[PLUG-TALK] Whole system visioning software

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Thu Jul 15 16:37:38 UTC 2010


Ever hear some management or marketing specialist say
"I'm a big picture guy" then make plans that ignore the
real details that contradict their "big picture"?

Ever deal with a functional domain specialist who focuses
on one tiny aspect of a problem, optimizing the heck out
of that aspect while ignoring the effect on the whole?

Human brains are too small to encompass an entire complex
project, much less how that project interacts with the 
whole world.  We get too focused on our own importance,
not on the signals we could be giving each other that
could form a mesh of accurate information.  That
hypothetical mesh could perform the role of "big picture".

I wonder if there is software that could act as the
communication mesh on a project, that could help build
an accurate big picture while mitigating the ego effects.
Tools such as meetings, memos, wikis, spread sheets,
Gantt charts, and simulations address parts of the
problem, but rely on human wisdom to identify and weight
the linkages, and maintain the flow of information.  
There are too many opportunities for ignorance or
prejudice to derail a project, or design a non-functional,
non-marketable, or even dangerous end product.

Software projects would be a natural first application
of such software, because the product could be mostly
encapsulated within the software - no pesky atoms to
worry about.  The real world interactions ("will people buy
this?" "will it work with hypothetical future product X?"
"is it evil?" are still risks, but they might be quantifiable
to the extent that the software could adjust the plans,
calculate the resource and schedule needs, and the
information flows necessary to mitigate problems as they
appear, without going into short term focus fire drill mode.

An example of a mesh-building tool might be a "Friday at
3pm random dyadic meeting generator".  A project with 30
people on it would have 15 two-person meetings, 20 minutes
each, partners assigned randomly.  Each individual is tasked
with getting enough information from the other person to 
spend the next 40 minutes writing a half page memo for the
project wiki describing what the other person is doing
(moderated by management).  It might be a better use of
an hour than an all-hands meeting.  Would it work?  Who knows? 
Perhaps worth trying and tweaking.

Any other ideas for tools here?  Are there research groups
already out there working on this?

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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