tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75561395725399315812012-02-16T14:38:11.725-05:00Health IT for Project ManagersQuintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.comBlogger1191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-52680498551775276832010-06-02T14:24:00.005-04:002010-06-02T14:49:29.463-04:00

Creating successful healthcare software – from patient management systems, to medical devices, to electronic medical records – differs substantially from traditional software. Healthcare software demands unique domain expertise, project methodology, and software architecture patterns. While many vendors and consultants would insist that good software practices and user-centered design principals

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-37590093107760535802010-01-16T14:04:00.004-05:002010-01-16T14:12:07.603-05:00

Why use a 3rd party e-prescribe application in your EMR instead of building one from scratch?There are many reasons to do this - developing an e-pharmacy module is a significant development effort and requires a lot of domain-specific expertise.Moreover, e-prescribing tools only become really effective once they are SureScripts certified and they need to be continually updated with the latest

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-63201643878364670012009-12-15T22:18:00.004-05:002009-12-15T22:29:56.901-05:00

When developing a clinical application, ease of integration into existing business processes is paramount. The features implemented by the application are going to dictate how well the application gets received and how it can help or hurt productivity. In this post, I look at how the business processes for patient registration can be best supported by software. First a look at the process:

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-33573945198453576902009-11-09T14:40:00.002-05:002009-11-10T17:36:02.801-05:00

To finish off our 3 part series on touchscreen QA strategy and considerations, we'll look at screen sensitivity, various input mechanisms like onscreen keyboard, and finally a wrap-up on general risks of single and multi touch. Onward!Screen sensitivity & forgivenessSingle TouchForgiveness is set in the touch screen setup tool that would come with the system. Much like the latency for the double

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-11621429216439499702009-11-09T14:17:00.010-05:002009-11-09T14:40:36.043-05:00

More considerations when building a touchscreen test plan - today we'll look at input events and navigation.Supported input eventsSingle TouchSimple and Advanced input - Single click events are simple to verify but advanced actions such a scrolling have multiple implementation mechanisms. For example, if a scroll bar is required instead of just up and down arrows, then click and drag events are

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-74440197362990291332009-11-07T21:04:00.007-05:002009-11-07T21:26:36.892-05:00

My colleague Matt Villeneuve put together an excellent whitepaper on QA strategies when testing touchscreen software, particularly for healthcare and medical applications. In this 3-part series we'll look at all the risks and considerations, from UI and usability to input mechanisms and hardware.UsabilitySingle TouchWorkflow - wizard usage and walk through initiatives are favored for set up

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-45517213485116378422009-11-03T20:20:00.007-05:002009-11-07T21:04:50.463-05:00

With the growing number of mHealth apps for iPhone and the widespread use of modern notebooks and tablet PCs as portable charting devices, it's no wonder that touchscreen has become a buzzword in the Health IT industry all over again. But advanced multi-touch development and UI design come with risks, as we learned the hard way on some past projects. The next series of blog posts will focus on

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-3994414760703268672009-10-20T10:44:00.002-04:002010-02-21T09:38:05.437-05:00

Patient demographics form the core of the data for any medical institution. They allow for the identification of a patient and his categorization into categories for the purpose of statistical analysis. In my work I have found that there are more or less 5 different ways of interpreting the term “demographics.”Date of birth, gender (Ref: Google Health)Birth year, gender, country, postal code,

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-65249293527460380062009-10-02T13:43:00.005-04:002009-10-02T13:54:04.533-04:00

"Lately, in a phenomenon that some of us in the UX design space call The Apple Effect, enterprise software companies, telecommunications companies, and medical device companies are all placing far more emphasis on visual design. Recently a customer, who develops a medical software product, told us explicitly - we want nothing less than a WOW! from customers when they see the new product." (full

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-86400459750118013842009-10-01T12:26:00.005-04:002009-10-01T12:48:20.247-04:00

Intuitively most people know that the Healthcare IT market and in particular Healthcare software products market is growing. You see the odd statistic mentioned in various articles, but it's hard to find even basic data for a report unless you are paying top dollar for a detailed Gartner or Frost&Sullivan market study.Here are some free links I've found on sizing and forecasting the Healthcare IT

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-78644934372814146752009-09-28T14:25:00.013-04:002009-09-28T16:58:14.372-04:00

The CCHIT 2011 Certification criteria and test scripts have been published! (The official launch date is set for October 7, 2009.)(For a review of the certifications that were offered in 2008, see my previous summary).The 2011 certification options are:Comprehensive 2011 Certification (which covers ARRA Certification as well) in one of the following domains:Ambulatory (outpatient) EHR

Tanya Dumaresqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07751906381764179765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-53061566642278263372009-09-07T21:53:00.008-04:002010-01-26T08:41:57.717-05:00

It seems a challenge to find good examples and samples of XML files that follow the CCR and CCD standards. For a really great CCD example, check out this CCD quickstart guide. The zip file contains two XML files, each one following one of the two standards. Not only are they very complete representations, but since they are based on the same source information, it is very useful to compare the

