"BozoBit
When you flip the Bozo Bit on someone, it means that you put them in the Bozo (the clown) category so you never take anything from them seriously again. This is a major step, not easily reversed. "
I had never heard of the Bozo Bit until a manager told me he thought I flipped it on people 'too soon.' (I thought a couple of years of evidence of uselessness was adequate but he basically never wanted me to flip it on this one particular person. Everyone knew this person was a Bozo except the manager.)
So, upon learning of this great concept of the Bozo Bit from the manager, I promptly flipped it on him, since he clearly had no idea who was doing what in the company.
I think the bozo bit phrase was coined by Jim McCarthy...a guy from Microsoft who wrote a thing that I read and believe in to this very day...you know how most of this stuff just disappears. Ten years later, I still subscribe to many of the theories he postulates.
ReplyDeleteI just found it on another tech guy's blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/David_Gristwood/archive/2004/06/24/164849.aspx
McCarthy spoke at Wall Data once...we had an annual developer's conference (one of the few great ideas Wall had). For years, I only had the bulletpoint/slide handout, and that alone was great. Later, I found this test... /jack
I agree with most of his comments except about getting to a known state. Well, you should do that, but sometimes having gotten there, you need to leave that comfort place if you are going to ship a really good game. In my experience, many really good games weren't until the last few months, when things crytalized, and many changes had to be made to make it 'fun'.
ReplyDeleteI think that is one of the hardest things for many game developers and publishers - to leave that comfort zone in order to make the game better.
For accounting software, his ideas are probably sound.
You are right. However...what happens is, many projects never get to a known state at all. They rationalize, and sit with a mess for many months. You are talking about getting to a known state and departing (as briefly as possible) to make big changes. That's fine! Even in software, we had to do that. But if the project is always a mess, all you have are the developer's promises and a year of beartburn.
ReplyDeleteDon't go dark and Beware of a guy in a room are a couple of favorites that I have witnessed over and over again...
I was thinking specifically of Microsoft Game Studios. They are so anal about their specs and schedules that they get really mad when you make some changes to make the game better.
ReplyDeleteThat's when this guy's process breaks down. Unfortunately, the Excel way of doing things is the way things are done in MGS (except Bungie who gets away with murder - and good for them I say).