some management and software catechisms

1. Robert Heller - The 10 rules of management

• Think before you act - the money isn't yours.  
• No manager ever devotes effort to proving himself wrong.
• All good management is merely an expression of one great idea.
• Cash in must exceed cash out.
• However high the level, management capability is always less than the organisation needs.
• Either a manager is competent to run the business, or he is not.
• If you need sophisticated calculations to justify an action, it is probably wrong.
• If you are doing something wrong, you will do it badly.
• If you are attempting the impossible, you are bound to fail.
• The easiest way of making money is to stop losing it.

2. Robert Heller - The decision makers

• 1. What decisions am I, consciously or unconsciously, not taking that I ought to take?
• 2. (Very important) What is the question that this decision will answer?
• 3. How many realistic alternatives are there as answers to the question?
• 4. Does this decision have to be taken at all?
• 5. If it is not taken, what consequences will follow?
• 6. What objective is the decision intended to achieve?
• 7. What results if that aim is not achieved?
• 8. What is the perfect information that will enable the decision to be taken in perfect confidence?
• 9. How near can I get to that perfect information?
• 10. Is the degree of imperfection so great as to undermine the basis for rational decision?
• 11. How is the decision to be executed? By whom? Monitored in what way and against what criteria?
• 12. What can go wrong?
• 13. In the event that Murphy's Law operates, and what can go wrong does, what will be the response?
• 14. What can go too well?
• 15. If the results of this decision flow broadly to plan, what further decisions will have to be taken - and when?

3. Peter Drucker - "Managing for results"

• Neither results nor resources exist inside the business, both exist outside.  
• Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.
• Resources must be allocated to opportunities, not to problems.
• Economic results are earned only by leadership.
• Any leadership position is transitory.
• What exists is getting old.
• What exists is likely to be misallocated.
• Concentration is the key to real economic results.

4. Barry Boehm - The top 10 software metrics

• It's 100 times more expensive to fix a delivered error than one caught early. 
• Software schedules can only compress by 25% using existing methods and tools.
• Every dollar of development will cost you two for maintenance.
• Software development costs are a function of the number of executable instructions.
• Variations between people account for the biggest differences in software productivity, so get the best people and train everyone to the level of the best.
• The ratio of software costs to hardware costs is 85/15 and growing.
• Best practice software construction schedules have only 15% coding, and 60% requirements and design and 25% testing.
• The cost of building an individual program is 3 times smaller (1/3) than the cost of building a software system or product, and 9 times smaller (1/9) than the cost of building a system software product, like a compiler or an operating system.
• Walkthroughs and inspections are the most cost-effective technique for eliminating existing errors, catching 60% of all errors.
• 20% of the code will cause 80% of the problems, so fix the worst first.

5. The bellcore catechism

• What are you trying to do?
• How is it done now and what are the limitations of the current practice?
• What's new about your approach and why do you think it will work?
• If you're successful, what difference does it make?
• How do our customers get paid?
• What are the risks?
• How much will it cost?
• How long will it take?
• What are the mid-term and final exams?

6. "Digital Woes"

• Is it the right system?
• What is at risk?
• How big and complex will it have to be?
• How will it fit into the existing universe?
• What will the system require of its users and operators?
• Will it require extensive security?
• Will there be a backup system while we install the new one?

7. My catechism

• Everything you give to a player must be of value to the player. Anything not of value will be perceived as a cost. Players don't buy costs.
• Everything is possible, everything has a cost. "What do we gain and what do we lose?"
• First identify which decisions are expensive to change. Think about these a lot now. Think about the "cheap-to-change" decisions later.
• Capitalism constantly devours its own creations and gives birth to new ones. Adapt or die.