Melanie Taylerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08419278082478937506noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-44082382412450938202009-09-02T13:40:00.000-04:002009-09-02T14:20:10.176-04:00

About a month ago, I posted a summary of the different categories of CCHIT certifications that can currently be obtained.It is worthwhile to note that CCHIT also has numerous Work Groups, conducting further research to either add more criteria to the existing certifications, or to design new standalone certifications.Some of the candidate areas for future standalone certifications are:Personal

Tanya Dumaresqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07751906381764179765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-63603747701091600472009-08-30T09:39:00.000-04:002009-08-30T09:58:14.523-04:00

When we first start chatting with customers about their usability process for new product, and we start talking about user research, we’re often interrupted. "We're already doing that - we understand exactly what our customers are looking for". The assertion that they already have a good understanding of what their customers are thinking usually stems from one or more of the following:we spend

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-75198332800615378212009-08-27T14:00:00.000-04:002009-08-28T08:28:51.535-04:00

A blog post by David Kibbe mentions a tool that allows the exporting of a Google Health profile into CCR or CCD xml formats. The tool is called CCR dashboard.I was intrigued to be able to see a real life example of the two standards based on the same data. Linking the tool to a google account is easy, it just requires account credentials and to explicitly grant google permission to share your

Melanie Taylerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08419278082478937506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-56996576506112375682009-08-24T19:33:00.000-04:002009-08-30T11:01:32.187-04:00

I read a lot about people trying to find the XML schemas for CCR and CCD documents. So for anyone interested, they are easily available by following these links provided by Microsoft: [CCR schema] [CCD schema].The pages open up on the HealthVault developer page, but there are links at the bottom to download the XSD file and also a link if you just want to verify some XML against it. For doing

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-64092261759004284182009-08-24T12:51:00.000-04:002009-08-24T13:53:20.798-04:00

You spent a month writing detailed specifications of your new product, for the new team your organization decided to outsource to. You send the specs over, cross your fingers, knock on wood, hold your breath, and hope that the product you get back in 6 months matches those specs. Sound familiar? Outsourcing everything from development to usability to domain expertise has become commonplace, and

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-65971487222245463432009-08-18T14:28:00.000-04:002009-08-18T14:55:15.017-04:00

It can be difficult to know where to start if you need to verify whether your healthcare application will meet HIPAA compliancy requirements.Take a look at Macadamian's white paper for our practical guide of how to test software applications for HIPAA compliancy.

Tanya Dumaresqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07751906381764179765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-35969702819297515702009-08-16T22:46:00.000-04:002009-08-16T23:21:54.041-04:00

Sean Nolan from Microsoft had a recent post that states the hard part in patient records is collecting complete and accurate data in the first place. In fact, he says, which standard is used, whether CCR, CCD or some other, is the easy part, and in fact we should probably use all of them.Overall I agree - mappings for these standards are quite straightforward and can be accomplished in a short

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-21181833779269747832009-08-14T13:43:00.001-04:002009-09-03T11:16:07.924-04:00

Although it is not necessary to submit every piece of documentation as part of an FDA premarket submission, it is still important to have the document on hand should something change along the way. It also goes a long way to demonstrate a good development process.In the table below, I list the documents along with columns for whether the document is required or if it is FDA application specific,

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-47693179775840861992009-08-10T17:05:00.000-04:002009-08-30T11:01:52.129-04:00

A lot of focus is often given to the development lifecycle followed and how it can help or harm the process of getting and retaining FDA premarket approval. Some believe that since the FDA is more familiar with a traditional waterfall process it is advantageous to use the same. The logical argument given is that it would simplify the audit process because there would be no need to explain your

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-74385428179342174212009-08-09T14:21:00.000-04:002009-08-09T14:26:12.983-04:00

It can be difficult to explain to your customer why cutting half of the features doesn't cut half of the time and cost. Every software project has fixed costs that often get overlooked in project planning--setting up development environments, ramp-up, building frameworks, and setting up configuration management to name a few. Read my article on StickyMinds.com for some ideas on how you can

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-48320316256859670942009-08-02T12:55:00.000-04:002009-08-14T16:15:39.615-04:00

Google Health is a website intended for patients to track their health online, including self-monitoring test results.Continua is a certification that proves your self-monitoring device is interoperable.So you would expect a Continua-certified device to interoperate directly with Google Health, right? Unfortunately, it's not the case - Google Health supports a subset of the CCR standard, whereas

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-13940723772601029792009-07-31T10:13:00.000-04:002009-08-01T12:56:51.968-04:00

This recent article from Health Leaders media lists the top 6 ingredients to building and implementing an effective EHR. In short, they say: Realize that the EHR will not solve your problems. Identify EHR stakeholders and involve them in the implementation process. Keep it simple with as few systems as possible. Remember that communication is essential. Recognize that paper will never

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-49224168139352061772009-07-29T01:33:00.000-04:002009-07-29T01:45:41.068-04:00

Much of the time when people talk about healthcare interoperability it applies to the different subsystems within a hospital. Within a hospital the task is relatively easy (despite itself being very daunting) since decisions are made according to a single organizational hierarchy. The true holy grail of interoperability rests in the ability for hospitals to exchange information with each other.

