The origin of the word “Andon” in Japanese comes from the use of traditional lighting equipment using a fire burning lamp made out of paper and bamboo. This “Andon” idea was later translated for use in manufacturing in Japan. The “Andon” became used as a signal to highlight an anomaly (i.e., a flashing light). This signal would be used to amplify potential defects in quality. When a defect was suspected, a sign board would light up signaling the specific workstation having a problem. The … [Read more...]
What’s Your Sigma?
Are you a one in a million? This is a tongue in cheek post that might shed a little bit of light on statistics. The other day I was having an interesting conversation with a successful entrepreneur friend of mine and we were discussing how hard it is to get a startup exit let alone more than one. I have had three in 35 years. One within my first 10 years, and then another one not until 23 years later. This friend of mine has had a few exits as well and at one point he joked and said “I … [Read more...]
Karōjisatsu – In Plain English Burnout is Killing Us (Video)
This is a recent video I did at the NYC Devopsdays (2015) event based on this post "Karōjisatsu". Here is a link to the slide deck. http://www.slideshare.net/botchagalupe/burnout-1-47645378 … [Read more...]
Karōjisatsu — Death from Overwork
About 7 years ago, I moved back to Atlanta. The cloud thing was just getting started and I decided to start a local cloud meetup group. One of the earlier attendees was a gentleman named Walter. Walter was one of the more passionate participants in the early days of the meetup. It turns out that Walter was a hardworking independent consultant that had worked in the Atlanta area for some time. He was trying to build a consulting company with an interesting idea where he would recruit … [Read more...]
DevOps Reading List
As I travel the globe spreading the word of DevOps I find my self having to repeatedly go back and make up reading lists for people. Here are some of those lists.. My Posts over the past few years... What Devops Means to Me (2010) DevOps Driven Demand (2011) The Five Why’s of Cloud (2011) The Convergence of DevOps (2012) DevOps Culture (Part 1) (2012) DevOps Culture (Part 2) (2012) Deming to DevOps (Part 1) (2012) Book Reading List The New Economics for Industry, Government, … [Read more...]
Neo Taylorism or DevOps Anti Patterns
In 1911 Frederick Winslow Taylor wrote “The Principles of Scientific Management.” Taylor’s ideas formed the basis for the 20th century command and control management archetype. His principles and scientific methods for worker efficiency and standardization set the foundation for American steel and automobile manufacturers tremendous prosperity in the early 20th century. Henry Ford adopted many of Taylor’s ideas, picking up where Taylor left off, so much so that many consider his assembly line … [Read more...]
Putting The Science Back In Computer Science, From Deming And Goldratt To DevOps (Video)
Deming to DevOps (Part 1)
Edward Deming is often referred to as the father of quality and his ideas laid much of the groundwork are for what is today called Six Sigma. If the story ended there it would be terrifically interesting, but actually not as interesting as the complete story. I would argue that Dr Deming’s greatest contribution to the 20th century was his insight into the hearts and minds of humans. By creating a unique fusion of science and human engineering he left a profound impact on modern “management”. … [Read more...]
Can Agile, Lean and/or TOC Solve The Inherent Complexities of Global Engineering?
This is a guest post by Curtis Hill (LinkedIn Profile) During the last 20 years or so the practice of pairing US and European based software engineering teams with teams from all over the globe has exploded. I have worked with teams all over the world for the last 15 years and I have found it to be a wonderful experience overall from both professional and personal perspectives. That having been said when a business executive asks me what working with global teams means from a software … [Read more...]
Japanese Terms For DevOps Practitioners
Gemba The Japanese meaning is "the real place". In business it typically means “where value is created” and in lean manufacturing it means “the factory or shop floor”. In Lean Six Sigma (LSS) it is common to hear the phrase “Going to Gemba” (meaning the real place where the work is being done). This is also sometimes referred to as process mapping. The reason this is an important word in terms of DevOps is that DevOps inherits a lot of ideas from LSS and the “Theory of Constraints” … [Read more...]
