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A big part of my job is managing projects. Big projects with complex dependencies, multiple milestones, stakeholders wanting date commitments, etc. The last one in particular is always a challenge, and if a Project Manager tells you otherwise they are lying. It’s never possible to say – with any reasonable certainty – that a given project can be done on a specific date or will take a specific number of hours. Disagree?
The usual game that’s played is to put in some CYA padding. The PM’s internal conversation goes something like,
“Ok, I don’t really know the specifics of the project yet, but we can usually do them in 3 weeks. I’ll commit to 4 weeks ‘just in case.’”
Back to the question in the title…How long is your commute? 10 minutes? What if there’s traffic? 20 minutes. What if it’s snowing? 40 minutes. What if, what if, what if. All of these “what if’s” reflect the obvious reality that there is always uncertainty with things like this. Sure, we can’t plan for every “what if,” but in the project world with padded estimates, we try to give ourselves wiggle room.
What inevitably happens is the client says, “Whoa, can’t we do that faster?” It turns into a negotiation on timelines that were ambiguous, padded swags in the first place! The padding goes away in the negotiation, something happens, and a date is missed. How has this worked out traditionally in the software world?
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You know how the saying goes, “It’s like a [insert vehicle here] wreck. You can’t turn away.” Well, for me, reality TV can be this way. The trashier the better. And, I’m (mostly) not ashamed to admit that. Besides network reality TV like American Idol and Survivor, there’s the entertainment found on VH1. And one of the best there? Rock of Love with Bret Michaels.
Obviously I’m a big fan of hair band music, and Poison is the epitome of that genre. Since Brett Michaels is the front man there, I guess that makes him the quintessential hair metal icon (never mind he’s probably bald under that bandana). Now that it’s some 25 years past the hair band hey day, what’s a rocker to do? Go on TV and find “real love” with skanky girls half your age, of course.
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That’s the premise of Rock of Love. Lonely Brett needs to find a girl to be his true love because apparently he can’t do that without TV. And since this is the third season, I guess it didn’t work out the past two times. Poor guy. Ok, I know, he does it because losers like me will watch, he has an album to pimp (which is pretty good), and I’m sure he gets a gazillion dollars to do it. And the girls on the show? The trashiest of trashy. Every great once in a while there may be *one* who you wouldn’t be embarrassed to bring home to mom. But for the most part, these girls make Britney Spears seem as elegant as Jackie O.
That said, last night was the big finale, and of course we watched. It came down to a big choice between the “girl next door” and the Penthouse model. Brett chose the Penthouse model (Taya, on top)…For the record, I would have chosen the girl next door (Mindy, on the bottom).
I’m sure your life is further enriched knowing this bit of information.
April 13th, 2009 in
Just Stuff,
LOL,
Music,
TV |
1 Comment
I finally got around to seeing this movie. I was pretty excited when it first came out. Even though Oliver Stone is, well, Oliver Stone, as long as one keeps in perspective the liberal slant his movies take, they are enjoyable (to me anyway). I am not a fan of former President George W. Bush, and I’m not ashamed to say that. I think his presidency was absolutely miserable. But this isn’t about that. The movie…
I wasn’t expecting an action-packed thriller or anything, but it moved at too slow of a pace for me. But, that’s typical Oliver Stone, so I’ll give it a pass on that part. Overall I still wasn’t impressed by the film.
The biggest drawback was the caricature-like portrayal of some of the players. The portrayal of Condoleezza Rice was something I would expect to see on SNL – forced and distracting. Colin Powell, Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer fall into the same category. Rumsfeld was kind of humorous, but it went too far on the “clueless” angle…at least one hopes it was too far. It was almost as though the actors were doing impressions more than acting. I think that actually detracted from otherwise solid performances with the W., Cheney, Barbara Bush and Laura Bush portrayals.
It’s too bad because I really did have high hopes for the movie.
I’m not sure I want to know how this injury happened…How embarrassing.
March 11th, 2009 in
LOL,
Mariners,
WTF?! |
No Comments
Saw this on fark.com one time and it cracked me up. I’ll probably burn in hell for posting it and it may provide another reason to run me out of my church. But I did LOL…
Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree…yeah, makes perfect sense.