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-73538559819469416202009-07-27T15:53:00.000-04:002009-07-28T09:57:27.715-04:00

People researching the CCHIT program often have trouble finding a clear and concise list of certifications. So I have put together just such a list from my research.Up until now, there have been 5 categories of certification that can be obtained:Ambulatory (outpatient) EHR CertificationThe EHR must pass all of the ambulatory specific functional and interoperability test script scenarios, as well

Tanya Dumaresqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07751906381764179765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-91877240167258093672009-07-23T17:01:00.000-04:002009-07-24T08:33:15.924-04:00

This was a great topic of discussion on the HIMSS forum on LinkedIn here.My own opinion is that the real value is in the future roadmap, in the power that Google Health and MS Healthvault would have if they could achieve interoperability with hospitals, pharamacies and other providers.Tanya Dumaresq summarized the group discussion and value proposition in that:Healthvault and Google Health are a

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-32987747157135353732009-07-21T12:00:00.000-04:002009-07-21T12:14:57.718-04:00

Looking at the different implementations of the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) by Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault, I noticed something interesting. I found that despite conforming to a standard, they are both creating dependencies on their particular implementation of it. I think the best way to explain this is with an example. Consider the special rules for each governing the

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-46612127498110606202009-07-19T10:58:00.001-04:002009-07-19T12:35:59.181-04:00

Microsoft Healthvault and Google Health encourage users to enter their daily information for tracking purposes, whether it's a diabetic entering daily glucometer results or a fitness buff tracking weight and body fat. But unless entering that data becomes an automatic part of the user's day, for all but the most dedicated, browsing the website and manually entering data is simply more overhead

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-74280350714416822812009-07-15T14:36:00.000-04:002009-07-19T08:00:35.368-04:00

The notion of support is open to interpretation. Many vendors can claim “support” but is this really the case? In this post, I take a look at Microsoft Healthvault’s support for HL7 Continuity of Care Document (CCD).Microsoft has apparently pushed the envelope in having support for CCD in Healthvault, but just how deep does it go? From what I see it:Supports:Manual and programmatic add of a CCD

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-16668937735842905602009-07-10T17:23:00.000-04:002009-07-22T16:18:41.163-04:00

Unless you buy the Continua design guidelines document ($500 for non-members), understanding the standards the Continua certification is based on is not clear, even at a high level.With a bit of digging, I found this whitepaper gives a bit more detail.In terms of connectivity (the "PAN interface"), Continua has selected the Bluetooth Health Device Profile and the thcare_1.zip">USB Personal

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-44614154306919340232009-07-10T12:26:00.000-04:002009-07-19T12:01:54.614-04:00

"Are there "natural" project managers and if so, what skills do they have which differentiate them from the average project manager? What makes for a gifted project manager?" This is a question we were asked by a journalist recently. Here is how I answered, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as well. Anyone can excel at project management and in particular excel at leadership, arguably the

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-53465347698236945182009-07-09T14:53:00.000-04:002009-07-09T15:01:58.977-04:00

This question is asked frequently and debated all too much. The most in-depth answer I've found comes from Houston Neal: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/ehr-vs-emr-whats-the-difference/. However, there is just so much information presented, by the end of the article I am still not sure the reader will be too clear on the differences.In a recent whitepaper released by HIMSS on

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-46417333067999508192009-07-08T11:02:00.000-04:002009-08-30T11:02:54.345-04:00

The healthcare industry works a lot like the agile software development cycle. Each morning doctors and residents meet to discuss what happened yesterday and agree on a strategy for each case for the day. The next day the cycle repeats with possibly different staff and different patients. As a result, healthcare is very process driven. It needs the structure to be able to maintain synchronization

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-87829445621036526492009-07-03T11:31:00.000-04:002009-08-30T11:03:07.557-04:00

Creating software for the healthcare domain is a balancing act. Often clients will request that applications employ strict rules for form validation thinking that this will help to improve past problems with data quality. However, in a clinical application, constraints on the data will likely end up causing more problems than they prevent. The basis for these problems is twofold. First, it is

Quintin Armourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475571654384402462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-89142120579417249302009-06-25T14:11:00.000-04:002009-08-30T11:03:20.940-04:00

In a recent news release, Nortel is planning 5 new solutions in the Healthcare space.It's not clear exactly how much of these are new solutions and how much are really just re-positioning of their existing solutions like the MCS platform. What is clear is that they are intended to integrate into existing hospital and clinic systems, similar to how Nortel's CS1000 server integrates into an

Didier Thizy, Director of Project Management at Macadamian Technologiesnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-30476707411024206622009-06-21T09:26:00.001-04:002010-01-31T12:26:57.348-05:00

