August 2010

Dan Croak: Agile Principles in Practice - Part 3: Decide as Late as Possible

This post on "Agile" continues a mini-series on misunderstood terms in technology. Previous terms were the cloud and NoSQL.

Why Agile?

We want to make software that is valuable for people cheaply and efficiently. Ideally, the process is also pleasant for the participants.


 
Agile development achieves that goal. Agile teams build stuff customers want. They do it faster with fewer wasted cycles. Developers have more fun and write cleaner code. They do it at a constant pace that can be sustained forever.

Principles

The Agile Manifesto kicked off the movement with some lofty phrases like "people over processes". It proposes that we value "working software", "customer collaboration", and "responding to change" over some other stuff.

 

Sounds good, if a little vague. Getting a little more specific, the following subset of principles offered by the Poppendiecks in Lean Software Development are a helpful grouping:

  1. Eliminate waste (click to read)
  2. Deliver as fast as possible (click to read)
  3. Decide as late as possible (Today)

Principles are meant to be universal. The above list should apply to the software team of any entrepreneur reading this. (Editor’s Note: this is the 3rd and final part of Dan Croak's series on Agile)

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Financial Advice for Start-Ups

Frequently, I find that startup ventures simply do not have a financial plan. They know their business in and out but when you ask them about their financial methods of keeping track of operations, they look at you like you asked them how many planets are in the galaxy. 

 

Agreeing on a structure, having a plan, and making sure there are checks and balances can help mitigate a lot of issues in the near future. It is stated that approximately 80% of small business fail within their first year with the primary reason being the lack of cash. Here are a few suggestions to help keep your business from going under:

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GreenhornTV: Summer Vacation Week 2010 Part II

 With the students starting to move back into Boston and summer winding down, we have a week to catch our collective networking breath.  For those of you still looking to get out, there are still 17 great networking events and office hours this week. Below you'll find our recommendations for the week.

Stay tuned next week for our September events countdown, so if you're an event organizer, make sure you get your event on the calendar!  And of course, if you want to stay in the loop on the Boston Startup scene, be sure to check out the Greenhorn Connect Calendar for all your Boston startup entrepreneur networking events and office hours needs.

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Founder Fridays: CampusLIVE

Who are the faces behind a company? How did the company get started? These are common question you may have about startups you see and hear about. If you don't get a chance to personally meet the founders, you're unlikely to ever know their story. That's what Founder Fridays is all about.

 

In honor of all the college students returning to the city, this week we have Boris Revsin, CEO and co-founder of CampusLIVE (and local UMass Amherst alum!). CampusLIVE is a site dedicated to helping students connect with other people, events and local businesses on and near college campuses. (You can also learn more about CampusLIVE on their Posting on the Greenhorn Career Connector)

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Dan Croak: Agile Principles in Practice - Part 2: Deliver as Fast as Possible

This post on "Agile" continues a mini-series on misunderstood terms in technology. Previous terms were the cloud and NoSQL.

Why Agile?

We want to make software that is valuable for people cheaply and efficiently. Ideally, the process is also pleasant for the participants.

 

Agile development achieves that goal. Agile teams build stuff customers want. They do it faster with fewer wasted cycles. Developers have more fun and write cleaner code. They do it at a constant pace that can be sustained forever.

Principles

The Agile Manifesto kicked off the movement with some lofty phrases like "people over processes". It proposes that we value "working software", "customer collaboration", and "responding to change" over some other stuff.


Sounds good, if a little vague. Getting a little more specific, the following subset of principles offered by the Poppendiecks in Lean Software Development are a helpful grouping:

  1. Eliminate waste
  2. Deliver as fast as possible
  3. Decide as late as possible
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Taking the Leap from Full-Time to Your-Time

Going from receiving a nice paycheck weekly or bi-weekly, walking into an office, or having coffee and bagel in the morning to not knowing where you’re going to end up the next day, is a scary change. Every Entrepreneur who has a full-time gig and is looking to make the jump always has doubts, fears, and concerns which are all reasonable. 

 

When to quit or not quit, now that is the question! Here are a few suggestions that will help you decide when to make the leap:

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Book Review: Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath

As the leader of a company you have many responsibilities, but there is nothing more important than conveying your vision effectively (especially at an early stage startup). No matter how good you are at conveying your vision to your team, your customers or the media,Made to Stick can teach you how to do so even better and understand why you may have failed in the past.

I'd like to highlight two of the core concepts from Made to Stick that are key for any startup leaders out there.

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GreenhornTV: Summer Vacation Week 2010

 It's been a wild summer with hundreds of events each month. The whole time there's been no sign of a slow down, but we finally have a week for you to catch your breath.  There are still 26 Awesome events this week, but 15 of them are on Thursday.  This made our work a bit harder here on GreenhornTV, so we're declaring this "Summer Vacation Week."  Below you'll find a quick overview of the great events we recommend this week, but you'll notice you get a number of days off :).  And of course, if you want to stay in the loop on the Boston Startup scene, be sure to check out the Greenhorn Connect Calendar for all your Boston startup entrepreneur networking events and office hours needs.

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Founder Fridays: Neuron Robotics

Who are the faces behind a company? How did the company get started? These are common question you may have about startups you see and hear about. If you don't get a chance to personally meet the founders, you're unlikely to ever know their story. That's where we're starting Founder Fridays. 

 

This week we are featuring Neuron Robotics  founded by Robert Breznak, a company that provides open source, programmable and cross-platform solution, the Bowler Communications System (BCS)  by lowering the costs of entry into robotics and CPS development to within the ability range of the average person.

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Dan Croak: Agile Principles in Practice - Part I: Eliminate waste

This post on "Agile" continues a mini-series on misunderstood terms in technology. Previous terms were the cloud and NoSQL.

Why Agile?

We want to make software that is valuable for people cheaply and efficiently. Ideally, the process is also pleasant for the participants.


Agile development achieves that goal. Agile teams build stuff customers want. They do it faster with fewer wasted cycles. Developers have more fun and write cleaner code. They do it at a constant pace that can be sustained forever.

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5 Reasons Why Startup Founders Should Read Business Books

I recently came across a post claiming, "Why Startup Founders Should Stop Reading Business Books." While I appreciate the sentiments of choosing your reading material wisely, I strongly disagree with the belief that you should not spend time reading anything but the most narrowly focused books.  Especially for first time and young entrepreneurs, they're an essential stepping stone in knowledge growth. I'd like to highlight the reasons I believe this here and also specifically address some of the other blogger's contentions.

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5 Characteristics Of An Ideal Business Partner

After you understand what your true talent is and the value that you bring to an endeavor, it is time to think about what type of business partner you need. Having been a part of  few startups, here is a collection of 5 distinct factors that I look for when choosing who to start a company with:  

 

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