficiency, freeing financial resources for better uses."*

Praise Jesus and pass the salt! (and I'm not even religious)

Boy oh boy, if our 3+ year method of running evolt doesn't completely
demonstrate that last sentence. Our undisciplined effort has created
waste, error and inefficiency, and hampered our ability to *have*
financial resources!

>We're not short of ideas, and to say that the people here would be
>cowed by a process *we* put in place is insulting and laughable.
>What we *are* very, very, very bad at is putting ideas into
>operation, and even worse at doing so on the basis of "what evolt
>decides" rather than "what *I* thought up".

Very very true. And that extends to this arena, of how to put process
in place. How do we make it happen? How do we convince enough of our
peers here on theforum that process is:

1. Necessary and beneficial
2. Worth the effort

And then, how do we go about researching, EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATING,
organizing, and establishing a process? Perhaps we should start with
that project right there?

Cheers,
Marlene

*http://www.sei.cmu.edu/tsp/psp.html



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