Recently I have been investigating the CPHIMS certification for Healthcare management professionals, to highlight my experience in Healthcare IT.The program is fairly new, and a number of managers I spoke with recently told me they were not sure yet what the importance of the certification would be in the industry going forward. To be fair, in addition to asking people who were unsure about the

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-40139572691116500732009-06-04T12:39:00.001-04:002009-06-04T12:47:07.928-04:00

This was a question on Family Feud today. 68% of the people surveyed answered either "soap" (as in Dove brand soap) or "chocolate" (as in Dove brand chocolate).Meanwhile, about 10% associated it with "peace", and only 3% associated it with "bird". But let me repeat - 68% associated the word "dove" with a brand! Talk about the power of marketing. Will we one day see a survey about "Macadamia"

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-29599169615636863872009-05-21T08:31:00.001-04:002009-05-21T08:40:14.948-04:00

Drive Ideas To ResultsI met with the Creative Director of a design company recently and had an eye-opening conversation. "So what does a Creative Director do exactly? Encourage people to come up with good ideas?" I asked."That's only part of it." he informed me. "Not every idea is a winner. Once people have their ideas, I either drop them or I drive them to either turn them into actions and

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-31288886108402237292009-05-20T08:52:00.001-04:002009-05-21T08:32:31.241-04:00

Support Creative ImmersionWhen my company first decided to be involved in Health Informatics, we held some brainstorming sessions. We brainstormed product ideas, technology ideas, and we even held back our criticisms and allowed ourselves to just think. We had a quantity of ideas, but arguably, none of the ideas were "quality". Simply, we weren't immersed in Health Care at the time. Our team

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-86097274533072604442009-05-19T11:31:00.000-04:002009-05-20T09:29:47.472-04:00

From Sigmund Freud to Jimi Hendrix to Stephen King, some of the greatest minds have resorted to extreme measures to unleash their creativity and push the limits of innovation.Now think of your company's management team - do you feel that same commitment to ground-breaking innovation?The last time I interviewed project managers, I asked them the typical questions about scheduling, budgeting,

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-82364294503512874932009-04-29T16:33:00.000-04:002009-04-29T16:45:01.448-04:00

A question I've seen asked on the internet a lot - "what are the eligibility requirements for obtaining the PMP credential, besides passing the exam itself". PMI offers the PMP handbook which describes the full set of requirements. Essentially, you needa minimum of 35 hours spent in a project management education course3-5 years of project management experience, depending on your previous

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-36524294853760210282009-04-22T14:54:00.000-04:002009-04-22T16:22:44.068-04:00

Practice #3: Communicate the ImpactKaren is the project manager of a team. Each team member e-mails her a status report on Friday afternoon. Jim, a developer, mentions in his status: "I'm still waiting for Fred to send me the new libraries. For now, I'm using the old ones. Also, I discovered that Windows 7 has dropped API support for WindowsExGetInfo."Karen is in a hurry, and already swamped

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-83728143970444530472009-04-21T13:54:00.000-04:002009-04-21T13:57:36.053-04:00

Practice #2: When You Present a Problem, Present a PlanOne of my pet peeves is when someone comes to me with a problem, describes the problem, and leaves it at that, implying "I've found this problem. Give me a solution."Counter to this, another practice my team follows is to never present a problem without at least the start of a plan. The team member maintains ownership of the problem found,

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-55405055085080886972009-04-20T15:24:00.000-04:002009-04-20T15:27:33.757-04:00

You hear it again and again. In project management, communication is key. Communication that is clear, communication that reaches all stakeholders, communication that makes sense cross-culturally, and the list goes on. In Say It Right The First Time, Loretta Malandro emphasizes another dimension of communication – communication that boosts accountability. This kind of communication must be

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-44611612939271248392009-04-19T19:55:00.001-04:002009-04-22T15:02:19.721-04:00

PMI acknowledges that negotiation skills are a crucial part of management and leadership, but beyond that it doesn't go into any detail on what these skills and strategies are. I find this to be strangely lacking, as there is at least a basic set of terminology and standards worth learning (e.g. BATNA, ZOPA concepts, for starters). No matter, simply wander into your nearest book store and you

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-7891661729647440252009-04-15T09:12:00.000-04:002009-04-15T09:33:17.647-04:00

There are several good online collections of free PMP sample questions here. These sites combined offer 150+ questions to run through:http://sgpm.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/where-to-find-free-pmp-sample-test-questions/http://www.bestsamplequestions.com/pmp-sample-questions/pmp-sample-questions.htmlhttp://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htmhttp://www.tutorialspoint.com/

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-134938871643686002009-04-14T11:23:00.000-04:002009-04-14T11:26:41.379-04:00

The PMBOK 4th Edition is being released in June 2009. According to PMI, there will not be any major changes to questions, and if you plan to sit for a PMI certification exam prior to these dates, then the PMBOK 3rd Edition is still appropriate for your study.To see a detailed list of changes, visit http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/StandardsFAQs.aspx

