Stephan Schwab - collaboration tag

Multitasking considered harmful

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:22:28 GMT

Over the weekend I came across an article published in German online news magazine Spiegel Online. The article (English) explains that humans can't do multitasking and when they do, mistakes creep in - some of them might be deadly.

Further the article mentions a study performed by Basex called The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity.

I like that the topic is getting broader attention. It's something I've always suspected, albeit a lot of people around me try to convince me that working on several things at once actually works. Software developers need to be left alone and are not to be interrupted. It's not "being customer focused" when a developer switches away from coding to answer some questions. The developer's job is to create a working solution and needs to concentrate. He needs to stay focused, be disciplined and analyze the problem to be solved well. It doesn't make sense to try everything at the same time.

One of the most valuable tools besides a good IDE is an issue tracker. If you don't use at least something like Bugzilla you are bound to end up in chaos, overworked and will soon feel burned-out. A more sophisticated solution than Bugzilla are tools that help you and your team to manage the whole project by integrating everyone whether it be stake holders, developers, managers or testers. That's why we develop Savila.

Venture Capitalists demand outsourcing

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:35:15 GMT

Wired Magazine in The Micro-Multinational:
Venture capitalists now routinely demand that the companies they finance outsource what labor they can. Yogen Dalal, a partner at Mayfield, says more than half the companies he funds have offshore workers. The Valley even has a name for these startups: micro-multinationals.

That's some very interesting idea. Further down in the article it says:

The president and chief executive of Solidcore, Rosen Sharma, is an unapologetic fan of outsourcing. "We were a micro-multinational from day one. It didn't mean I hired fewer people in the US," he says. "It meant that I could hire more people in sales and marketing, because I didn't have to concentrate on building R&D in America."

So, if you are a startup company working on some consumer oriented project or other project where you would like to do more in marketing and sales, you might want to consider outsourcing to a place nearby and within your timezone. My company Caimito Technologies operates out of an office in Panama (2.5 hours south of Miami; next to the famous Panama Canal) and we might be able help to you with your development efforts.

Real-Time Collaboration: ConceptShare and Thinkature

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 04:43:11 GMT

Techcrunch and Ajaxian report about two visual collaboration solutions: ConceptShare and Thinkature.

Technically such applications are quite interesting and the ability to collaborate online is compelling. But has anybody a solution for a very human problem? How do you get people to collaborate, to share ideas and contribute something meaningful?

It seems that a certain mindset is required to collaborate via such tools. Or maybe it's that these tools surface something else. Have you ever been in a lengthy meeting where everybody is talking and talking, but the conversation doesn't move forward and there is no point to anything. Somehow people don't seem to mind that the meeting is just a complete waste of time. In some cases meetings are platforms for persons who love to hear their own voice and impress others verbally, but - and herein lies the problem - without much substance.

Now with collaboration tools you can see who really adds value to a team or company. A word is spoken quickly and there is no record afterwards. But when it's required to think and really reflect onto what other people have collaborated earlier, then you can see who is just smoke and mirror and who has something of value to offer. Probably those who think profoundly will prevail. That would be good.

So what makes people use these tools effectively? What makes them reluctant?