DocAndersen
One of the things I spent a lot of time on is the overall concept of what could we do faster or better. When you do something, make a mistake and then have to fix the error, it takes longer than only doing something right the first time. But time is essential in the sense that you need to get things done in a fashion that fits the time allotted. Balancing that can be very difficult. Do it right, do it fast and correctly. Sometimes the two do not work together. They are components of what is called the resource triangle. You can do things quickly, you can do things cheaply, or you can do things right the three work together, but you can only pick one to be controlled.
If you do things fast, then you have to give up either the cost or quality. If you do things right, you have to give up control of cost or speed. If you do things cheaply, you have to give up quality and speed control. That resource triangle guides how IT organizations or web sites choose what to fix, how to fix it, and what to do after it is fixed. One of the systems I always use when helping people consider what they want from a project is John Boyd’s OODA Loops. OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and then Act. The loops are constant feedback loops that keep the project on track. The reason for this today is a question I got from a reader yesterday.
The question was simply, “my company was looking to improve an application and asked me to figure out what we needed to do.” My first question was, why? Is the application too slow? He responded with, “The application is too slow and doesn’t have all the features we are looking for.” I pointed out that adding features and speeding up applications isn’t always the easiest way to go forward. Speeding up forms can be done while adding features, but features often make the application slower. I told my friend the best thing to do was to go back and ask his company were they looking for functionality or speed. For now, you can’t do both. You can add functionality after you speed things up, or speed things up after you add functionality.
Sometimes you have to ask hard questions!
This work is Copyright DocAndersen. Any resemblance to people real or fictional in this piece is accidental (unless explicitly mentioned by name.)
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Question of
are you comfortable asking hard questions?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
have you heard of John Boyd?
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Yes
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No
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while I had an anecdotal idea of the concept, you fully explained the OODA loop principle to me before is the cycle: observe–orient–decide–act, developed by military strategist and the United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. Boyd applied the concept to the combat operations process, often at the operational level during military campaigns. Thank you for your enthralling story, explaining the principles, Doc.
you are most welcome – thanks for reading!
Q: ARE YOU COMFORTABLE ASKING HARD QUESTIONS?
Yes (2 votes) – 33%
No (4 votes) – 67%
Q: HAVE YOU HEARD OF JOHN BOYD?
Yes (3 votes) – 50%
No (3 votes) – 50%
I don’t know the person you’re talking about …
I’ve mixed feelings about hard questions … in most cases, I don’t enjoy social interactions, esp face to face.
John Boyd was a US Air Force Colonel that designed a system for making decisions!
hard questions are harder when you don’t like social interaction!
A lot more things are harder if you’re an introvert with some level of social phobia…
i fully understand that, it is a very difficult thing to overcome
Filling in forms is guaranteed to drive people mad, if you have to fill in forms, I think they should be printed and done by hand. See a person and check to see if you have all the added papers for the form, and then an expert can tell you if it is right.
I had this problem with NZ Govt departments, they kept losing forms and papers and its best to see an expert at the desk to make sure everything is done once, not 3 or 4 months.
that is why electronic forms (saved on your computer) are easier you just resend the same file over and over!
Yes, and the organisation NZ Govt makes forms just about like mission impossible to fill…You have to view the mess to know…
Even those behind the desk have a problem with the forms.
that is always the problem. there is a part of the computer world called UX (user experience). one of the things UX people try to do is avoid building forms that can’t easily be filled out!
One of the hardest questions for me comes every month Where did all the money go? Between my rent and my groceries when that SS hits my account it seems the money just flies away and once again I am pounding on the keyboard to bring in more money through my writing,
i have the same problem. Payday comes, and all the bills gather around the account like moths. I am covering some of my sons-in-law and daughters bills right now (he lost his job due to the pandemic) and my money got stretched thin!
The reason I know about John Boyd is because my husband was reading first and had a lot to say about John Boyd. I am still unsure if it is the same John Boyd and still we had a lovely conversation.
ask him if the John Boyd he is speaking of was called the 60=second man?
I am a huge devotee of John Boyd!
I have no issues asking or answering hard questions.
I prefer giving and getting the right answers if at times they only make sense to me.
NB. Totally unrelated to this post. Where can I find a program or site where i can design and save my own business letterhead for FREE. (yeah i know)
I am sure there is one. I would be happy to ask someone who might know.
there are many – i like the adobe site, they don’t charge you unless you get really fancy!
Hard questions are always difficult.
letterhead – I’ve used this site in the past
https://spark.adobe.com/make/letterhead-maker/
Very interesting information and worth considering. I find it very difficult to ask a difficult question.
i suspect most of us are taught not to ask those questions more than we are taught to ask them!
Hard questions are necessary. I know a John Boyd, the actor.
well there is an actor John Boyd you are correct (i had to look him up)/ Col. John Boyd USAF was the one I was thinking of!
I pretty much knew that and had to look him up. Very interesting man for sure.
he is a pretty impressive human being!
I am feeling like most discussions are hard right now and I am getting pretty comfortable with that.
the conversations you are having are always hard. Being able to keep rolling with all that is going on speaks to your strength!