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-60095745862401192122009-03-14T10:42:00.001-04:002009-04-14T08:41:34.495-04:00

I'm currently working with some colleagues on a beta for a new blog about software creation.Since we're in the business of creating new products, often from scratch, the idea we're working on is to share our recommendations about what tools to use, what priorities to assign, how much time to plan, etc. when you're planning a new project or new features.As much as I like having catchy or

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-46999302841743394782009-03-14T10:39:00.000-04:002009-05-20T09:30:08.130-04:00

My article extracted from The Critical Path monthly:Phil Spector is trying to complete the Let It Be album, but the lads from Liverpool are on the outs. He gathers them together in the studio and says:Listen fellas, I know you got problems, but think of the music! You guys are the Beatles, for chrissakes! Four distinct personalities combining to make the perfect pop group!“Paul . . . you’re the

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-10954590583786116812008-09-26T18:58:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:42:14.139-04:00

Further to my previous posts about missing requirements, I've published a Critical Path article on finding developers who are good at "reading between the lines" when they are assigned high-level work packages.

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-69554192146362622532008-09-18T17:36:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:42:50.592-04:00

PMI will tell you that it's not necessary to be a domain expert or technical expert to be a successful project manager. Communication skills, organization and planning, etc. are much more important. Then they give you the classic communications management question:"Two people are arguing about what needs to be done to complete a task. If the project manager wants to know what is going on, she

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-61991113547947793642008-09-14T11:38:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:43:38.430-04:00

This has got to be the simplest of the 3 questions, and yet the answers can be very revealing. So much about project management has to do with communication, but it has to be efficient communication, involving the right people at the right times. Who hasn't had the experience of the dreaded 2 hour meeting with 20 participants, where you're only there to give a 30 second status, and the rest of

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-77427976025513864692008-09-14T11:36:00.001-04:002009-04-14T08:44:55.861-04:00

A lot of project managers will proudly tell you that they're not micro-managers. They trust their staff and they don't need to be involved in every decision and detail. Certainly that can be admirable, but only if it's done right. When you manage from a high level, you still need to keep your finger on the pulse. You should be able to detect early warning signs of project failure (also known as "

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-90754604676010503872008-09-14T11:33:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:44:23.689-04:00

Recently I had the opportunity to interview various candidates for a project manager position. I asked a lot of classic questions - how do you plan a budget, how do you plan a release, how do you deal with an underperforming team member, etc. and got back a lot of classic responses. But there were 3 questions I asked that consistently seemed to separate the average PMs from the great PMs, divided

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-70750834062161272662008-06-01T14:50:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:45:24.588-04:00

A new Critical Path article hot off the press: Localization - A World Of Difference which I co-authored with architect Jean-Yves Boudreau. I especially like the screen capture at the beginning of the article - it really drives home the point of what a slap in the face a poorly localized product can be.

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-35251509878017755992008-04-29T09:00:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:45:54.106-04:00

Today I was reading through Martin Fowler's lessons learned for combining agile development with distributed teams. It's interesting to note he's come to pretty much the same conclusions as we have in the past:Use Continuous Integration to Avoid Integration Headaches Have Each Site Send Ambassadors to the Other Sites Use Contact Visits to build trust Don't Underestimate the Culture Change Use

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-51267959513342660152008-04-20T10:42:00.000-04:002009-05-20T09:30:40.315-04:00

Tying in to my last post - once Paul McCartney came up with enough ideas about eggs and toast, what would he do next? He'd meet with John Lennon and the rest of the band to brainstorm. They would try recording songs in the studio in dozens of different ways. Rumor has it they did 102 takes of the song "Not Guilty" (admittedly, a Harrison song, but you get the point).To allow brainstorming and

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-29885733562872318512008-04-20T10:06:00.000-04:002009-05-20T09:31:01.721-04:00

I remember reading an interview with Paul McCartney where he explained what he thought the key was to being creative and writing great songs. "Quantity", he said. His method was simply to output huge amounts of material, a verse here, a chorus there, and then pick and choose from the best. He wrote a huge amount of songs never released to the public, sometimes about things as simple as what he

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-5188271205407967702008-04-13T12:29:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:26:40.716-04:00

Our chief architect Francis Beaudet blog post got me thinking about how our company's process is really 2 distinct processes right now: the innovation process and the delivery process . Already, that allows us to put our best foot forward, but as I mentioned last post, we could take it further in a number of ways, for example by getting the delivery team more innovative throughout the project.

