I just got done reading Steve Yegge's blog post entitled "Good Agile, Bad Agile" in which he describes the differences between good project management and bad project management.  He writes about how people talk about the newest buzz words and think that those buzz words are going to solve world hunger when the fact of the matter is that they really have no idea what they are talking about.  They think that just because people are talking about it that it must be good.  I have known managers like this.  They go to the conventions and hear buzz words like "mash ups" and "SOA" and think that everyone must implement software with these buzz words and the world will be right again.  You know, the type of world where Micheal Jackson didn't look like a freak and liked grown, adult women.  The type of world where people didn't define the internet as "that place that contains myspace".

In this case, Steve talks about the buzz word of Agile programming.  He descibes the difference between bad agile (the type with an uppercase A) and the good agile (the type of management that exists at Google).  It is really interesting read and very funny and entertaining as well.  Working at Google sounds like a blast and it just seems like they get it.  There are no hard pressed dates so that users expect something on a given date.  In Steve's words, "They really do understand that you can't rush good cooking, you can't rush babies out, and you can't rush software development.".  How my life (as well as the users of the software that I write for clients) would be so much better without dates.  How do they get the code out the door you ask then?  How is it that Google  releases new stuff like every day?  The answer is incentives and recognition.  Programmers are like Pavlov's dogs.  They need to get rewarded frequently and get acknowledgement for a job well done.  It sounds like at Google, they do a lot of that.  He discusses all the perks they get at Google which includes money, stock options, free meals, awards, and freedom.  This causes the programmers to have a lot of morale (plug) and causes them to stay late and program because it is a fun atmosphere.  I really encourage the read.  It is long but very well written.

The guys and gals over at devlicio.us (great name) recently blogged about what Microsoft got wrong Team Foundation Server.  They complain about some of the things that I recently complained about such as the installation process and the incomplete feature implementation.  You can read about it here.

The same people released a blog entry today that lists some of the features that Team Foundation Server got right.  I agree with some of the items that they list even though there are some caveats to them.  I also disagree with some of the other items.  Here is a list of those items and my problems with them.

1. Attempt to package many different products into one - This is really the heart and soul of TFS and it is really the main reason people spend thousands of dollars per user for the product.  The problem is that the features that are integrated are not really all that well implemented.  Using Sharepoint for document management is a pain because it is bloated and hard to use.  The source control tool is faster but lacks the discoverability of common source control features (I talk about that below).
2. Ease of use - Uh, no not really.  The features may be "easy to use" but they are not very "user friendly".  Sure, a user will be able to figure out how to enter a work item in TFS but count how long it takes them to do so.
3. Integrated into the IDE - This is a very good feature but again it is not really well implemented.  Too many dialouge boxes to hit.  Too much text to read.  Also, is it really worth thousands of dollars per user to get TFS when they could already use free tools.
4. New version of VSS - I am not sure why the call this new VSS but they talk about the TFS source control.  Both are true.  Microsoft did release a new version of VSS that has http support and even resizable dialouge boxes!  But the blog entry talks about the TFS source control.  True, it has been rewritten from the ground up and it is a lot faster with a SQL Server backend.  The problem is that it is not easy to discover how to do common things that other source control tools do.  Ever try to roll back to a previous label in TFS source control?  You have to jump through hoops.
5. Ability to extend TFS and add new features -  This is the coolest feature about TFS.  Microsoft did a really good job defining the extensibility points within TFS.  The problem is with the UI again.  You can extend work items but everything for the data entry in work items is either a text box or a drop down.  Yuck!  Also, you have to mess with an XML file to modify work items.  It's again easy to do but very friendly.

I believe Morale will solve a lot of these problems that TFS has and add more productivity to the software development lifecycle.  It's blog entries like these that give me more motivation and believe in the product more than ever.

I walked to lunch today in downtown Detroit and I found this spray painted on a random sidewalk. Is Don loosing his fame? Does he have to resort to this?

Ok, so let me get this straight.  I buy a Zune player.  I am really dumb so I try to transfer all of my songs that I purchased from iTunes (thousands of dollars worth) but I can't.  Thats ok.  I then try to transfer all of my songs that I purchased and my subscription songs from my 'Plays for Sure' service from Napster, Rhapsody, and Yahoo.  Strike two.  Thats ok, I guess I'll cancel my subscriptions.  So I then try to transfer all of my songs I ripped from CDs to my Zune.  That works!  Only problem is I have 40 gigs worth of those songs.  It will only fit 30 gigs.  Strike three.

