RE: is SIP an Emergent Property

Hi Kent,

>There are three causes of long development cycles:
>   * Essential -- you just have a lot to do.
>   * Accidental waste -- these are activities that add value, but the 
> value could have been added some other way using less time. The testing 
> phase after development is "finished" is an example. If you could develop 
> without creating all those defects, you could shorten the cycle by 
> eliminating the testing phase.
>   * Pure waste -- these are activities that don't add value at all, like 
> waiting for the testing machine.

Okay.

>Lean development has discovered that in-process inventory is an excellent 
>canary in the coal mine to discover the presence of waste. Crank inventory 
>down until it hurts. Back off. Figure out why it hurt. Eliminate the 
>waste. Crank inventory down further.

Lean development may have discovered it, but I would be insulting people I 
worked with in the 1950s if I did not point out to you that they knew this 
as well as anyone, long before computerization. What is different today is 
computing's ability to implement a tighter order. That this would be 
possible was well known to workers in my youthful experience in industry. 
Were it not they would not have invested in computers in the first place.

In small business maximizing inventory has always been an art form.

>If someone tried to rush development, it would hurt too much and they 
>would back off. That's not what we are talking about. Ohno says, "Every 
>worker must be a turtle." That is, if anyone is rushing, they are doing 
>the wrong thing. They should slow down, figure out why they were rushing, 
>solve that problem, and then they will be able to produce as much as 
>before or more, but without rushing.

Yes, and we are looking for a means of measurement that tells us that we 
are accomplishing our goal.

This brings to my mind Lucy and The Chocolate Factory. Lucy and Ethel did 
not control the speed of the conveyor belt. That was decided by the 
intelligentsia. It would not easily occur to the controllers, then, or now, 
that Lucy and Ethel might optimize production by having their personal 
control knob.

In small business, where XP is headed, the craft worker, by tradition, does 
have their own individual control knob. And so when one works in a group of 
skilled craft persons everyone naturally knows how to optimize Orno's 
wisdom. What makes software fascinating to a craft worker such as myself, 
is that the snake is preparing to eat its own tail, once again, as the 
intelligentsia creating the controls offered in the software, is the XP 
contributor as Lucy and Ethel seeking to optimize their craft.

Dan