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-83634543757314667752008-04-13T12:05:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:46:52.513-04:00

Fred Boulanger's metaphor of how we help customers increase their batting average when it comes to releasing innovative products got me brainstorming on baseball slang:A clutch hitter is a baseball player with a knack for coming up with the "big" hit. The big hit is typically a game-deciding hit, sometimes a home run, often coming with two outs. Being known as a clutch hitter is a position of

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-35412034186770947922008-04-07T09:17:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:47:10.778-04:00

Recently when discussing the Patch A Day principle with one of our new developers, the feedback I got was that it sounded "scary". "What the name implies", he said, "is that you need to output real working code every single day, with no room for error. Almost like an insanely demanding group of managers got together and decided how they were going to squeeze the most productivity out of their

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-40194498541782856562008-04-06T10:26:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:47:28.663-04:00

Reading over The Pragmatic Programmer, now an agile classic, I remembered that Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas advocated something called Tracer Bullets. As it turns out, Tracer Bullets are an integral part of Macadamian's Patch A Day principle.Central to tracer bullet development is the idea of a skeleton application, in which one thin line of execution goes end to end. In a skeleton application, you

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-1530341867889441902008-04-04T08:10:00.000-04:002009-05-20T09:31:54.733-04:00

People equate debugging with the stereotypical image of a computer hacker sitting in the far corner with the lights off, peering through towers of empty Coke cans as he searches madly through the code, performing "black magic" until the complex bug that half the team is scared to even look at is finally resolved.We discuss specs as a team, design as a team, process as a team. But when it comes to

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-80065742931467140142008-04-02T17:30:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:48:01.385-04:00

The search for the ultimate debugging training continues! One idea for a training would be to take an open source application and mess it up in 10 "classic" ways. A trainee would be presented with a list of 10 bugs, and would have to fix all 10 bugs. Each bug would be an exercise in fixing one of the most common patterns of bugs that developers often get stuck on. For each bug, you can request

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-83626256530571530662008-03-25T12:52:00.000-04:002009-05-20T09:34:08.356-04:00

I really related to the latest Joel On Software article, in which Joel, in great form, analyzes the utopia of all browsers and webpages conforming to the one and only HTML specification. But what it really made me think of is the same problem we have in VoIP and unified communications. SIP has become the standard protocol for communication between clients, servers, gateways, etc. but each

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-23969764259357396372008-03-25T11:16:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:49:53.934-04:00

I've been cast in the Macadamian YouTube Video. How many Google employees can say they've done that? :)

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-19974452039515112322008-03-23T11:34:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:50:16.809-04:00

At last week's OSEF meeting, a scenario was described: you've planned a technically complex feature in your next release, and your senior developer has researched it and put out an estimate of 6 weeks to complete. Of course you trust your developers, but anyone can make a mistake. Without knowing anything about about the technical aspect of the new feature, and with limited time to review, how

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-19081420420625005902008-03-21T16:42:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:50:37.325-04:00

After many hours of studying, yesterday I passed my 4 hour PMP exam. It was surprisingly grueling! I checked, double-checked and re-checked my answers, agonizing over trivial things like whether or not I had a reasonable distribution of A, B, C and D answers throughout this 200 multiple choice marathon. And at the end of the 200 questions, what pops up on the screen? A survey from the testing

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-21002722836203182692008-03-18T10:19:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:50:51.951-04:00

This month Steve Ballmer kicked off his visit to CeBIT speaking about Green Computing, a hot topic for 2008. In particular, he lauded Windows Vista for being more power-efficient than older Windows versions like XP, consuming, he said, 33 times less power than XP when in idle mode. But wait a second. Wasn't Vista criticized for being an energy hog, sucking up laptop battery life at an unrelenting

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-74218876217488215382008-03-14T16:53:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:51:04.710-04:00

I liked this intranet blog post from Nick Ratelle so much that I copied it verbatim. Thanks Nick! :)You've probably thought about how dates and times could cause problems when localizing applications, but there's more than that. Check out this article explaining why testing your application in the Turkish locale can help you to find localization issues.If you care a whit about localization or

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-84416303003174001902008-03-11T08:37:00.000-04:002009-04-14T08:51:20.370-04:00

I met with Ovidiu this week, the new developer hired in our Romanian office, to go over the material of first week training. Once you start development, I said, we have a requirement that you must submit "1 patch a day". Silence on the other end of the phone, a not uncommon response from any new team member, local or global. Ovidiu speaks English very well, but in this case it was like I was

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-91351538953042934992008-03-08T18:49:00.000-05:002009-05-20T09:36:05.437-04:00

From the same book I mentioned in my last post:debugging can be an enjoyable activity that shares the thrill of the hunt and chase found in a good detective novel or video game. On the other hand, a protracted, unsuccessful search for a bug in your code quickly loses its charm, particularly when your boss is asking repeatedly about your (lack of) progress. Learning to debug well is essential to

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-39524642475177434642008-03-06T18:31:00.000-05:002009-04-14T08:52:17.924-04:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been looking on and off for a good book or training course on training teams to be better debuggers. There's so much out there on how to avoid bugs altogether - design planning, unit tests, code review, etc. but inevitably there will always be defects in your project, and having a trained team could mean the difference between 3 weeks and 3 months of

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-59755981533340369272008-03-01T10:51:00.000-05:002009-04-14T08:53:04.446-04:00

It was a little over a year ago that I sat at home, late at night, after having worked crazy hours day, and composed this e-mail to my girlfriend:Hey, feeling pretty depressed right about now. Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that it's almost 2am, it's freezing in the house since I haven't re-adjusted the thermostat, and I haven't had dinner yet.No matter how much work I put

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-81425363000655569232008-02-28T08:34:00.000-05:002009-04-14T08:53:21.972-04:00

I wake up and it's minus 31 degrees outside. Again. More snow to shovel. Again. These are typical February days in Ottawa.So it's no surprise where our architect Martin Larochelle got his inspiration for his http://www.macadamian.com/index.php?option=com_criticalpath&task=view&id=54">Snow Shoveling Theory of Development.

