80:20 rules! - Building software smarter

Back


Google Tech Talks
October 8, 2008

ABSTRACT

Ever notice that you seem to spend 80% of your time on 20% of your tasks? Or that 80% of the decisions in a meeting seem to occur in 20% of the meeting time? Welcome to the world of the 80:20 rule. When we design, build and test software, we have to determine where to start and what we should do next. The 80:20 rule helps provide an answer to these questions, while helping to increase our productivity and effectiveness. As well as being an agile principle, it's a common thread in other disciplines, and there's a special variation that applies to software defects. We'll explore the different ways testers and developers are using the 80:20 rule. This rule could be a secret ingredient to help you build software smarter!

Speaker: Erik Petersen
Erik Petersen has been involved in custom software development since the 1980s, now focusing on testing and quality. He has presented at more than twenty Australian and international conferences, winning several awards. He mixes industry experience with powerful ideas and a passion for quality, and has influenced the work habits of hundreds of testers and developers across the world.

Erik's been heavily involved in the Exploratory Testing community since before he even knew what it was called, proposing the idea of paired ET independently of Kaner and Bach in 2001. He is pushing forward with research on ET and other agile methods. He has reviewed many agile and testing books, and accidentally named the Master Test Report In the IEEE 829 Test Documentation 2008 standard.
Check out Erik's link site at www.testingspot.net

Channel: Science & Technology
Uploaded: October 13, 2008 at 10:13 am
Author: googletechtalks

Length: 00:54:23
Rating: 4.47
Views: 10257

Tags: google techtalks techtalk engedu talk talks googletechtalks education

Video Comments:
0Oooo0oO0ooOoo0 (November 5, 2008 at 1:56 am)
To be very brief and blunt: you have excellent command of the topic, but your presentation's quality will be improved by several orders of magnitude if you work on your delivery skills!
ligerly (November 5, 2008 at 1:52 pm)
The poster is requestubg this comment is being removed. It is based on a unique difference of opinion since an early version of this talk won best presentation at 2 international conferences!
ligerly (November 5, 2008 at 12:50 am)
An emailed comment on this video:
I viewed your presentation today. It presents ideas that can make
many people more productive and hopefully happier in their work. I
have forwarded to several others who will hopefully view it. Thanks for sharing this
with us. I certainly found it timely.
0Oooo0oO0ooOoo0 (November 3, 2008 at 10:50 am)
The presenter obviously knows what he's talking about, and his topic is very important to take to mind, but he has a lot to improve in terms of his delivery skills. A few things come to mind:
* That garish slide layout is over-designed and visually distracting - Windows 3.1 called, they want their colors back
* Why do you read back the slides? Either you know the slides are boring, or you consider yourself boring, or both

Still, after forcing myself awake I learned a few valuable lessons...
ligerly (November 5, 2008 at 1:50 am)
Boring & poorly delivered? If you pay close attention, some slides have quotes on them so they need to be read. I couldn't see the monitor most of the time so it was impossible to read the slides!
I'm confused how a 3d color graduated slide master can be a 2D flat color Windows 3.1 master.
There was actually another speaker in that theater still speaking when I was meant to start, so I had 30 seconds prep time before the talk started so I don't think it went too badly. Glad you stayed awake!
lobomeister (October 14, 2008 at 8:38 am)
summary at 48:50 and 50:25