I'm really forgiving though...so I give Zune another shot.  I go on my Media Center (made by Microsoft) and want to play my songs that I just bought for my new Zune from the Zune service.  What, I can't?  There is no ten foot interface.  Great, strike four (it's Canadian baseball).  Ok, one more try.  Let's purchase a movie or tv show from Zune to watch on my player because I'm about to leave my house.  Surely the Zune service must have video content.  iTunes has had that for like two years and this is the iPod killer I just bought.  Wrong again!

Ok, well I don't like my Zune device so I'll give it to my child.  I'm sure they can take it to school and share cool songs with their peers.  Thats what the whole hype is about right?  So my child goes to school.  And guess what they have WiFi so that is really cool.  They try to connect but wait, the school's WiFi has a WEP key.  They ask the computer teacher for the key and she says that it is against school policy to share that key.  My child can't share songs...that was supposed to be the coolest thing.  My child gives me back my Zune.

Looks like I am just going to have to put my Zune next to my MSN TV device in the closet.  It must be "ahead of it's time".....That was sarcasim Microsoft, please start innovating and not just copy things without adding any value to them.  Don't even get me started on this Soapbox thing.

I just booked my hotel for the Getting Real workshop on October 9th.  I will be staying at the Sofitel Chicago Water Tower.  If you are going to the workshop, email me at jwright [at] wrightin [dot] gs and let me know.  Maybe we can meet up and talk about some nerd stuff.

We have an initial design for the Morale web applicaion that we announced last week.  I say that this is an initial design because it may get some tweaks or it may get a total makeover.  We have to see.  We wanted to get an initial page up and running and this is the logo we came up with.

It is designed after our current Innovativ Studios logo and we wanted that on purpose.  Let us know what you think.  Does it suck?  Do you like it?  Don't hold anything back.  Look for a "more information" page soon.  It will be used for interested parties to sign up for more information.  Stay tuned.

I'm blogging from the OSU and Cincinnatti game. Right now its 20 - 7 bucks. Typepad mobile rocks!

No, I'm not talking about morale as in maintaining belief or influencing a sports team.  I'm talking about the new web based application that Innovativ Studios will be launching.

What is Morale?

Morale is a web based service that will be a suite of applications for software application developers, designers, testers, and managers.  This suite of applications is meant to be easy to use hosted tools to replace the bloated development and project management tools which are available on the market today.  Tools such as Microsoft's Team System and IBM's Rational are both feature-ridden and over-engineered tool sets that get in the way of those involved in a software development lifecycle rather than help them do their job, build great software.  The Morale suite of tools will have less features.  On purpose.  They will not have eight hour installs.  On purpose.  Your company will not have to hire a product manager just to deal with these tools.  On purpose.  Morale will have less mass.  On purpose.  Less is more.  More productivity, more results, more real work getting done, and more deadlines that are being met.

The First Offering

The first web based service that will be part of the Morale suite will be the concept of work items.  Work items will allow developers, designers, testers, managers, and other participants to keep track of bugs, tasks, requirements, and feature requests.  It will offer reports, be completely searchable, and contain notification services.  It can be used to instantly view the status of any project. 

Not only will users be allowed to enter these work items in a web environment, they will also be able to enter them directly into Visual Studio via a plug-in.  This will be different from current offerings because the interface will be intuitive and transparent to the user.  It will be easier to enter work items into the Morale system then it will be to enter them into a "TODO.txt" file.  Most developers end up doing this even after spending tens of thousands of dollars on a work item management system because it is too cumbersome to enter work items into the current offerings that are out there on the market today.  Too many dialogue boxes, too much switching between mouse and keyboard.  It will be easy in Morale because the software will be designed to stay out of your way and it won't contain any unnecessary features.  This is important because more users on your team will use it, and use it effectively, giving you a more accurate picture of your project,

In The Pipeline

Work items will only be a start with what is planned for Morale.  We have a bunch of more ideas planned for the suite of software.  Morale is planned to be a complete replacement for existing development tools and software project management tools that are available today.  We will share these plans for you when the time is right.

But When?

When can you expect to see the work item tracking released?  When it is complete.  We are not yet complete with the coding and we still have a lot more testing to do.  If I had to guess, it will probably be released by the end of the first quarter next year.  We will give out more details about the release schedule and pricing when the time is right.

The purpose of this post was to make developers, designers, testers, and users aware of what we are doing as well as to share our findings during our journey.  We will be asking those who are following questions along the way on how they would like to see things.  We will be telling our story on why we decided the things that we did.  We will be asking those interested to participate in a private beta.  I can't wait and I know you'll like what is coming.  Keep posted on this blog and at Innovativ Studios news.  We will let you know when more information is available and when something is available at http://teammorale.com.  Talk to you soon!