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-1569540114186853552008-02-25T15:22:00.000-05:002009-04-14T09:14:17.085-04:00

Just throwing a one-liner to someone in your lab halfway around the world, because you're in the habit of doing this with someone in the same office. You fire them an email - “hey I need this feature". What you forget is that when you do this, the guy next door to you comes and has a 30 min discussion about the feature. If you do this to someone remotely, and they don’t pick up the phone to talk

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-16370843730376841252008-02-25T15:15:00.000-05:002008-03-26T17:14:01.101-04:00

When I want to go on vacation, I get the low-down on hotels from www.tripadvisor.com. When I need to choose a doctor, I get word of mouth from ratemds.com. And what about software outsourcing? Does such a site exist? If not, it should! I can see that some outsourcing shops might object to publishing feedback (especially bad feedback) on jobs they've done. However, you would think that the good

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-23878786464554478732008-02-21T09:14:00.000-05:002009-04-14T08:51:49.721-04:00

PMI states that the ethical way to estimate projects is to use quantitative risk analysis to determine risk reserves (scientifically calculated buffers of time or budget), and provide a range of ship dates with confidence percentage for each (ie. "80% chance we ship on July 4th, but 10% chance we ship on July 30"). I've been researching tools that allow the calculation of these reserves. So far

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-81174032811477207602008-02-13T17:21:00.000-05:002009-04-14T08:53:37.228-04:00

John Torjo pointed this article out today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-patternAnti-patterns are specific repeated practices that appear initially to be beneficial, but ultimately result in bad consequences that outweigh the hoped-for advantages.I'm sure anyone reading this has lived through most of these at one point or another: Seagull Management, Absentee manager, even Cage Match

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-33842711303138218522008-02-12T10:28:00.000-05:002008-03-26T17:13:59.599-04:00

Merlin Mann introduces the concept of Inbox Zero at Google:"Clearly, the problem of email overload is taking a toll on all our time, productivity, and sanity, mainly because most of us lack a cohesive system for processing our messages and converting them into appropriate actions as quickly as possible."In a similar vein, I attended a seminar by Jason Womack who introduced us to the Outlook

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-54070484726655440342008-02-02T11:19:00.000-05:002008-03-26T17:13:47.572-04:00

Recently I canceled my cellphone subscription. I was completely satisfied with the service, it's just that work gave me a new phone and they pay for the subscription, so naturally I had to cancel the old one. After literally 30 minutes of explaining, re-explaining, and justifying myself to the cancellation representative on the phone, he finally, reluctantly, almost angrily allowed me to cancel

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-14177746057034659572008-02-02T11:15:00.000-05:002009-04-14T09:16:04.052-04:00

Looking back at the conversation at the beginning of my last post, please note the customer said "give me the 5 best features". Well, which ones are the best? The most cost-effective? The most innovative? The ones that are time-sensitive? It's not always clear.What's more, it's not always clear which processes will yield the best return for your project. Some projects might really benefit from

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-19734040502846345272008-02-01T10:52:00.000-05:002009-04-14T08:54:19.200-04:00

"I want a product with 10 features. How much will it cost me?""$100,000""Ok, my budget is only $50,000. So just give me the 5 best features."If only it were that simple. Unfortunately, no matter how simple or how feature-rich you need your product to be, there will always be a multitude fixed project costs: time to understand the product, understand the market, time to setup a development

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-75017870419703113622008-01-17T08:09:00.000-05:002009-04-14T08:54:33.393-04:00

One of my goals for the first part of this year is to get my PMP certification. In part, this is driven by the fact that I'm relatively young compared to most project managers in the industry, and I'm hoping that the certification will help cast away any doubts that customers could have when we first meet (the "are you sure this 27-year-old guy can handle my million dollar project" factor). In

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-26195603448486170852007-10-24T12:07:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:15:42.917-04:00

"We are conditioned to believe that estimates expressed as narrow ranges are more accurate than estimates expressed as wider ranges. We believe that wide ranges make us appear ignorant or incompetent. The opposite is usually the case."See http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000625.htmlfollowed byhttp://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000626.html.

