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change management

Lollapalooza Effect in the Antilope Canyon

Opportunity cost and the Lollapalooza effect

My previous article about the compounding effect of changes was the first in a series to explore different mental models and how to apply them in Configuration Management. This article will focus on two mental models that can influence our decision-making around changes: Opportunity cost and the Lollapalooza effect. Opportunity cost Opportunity cost is the mental model that explains how you can only spend your time and money once, and therefore you will… Read More »Opportunity cost and the Lollapalooza effect

Compounding liquids

How to benefit from the compounding effect of changes

In ‘Ethical fading eats Configuration Management Principles for breakfast,’ I ended with the need for mental models to prevent ethical fading. This article will be the first in a series to explore different mental models and how to apply them in Configuration Management. The first mental model we will explore is probably known best from the world of finance: Compounding. However, interest is not the only thing that compounds over time.… Read More »How to benefit from the compounding effect of changes

Dependencies

Dependencies limit the possible sequences of events

If you missed the previous articles from the CM Baseline series, please check them out first: Understanding the Impact of Changes introduces the need for the CM Baseline. Connections tell the Story introduces the first component of the CM Baseline, the Business Object Graph. Intentions are the desire for new Stories, introduced the second component of the CM Baseline, the Impact Matrix. This article will explore the third component of the CM… Read More »Dependencies limit the possible sequences of events

Intentions are the desire for new Stories

In the CM Baseline series, I have used the analogy of flights, flight plans, gates, control towers to explain how difficult it becomes to manage changes and their dependencies to explain the need for the CM2 Baseline, a.k.a. As Planned/As Released Baseline ( ‘Understanding the Impact of Changes‘).  In ‘Connections tell the Story,’ I explained how a Business Object Graph connecting the data from a business perspective across the expert domain… Read More »Intentions are the desire for new Stories

Connections tell the Story

In my previous post, ‘Understanding the Impact of Changes‘, I used the analogy of flights, flight plans, gates, control towers to explain how difficult it becomes to manage changes and their dependencies. To address this, CM2 from the Institute for Process Excellence has a solution called the CM2 Baseline or a.k.a. the As Planned/As Released Baseline. And while the SAE-EIA-649C standard for Configuration Management in its latest revision hints at this type… Read More »Connections tell the Story

Understanding the Impact of Changes

Imagine a world in which we do not have air traffic control, we do not have flight plans or track the progress against these flight plans, but we do have all the flights we have pre-covid19 and we only have line of sight. Every 45 seconds, a plane arrives or departs at any given major airport. How would you prevent catastrophic plane crashes in such a world? Probably flying would… Read More »Understanding the Impact of Changes

What comes to mind when you think about Configuration Management?

On 9 September 2021,  same as last year, I gave a full day of lectures and workshops on Configuration Management for the Minor Factory of the Future from Avans University of applied sciences at the Brainport Industries Campus in Eindhoven (The Netherlands). Coming from about 20 students last year to over 30 students this year.  Niek van Weert also wrote a blog post about the day (in Dutch), check it out. This year I requested the students to create a Word Cloud… Read More »What comes to mind when you think about Configuration Management?

Ignorance is Bliss! (till it isn’t)

This post is based on the IpX ConX19 Keynote that I gave together with Martin Haket, remember when we could still do in-person conferences? And it is the prequel to the posts We need a cross-platform interface for impact analysis! and CM2: the cross-platform standard for impact analysis! Thanks to Max Gravel from IpX who was so kind to let me use his images. James Newman triggered me with his comment on my post ‘Would… Read More »Ignorance is Bliss! (till it isn’t)

Let’s create our own Butterfly Effect

On 10 September 2020 I gave a full day of lectures and workshops on Configuration Management for the Minor Factory of the Future from Avans University of applied sciences at the Brainport Industries Campus in Eindhoven (The Netherlands). I had a lot of fun doing this, but I was also impressed by the students ability to stay engaged during some hardcore CM topics like identification, the change process, impact analysis and re-identification. Of course we also did the CM Game. During… Read More »Let’s create our own Butterfly Effect

COVID-19 Impact on Configuration Management

The results The results of the COVID-19 Impact on Configuration Management Survey are in. The survey received 35 responses. Thank you for your participation. The responses came from people representing various industries: And as expected some, about a third of the companies, have felt the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic to their Configuration Management processes and ways of working.  On the question: How would you characterize your pre-COVID-19 CM Implementation? CM Implementation… Read More »COVID-19 Impact on Configuration Management