Big Sigh of Relief

Yesterday evening we wrapped up GLSEC, the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference. It was incredible fun and a great opportunity to strengthen old relationships and build new ones.

I was especially impressed by the out-of-town people who came, in two ways: First, many of them assumed we were an old, established event (like PNSQC), and second, I got lots of compliments on organization.

(What those people didn't know is that I can't even keep my desk clean at work. :-)

This leads me to three insights about organization and events ...

1) To re-phrase Clarke's Third Law, "Motivation, interest, desire, and pride, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from good organization."

or, more likely ...

2) If you lack organization skills but can surround yourself with people who have them, there is no effective difference. (Really, all of the conference volenteers were top flight; we compensated very well for each other)

and, also likely, to paraphrase Jerry Weinberg

3) There are very few new ideas. The best way to get "new" ideas is to either cross-pollinate old ideas, incrementally improve existing ideas, or, well ... steal from the best.


Thank you PNSQC, thank you STAREast, thank you IQAA, thank you OSCon ...