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-15034883543598872252007-10-22T15:04:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:19:37.062-04:00

Today I was driving and arrived at a 4-way stop. I didn't notice any other cars stopped, so I started moving through the intersection. Immediately, I heard a loud honk and looked over to my left to see another car. There was a driver who'd stopped before me, and I hadn't seen him. It was his turn to go through the intersection, and here I was cutting in front of him. He gave me a gesture that let

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-75446071442763370532007-10-12T15:59:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:16:17.562-04:00

Developers spend roughly 90% of their careers doing debugging, whether it is debugging a new feature they've just written or resolving some obscure problem with an old legacy product. And yet, most of the time we're focusing on training developers on design patterns or project processes, while debugging is left as an art which can only be learned through experience. What about training for

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-36963949224541602522007-09-26T16:52:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:25:29.366-04:00

One more blog entry on cross-cultural communication! Then I will move on to another topic. This is a speech that I recently did at my Toastmasters club on international body language:Let's say you just finished giving a speech, and I look at you, I don't say a word, but I go like this (make an O with my thumb and forefinger) - what am I communicating?I would mean "Good job!" or "That speech was

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-91466642092347587922007-09-12T11:18:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:19:23.432-04:00

I'm starting a new contract with some developers in Norway. I am curious to ask one of them if the following statements about Norwegian culture from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/norway-country-profile.html are true:The poet Aksel Sandemose put Jante Law into words and they convey an important element of Norwegian culture: humility. Jante’s Law teaches people to be

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-59822975557189549272007-07-14T11:29:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:13:59.654-04:00

Indians do not like to express 'no,' be it verbally or non- verbally.Rather than disappoint you, for example, by saying something isn’t available, Indians will offer you the response that they think you want to hear.This behaviour should not be considered dishonest. An Indian would be considered terribly rude if he did not attempt to give a person what had been asked.Since they do not like to

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-63052417291506693662007-07-14T11:25:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:16:32.356-04:00

Still on my quest to learn more about cultural differences in business, I found this fascinating:"I was recently involved in a business meeting that went sour and threatened to scuttle a good deal. What happened was that the Chinese party recieving the American purchaser was late in reaching his hotel. The American was furious as he had a tight schedule and that they were late and threatened to

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-71495323857830855392007-06-29T17:30:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:14:57.230-04:00

Though I have not yet read Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent, I've already heard good things. So what better time to jump on the "How To Interview" writing bandwagon! Here is an article I recently submitted into Macadamian's training material for new interviewers:What I Look ForThere are 3 qualities I look for in a candidate, in order of

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-17483665704479407102007-06-27T15:09:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:16:42.021-04:00

I got 85% on the first one, 92% on the second, but half the time I was just guessing the answers. These are tough!http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/culture-test-1.htmlhttp://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/culture-test-2.html

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-38140700740285748682007-06-27T13:35:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:16:52.432-04:00

I am getting married in August. My fiancée Irene is Greek, so we'll be having a ceremony in the Greek Orthodox church. One of the main requirements of the ceremony is that you have a "koumbaro", a person of the Greek Orthodox faith who stands with the couple and assists in the ceremony. I was told this was the equivalent of "best man" in North American culture.Since none of my friends are Greek

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-43397169438664248652007-06-19T13:55:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:17:05.651-04:00

It amazes me how easily skilled programmers can get blocked on tasks. Every day I hear things like "Help, I'm stuck on a weird compiler error!" or "Where can I find the code that draws this dialog box?" or "Where can I get last night's debug build?"Granted, some problems are hard and it's good to ask team members for help so you don't just sit there staring at the screen. But most of the time,

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-25562138521295475472007-06-11T01:45:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:24:47.406-04:00

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to give my first formal speech at the Toastmasters club I joined recently. The point of the speech is to talk for a few minutes about myself. Personally, I find talking about myself to be really tough. I could go on for hours about a technical subject, but having to bare personal information in front of others, on the spot, just seems much more difficult. Anyway, right now

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-64981316942755527442007-06-03T10:21:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:24:16.908-04:00

With time pressure and daily distractions, there will always be missing requirements in the tasks I assign. These problems are amplified when working with global team members due to language barriers, timezone differences, and lack of face to face communication.Don't get me wrong, it's important to strive for complete requirements when assigning tasks. But the team members should be able to meet

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-15181858643663231402007-05-21T14:22:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:23:49.661-04:00

Different projects require different team mentalities. The mindset you are in when putting together a prototype for a last-minute trade show is very different from the mindset you must be in when carefully re-designing a legacy product.Once the project leader has identified the coding personalities on his team (be it cowboys, perfectionists, or what have you), including his own, it's up to him to

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556139572539931581.post-32466151203546900012007-05-21T01:25:00.000-04:002009-04-14T09:23:32.700-04:00

Remember the quiz about Cowboys and Perfectionists?This has been turned into a 3-part article series which I co-authored with Stephane Lussier and Teresa Wilde. Read part 1 here:http://www.macadamian.com/index.php?option=com_criticalpath&task=view&id=45

Didier Thizynoreply@blogger.com0