Software and statistical process control

MSP, originally uploaded by gugs.

This is a must read book for those who want to apply measurement to their software processes. It is in fact a book about statistical process control with a good introduction to all the charts and tests you can do, with a software flavour. Selecting the metrics to be used is very important and multiple examples are given in the book. An interesting companion is you decide to deploy a metrics programme in a software oriented organization (mandatory if you are using tools like CMM and you want to reach level 3 and 4..., or if you want to implement the measurements part in CMM-I)

All in: an accessible and highly recommended book.

SPAM: Skype vs Flickr

Something very interesting is happening on the net. It seems that sex workers or internet criminals have found a new way to access their potential "customers". Two examples of potential targets are flickr and skype. The criminal organizations basically exploit the fact that user lists (directories) are freely and publicly available, so it is quite easy for them to send millions of spam messages to those users in an automated way. But the way both companies are reacting to that is quite different:

Skype:
thousands of users get a invitation to contact an unknown person (often with a "sexy" name and to optionally click on a link). If you do click, you are "dead" because the link goes to a site with malware and typically installing a nice Trojan on your PC. Never click or react to such a request (I never ever did). The problem for Skype is that more and more users are complaining because they get several (up to 30 according to forum posts) unwanted connection requests/messages a day and there is NO way to stop this. Skype is just asking the users to "block" the person and to report the abuse. They are basically doing nothing even if they say they are working on it. From a user's perspective, this is a very wrong attitude because more and more people are complaining about this. Skype is just under attack by those spammers, and it just seems that they don't realize they could just disappear (I am serious) if they don't handle this issue in a professional way. I am not willing to use Skype anymore in the same way, and I am definitely not willing to pay a cent for a service which cannot be reliable and user friendly anymore, not even taking the potential extremely severe threat on your PC and its contents. Skype also almost "denies" the problem in a soft way on their forums, making the situation very unclear. Anyway the whole attitude is very unprofessional and will definitely destroy their image IF they don't address this quickly in a more serious way, and if they don't communicate clearly about the issue.
I am very curious about what is going to happen in the coming weeks, and what the press is going to tell about this.

Flickr:
A very different story, but basically another form of SPAM started yesterday (as far as I am concerned). People, most probably sex workers linked to criminal organizations are creating users and leaving comments on your pictures (flickr is a picture sharing community), with a strange message including a request to comment on their pictures. They typically have only one, and it is a way to get you on a sex site or to contact a sex worker. The approach was VERY different from Skype: within a few hours the users who started this spamming have been deleted (I have seen the same messages by other dummy users appearing on several friends' pictures within minutes so it seemed to be a general issue). And later the messages have been deleted and everything has been restored. Not only the reaction was extremely fast, but the users themselves didn't have to do anything and many probably didn't notice this was happening. We'll see how the situation evolves, but this approach at least, is much more professional than in the Skype example.

This is to me another real life example about the paramount importance of listening to the customer (VOC voice of customer) at all times and to differentiate by pleasing him/her, the best longer term investment you can do...

Recent update:

as far as I could check, flickr did not experience that kind of spam recently, at least in a visible way, while skype users still regularly are getting annoyed by spam. They partially solved the issue, because it is happening once a week maybe on average, while it has been a lot of times each day. Not so many people are complaining and it does not seem to have an influence on their business. Strange sometimes how people react.

We are trying harder...

A simple comment about the "voice of the customer". The AVIS car rental company is using "We are trying harder" in their marketing communication. I have used AVIS quite a few times and have always been (very) happy with their service and price/performance ratio BUT the message is strange to say the least. As a customer, if I have a problem, I don't want my supplier to "try harder" than the competitor, I want a reliable supplier solving the problems or not creating the problem in the first place. The message is quite defensive and sounds very negative to me. I would be curious to hear the perception other users might have, I consider this giving a negative image of the company...If we are thinking of this in an NPS context (net promoter score) - a concept using a simple metric based on customer satisfaction to determine the potential of a company - I would give a high score to AVIS based on my personal experience, but the "try harder" message could be damaging the score: who wants a supplier "trying" something, everybody wants suppliers "doing" their thing.

Poka yoke hotel keycard

scotland -41, originally uploaded by gugs.

This is a very simple example and a creative one. A card manufacturer decided to slightly adapt the shape of the keycard. A s a result, you insert the card with your finger on the "right" place and don't have to retry different orientations...

Strange world

A recent experience showing again that we are living in a crazy world (that I already knew for a long time). I learned a lesson about pricing and about the nonsense world economy and traveling products. The story is as follows: some products (I don't want to mention details, this is not really relevant) available on Amazon are cheaper if they are ordered from amazon.com than from amazon.fr for instance. As a European, I order some stuff from the .com site, and goods are supposed to be delivered from the US to Europe. Now the path being followed: the products in question are produced/printed in the US, distributed by a company in California. According to the package I received, it seems that the goods have been shipped from Auckland, New Zealand. Delivery was in Belgium, Europe, with a very reasonable delay and perfect packaging. 5 stars service. But what about the number of miles traveled, everything for a lower charge than similar products delivered from the European warehouse...

This kind of story is not new, of course, and BTW I am a happy customer, but as said in the beginning, we live in a crazy world.

And just for the fun, I just saw that the apple I was eating while typing this is coming from New Zealand too. We produce apples locally, not in this season, but again...