Agile at scale – bullshit by design
29 Wednesday May 2019
Posted in 4th generation Data Warehousing
Monthly Archives: May 2019
Agile at Scale is bullshit by design
28 Tuesday May 2019
Martyn Ricard Jones
Bruxelles 28th May 2019
To begin at the beginning
To paraphrase the great Bob Hoffman. Just when you thought that if evangelists for Agile were to generate one more ounce of bullshit the entire fucking solar system would explode, what do they do? Exceed expectations.
And how did they do that? Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Agile at Scale with all the miscellaneous, spiced-up and vainglorious crap-on-the-side that accompanies it.
My post-EU election advice to the UK Labour Party leadership
27 Monday May 2019
Posted in anthropology, Brexit, Economics, Europe, European Union, leadership, Philosophy, Politics, UK
Martyn Richard Jones
Bruxelles 27th May 2019
My post-EU election advice to the UK Labour Party leadership
As I commented to Keir Starmer today “Labour are making a fundamental mistake and it ain’t working, Keir”.
Labour’s approach to Brexit is completely the wrong strategy and it’s doing nobody (apart from Nigel Farage) any favours. No Brexit will benefit the immense majority of the country, we know that, and we know that the EU is not going to cut a better deal for anyone, regardless of their political flavour, because that’s just the way it is.
Like it or loath it, but, Theresa May probably struck the best Brexit deal that the UK can aspire to, and it was roundly rejected, for various reasons, by Westminster. No, the best Brexit deal is no Brexit at all.
In Brussels for the EU election evening— here with the fabulous Madeleine Kay… #EUsupergirl
27 Monday May 2019
Posted in 4th generation Data Warehousing
UK PM May resigns amidst “departure means departure” fracas
25 Saturday May 2019
Posted in 4th generation Data Warehousing
Brussels 25th May 2019
If the resignation of Theresa May has taught us something it is that we can’t be taught anything. Yes, May has resigned as leader of the Tories, but is she capable of delivering her actual departure from Downing Street on time in the way she seems to be saying she will? And, do the Tory MPs and their supporters actually know what departure from Downing Street really looks like? Does departure mean departure? Should it be a hard or soft departure? A crash out departure or a negotiated departure? Or, should we all have another vote on it? Or perhaps that would be undemocratic and against the “will of the people”?
Learning journey – Agile@Scale – The video
22 Wednesday May 2019
Posted in 4th generation Data Warehousing, agile, agile@scale
Personal Integrity Key: Ensuring personal legitimacy in the social-media age
21 Tuesday May 2019
Martyn Richard Jones
Bruxelles 21st May 2019
Listen up!
What the world needs now is the concept of a Personal Integrity Key. It really would stop a lot of hassle.
But, I hear you ask “So, what’s a Personal Integrity Key, then, Mart?
I’ll come to that in a moment, but first some scene setting.
Consider this: Zionism, Nationalism and Suffragettes
20 Monday May 2019
Posted in Economics, Good Strategy, Philosophy, Politics, Strategy
Consider this: Huawei, Google and the USA
20 Monday May 2019
Martyn Richard Jones
Bruxelles 20th May 2019
Listen up!
I have just read Simon Jenkin’s article, published in The Guardian, on the current barney between the USA and China – “Google’s Huawei ban is good news: tech giants shouldn’t always get their way“.
This is one of those rare occasions when I don’t agree entirely with what Simon has to say, but, the piece still carries a lot of good sense and finely tuned criticism.
For me, this quarrel isn’t fundamentally about security or reining in big-tech. This is essentially about trade wars, base protection, maintaining power and imposing influence. In short, it’s about hubris, intimidation and violence on the global political stage.
But, at the bottom of all of this is the Trump administration’s Homeric ignorance and epic ability to simply fanny-around.
Consider this: Clueless in IT: Can‘t listen. Aren‘t learning. Won‘t win.
19 Sunday May 2019
Posted in 4th generation Data Warehousing, IT Circus, IT fraud, IT strategy, IT World, listening, Philosophy, Polemic, Politics
Aranjuez, Spain
Martyn Richard Jones
Bruxelles 19th May 2019
Listen well
I am a big fan of listening well and in continually improving listening skills. Yes, there are times when we can over-listen but this is also linked with skills of diplomacy and politics. How we listen should inform us a lot about what we and others really are.
So, whilst I am a big advocate of listening well I see that the world of business, and especially the sub-world of IT, is plagued with vain, impulsive and badly informed vote-takers who stubbornly resist the need to listen well and who will attempt to deftly fill the whole of the available time bashing their gums in communicating what are to all intents and purposes vacuous inanities and long litanies of meaningless clichés, full of terms that they either abuse or misunderstand; or even a bit of both.
And, as anyone who has worked with IT will know, I am not making this up. We used to call this charlatanry now we simply call it consulting. It still isn’t turning a pig’s ear into a silk purse, no matter how much people insist. But, there it is, in all its magnificent mediocrity.
Some people tell me it’s because IT attracts people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome; whatever that is.
I tend to put this refusal to listen down to other things; my money is firmly on arrogance and ignorance.
But, they just don’t get it, do they? Continue reading
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