RE: !!! sync digest: All in one letter

["Douglas Ort" <ort@northnet.org>]

Mr. Suzi make important points.  There is an overall software management
issue (with a need for leadership establishing structure and deadlines), and
there is a communication issue.

On writing to whomever:  Drafting a letter of introduction, as such, is
simple.  Its heart (and opening paragraph) must focus (briefly) on who seul
is and how seul-edu fits into the overall Scheme of Things, and (more
specifically) on why knowing about seul-edu projects is important to the
company and person to whom we are writing.  This stuff needs to be bulleted
and focused.  Do this when the following is well on the way:

First is the software management leadership issue (which centers, not on
software as such, but on leadership).  I think the seul-edu community is
caught a bit too much in striving for consensus at too many points in a
software developmental process.  I'm not a technical guy.  Rather, I can
comment the process of employing effective leadership approaches to
accomplish specific goals, so I'll speak to that.

The alternative to autocracy (my way only and I'll do it alone) and
consensus (lets all agree before anything happens) is what I call a
differentiated process.  Persons highly interested in a project and with
sufficient technical knowledge develop both a vision of end use and a
process that enables that vision.

They call to the community for input, requiring from others clearly stated
responses that include both end-use and technical concerns.  They end-date
that process, establishing a base line for their own working parameters.
This is somewhat arbitrary.  So what?  Post results to a web site and let
the seul-edu community (and others) know about it.  Project leaders stay
focused on their vision and the process.  They aren't looking to make
everyone happy.  Their own feeling states are not central to their goals.
Its the recursive open source process, working through differentiated
leadership, that keeps the whole thing focused, productive and honest.

BTW, it is those kind of interim postings that will prove very interesting
to Bascom- and Caldera-types.  When seul-edu project coordinators have
something like this to show others, that becomes very cool.

Leadership accountability is to both a well-defined end-use vision and to a
technical process.  The beginning point is the framing of end-use needs that
are brief, focused and startlingly clear.  Leadership freedom is governed,
not by trying to cover all of the bases that anyone can think up, but by
working within the structure of their own well-defined parameters.  This is
about boundary management.  No product will meet every need.  So what?  May
those with vision for both what they need and with whom they wish to work
get on with it.  Intro letters are for later.

Douglas Ort
ort@northnet.org


~-----Original Message-----
~From: owner-seul-edu@seul.org [mailto:owner-seul-edu@seul.org]On Behalf
~Of Roman Suzi
~Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 1998 10:15 AM
~To: seul-edu@seul.org
~Subject: !!! sync digest: All in one letter
~
~
~hi!
~
~I don't have time answer individual messages,  so  I  just  put
~some summarising remarks/my opinion:
//snip//
~
~3. To approach Bascom or Caldera, we must stand ON THEIR POINT
~   OF VIEW. How could we mutually help each other?
~   Will they have some profit or good name for that?
~   So, first we need to know WHY we want to approach them!
~   Companies are not just bunch of bored people. They
~   have plans and goals. Everything else is just distracting them
~   from that way.
~   What do WE need from them in exchange FOR WHAT?
~   ------------------------------------------------
~   Caldera and Bascom aren't charities. They will not buy
~   vague proposals (or even answer emails with such proposals).
//snip//
~   So, the letter mustn't be a selfgoal.
~
//snip//
~
~   DO WE HAVE SOMEBODY WITH SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE HERE?
~
~   Can that person advice us how to do it with more order
~   that it is now?
~
~   (And always we must keep in mind, that only those
~   things are done with quality, which are done with
~   interest!)
~
~These were my 4 roubles ;-)
~I am sorry, I will not participate in discussion.
~But I hope I focused our problems precisely to
~facilitate decision-making processes here.
~
~
~Sincerely yours,
~Roman A. Suzi
~
~ -- Petrozavodsk -- Karelia -- Russia --
~    -- powered by Linux RedHat 5.1 --
~
~
~