Mythical Man Month - Excerpt

..... think better and better manage yourself, and be more productive and less wasteful with your time and energy. In short, you will do more with less.
The Mythical Man-Month:Assigning more programmers to a project running behind schedule, may make it even more late.
The Second-System Effect:The second system an engineer designs is the most bloated system she will EVER design.
Conceptual Integrity:To retain conceptual integrity and thereby user-friendliness, a system must have a single architect (or a small system architecture team), completely separate from the implementation team.
The Manual:The chief architect should produce detailed written specifications for the system in the form of the manual, which leaves no ambiguities about any part of the system and completely specifies the external spcifications of the system i.e. what the user sees.
Pilot Plant:When designing a new kind of system, a team should factor in the fact that they will have to throw away the first system that is built since this first system will teach them how to build the system. The system will then be completely redesigned using the newly acquired insights during building of the first system. This second system will be smarter and should be the one delivered to the customer.
Formal Documents:Every project manager must create a roadmap in the form of formal documents which specifies milestones precisely and things like who is going to do what and when and at what cost.
Communication:In order to avoid disaster, all the teams working on a project, such as the architecture and implementation teams, should stay in contact with each other in as many ways as possible and not guess or assume anything about the other. Ask whenever there's a doubt. NEVER assume anything.
Code Freeze and System Versioning:No customer ever fully knows what she wants from the system she wants you to build. As the system begins to come to life, and the customer interacts with it, he understands more and more what he really wants from the system and consequently asks for changes. These changes should of course be accomodated but only upto a certain date, after which the code is frozen. All requests for more changes will have to wait until the NEXT version of the system. If you keep making changes to the system endlessly, it may NEVER get finished.
Specialized Tools:Every team should have a designated tool maker who makes tools for the entire team, instead of all individuals developing and using their private tools that no one else understands.
No silver bullet:There is no single strategy, technique or trick that will exponentially raise the productivity of programmers.

IT - Save your Job

"....constantly improve yourself, constantly seek to improve others, and be knowledgeable of your business and customers. ....common sense ... Don't base your career on one technology.... Surrounding yourself with really good people is a lot better way to learn than being the best....Love it or leave it. The people I like to work with the most are the people with passion for what they do. They are the ones that are constantly seeking to do things the right way. They are the ones who are innovating..."

10s - Back In The Saddle

Had a good practice session Sunday wth Satish. It was my first outing since 2/11. We hit the machine a few rounds to warm up. Satish won the set 6-2. I was happy with my performance regardless of the score. There were many decent points played. Satish is playing well, especially with his serve and I still make more unforced errors when it comes down to it. I'd like to play 2 more times in March. I have nagging shoulder and elbow pain to resolve but nothing too serious. Will be working on my service game in March also. Needs a lot of consistency there.

End of the Ladder - 2/11/08

I complete my abbreviated tennis ladder with a combined (against regular, sub and 7pm match-ups) 147 - 168 record 46.7% win pct. I figured I ranked 4th or 5th out of the 8-9 regular players. Last night I avenged 2 previous losses with 4-3 wins. I was playing fairly well heading into the final match of the night against my main "rival" at 8:30 - Ramon. The winner gets to move up to the coveted 7pm ladder with my buddy Satish. After losing the first game from being up 40-15 it was all downhill. My patience was shot. My serve was robotic and stiff. He took advantage of everything I gave him. I left shots short and lofty for him to push me every where he wanted. Down the lines...in and out. I was left with a demoralizing 0-7 finish. The next day, I withdrew from the league. Anyway...it was good to face the competition over the winter and I look to refine some skills for summer play. I want to improve my serve big time. My ball machine should help me get more consistency with a lower, aggressive shot and add topspin...plus get a workout. Not sure of the summer line-up. Hopeful that Satish will continue to keep me on his tour.

On a similar note - I picked up John McEnroe's book for this summer's vacation read.

NY Giant Football: Big Blue are Super Bowl Champs!

Awesome game! Had the heart pounding. My daughter and I were jumping all over the place which made it a fun moment. food tally: 4 beers, pulled pork, sausage, salad, chips, brownie and cookies.

Ranked 3rd in Tennis League (out of 10). I was 10-11 last week against good competition. Not good enough to move up but may challenge a few more weeks to see if I can break through. Congrats. to my playing partner Satish as he beat me 3-4 and moved on to the early session with a decent 14 point night. I got my tennis ball machine from eBay last week and used it this weekend as weather cooperated. Nice machine and probably a good investment. Good workouts. It helped my stroke on Monday Night.

My girls JV basketball team is winding down the season. We started out slow, peaked a bit with a 3 game winning streak and have tailed off. My first full year as basketball coach. It was rewarding and glad to help out.

Work is getting tough again with this new project. Looking forward to spring and more tennis.