Dirk Riehle's Industry and Research Publications

Tag: Evergreen

  • Happy new year, the second amendment, and private messaging

    Happy new year, the second amendment, and private messaging

    There is wisdom in the second amendment of the constitution of the United States of America. A key motivation was to allow people to defend themselves against an oppressive government. Back when it was formulated, self-defense meant bearing firearms, which seems quaint today given that a government could came after you with tanks and drones.…

  • What software vendors don’t seem to understand about university teaching

    What software vendors don’t seem to understand about university teaching

    I often get approached by software vendors with the suggestion that I teach a course using one of their product tutorials. There are plenty of open source databases, operating systems, and cloud computing solutions who want to make it into my curriculum. Of course, vendors don’t always call their product tutorials by that name, but…

  • Scrum’s product vision vs. project mission

    Scrum’s product vision vs. project mission

    As noted previously, Scrum uses the term product to mean artifact. This is fine, as long as the user of Scrum is a software vendor, developing a product for a market. It is confusing, however, if the user is a consulting firm, performing a custom project for a client. If you are a consulting firm,…

  • How project vs. product confuses agile methods terminology

    How project vs. product confuses agile methods terminology

    In a previous blog post I noted how the terms project and product are being confused in open source. However, it is agile methods, specifically Scrum, where it gets really bad. To recap: A project is a human undertaking to create an artifact. A project, by definition, has a start date and an end date.…

  • How Project vs. Product Confuses Open Source Terminology

    How Project vs. Product Confuses Open Source Terminology

    The terms project and product are used with continued confusion. Both open source and agile methods are particularly bad offenders, leading people astray. Adapted straight from the textbooks: Not always, but typically, a project is used to create a custom artifact, while a product is (by definition) made for a market, that is, many different…

  • Internal component marketplaces vs. transfer pricing of inner source

    Internal component marketplaces vs. transfer pricing of inner source

    I was recently asked why I argue against company-internal marketplaces for software components yet emphasize the need for pricing components that cross company boundaries within the same holding company (also known as transfer pricing). The answer is simple: Setting up an internal marketplace is a managerial choice and pricing the movement of code (IP) across…