Value of keeping Quality in the delivery of a Product or Service

Response to Discussion on LinkedIn about Quality:  http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=260290748&gid=2054322&commentID=152704926&trk=view_disc&fromEmail=&ut=2aP7y5BX0LFlQ1

I agree wholeheartedly about the value and importance of Quality in the overall delivery of any product or service.  Often times end users don't realize that delivery of any type is like a 3 legged stool where Time, Cost and Quality are all directly correlated;  you cannot take away one without impacting the other. 

The way I have always tried to operate is to gather requirements that meet system user’s needs, and then deliver a scope where we will be delivering a quality solution in a timely manner.   What happens after that is users come back and want the same functionality developed in a shorter period of time.  They ask if we can add more resources in order to decrease the delivery time.  Sometimes the answer is yes, but then that has a direct impact on cost.  If the answer is no, then a discussion of critical path ensues and analogies regarding how you cannot put 9 women in a room together for a month and deliver a baby are discussed.    Finally, and far too often it is decided that yes, we can finish the development in a shorter period of time, but there will be no time left for Quality Assurance to verify the required functionality performs as specified or not enough time to do thorough regression testing to verify that existing functionality continues to perform as expected. 

Now, what are the results you get: a dissatisfied user group who is unhappy that you were unable to deliver on time, the opportunity costs of having to redeploy your team to deliver the expected functionality rather than having them move onto the next project, and across-the-board frustration that could negatively impact the overall relationship.  As opposed to not bending, let’s think about keeping Quality components in your project even if it means delivering at a later date so we can all be ultimately satisfied with a product or solution that meets needs the first time.   At the end of the day, or in a year from now, do you want your customer to remember that you could not deliver a quality solution when you promised or that you pushed back so you could deliver a fully operational (think Death Star) solution that meets their needs?

ARod probable suspension, role of unions and Bud Selig’s legacy

So it is being reported by the NY Daily News and WFAN that Alex Rodriguez (A-Roid and/or A-Fraud) is being offered a plea bargain by MLB of 150 games suspension because of connection to Miami steroid factory BioGenesis.  It had previously been reported that Rodriguez and Ryan (The Hebrew Hammer) Braun along with 20 other players, were to be suspended 100 games for their association with BioGenesis after this week’s All Star game.  This would be absolutely unprecedented since the current collaborative bargain agreement clearly states a 50 game suspension for a 1^st offense, a 100 game suspension for a 2^nd offense and a lifetime ban for a 3^rd offense.  What is most shocking about this news is that this is being offered as a plea bargain, meaning MLB has enough evidence to nail A-Rod to the wall for a 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd offense, since he has no prior violations.   Although, as we already know, he has previously admitted to using steroids back in 2001 when he was newly signed by the Texas Rangers, prior to 2005 when MLB and the Players Association officially started testing for banned substances.

Apparently, other players, including Braun, who have been summoned to NY to meet with MLB have essentially chosen to invoke their 5^th amendment rights (I know it only applies to the government testimony, but cut me some slack here) and have not said a word, nor have they been able to shake any other players from this tree, though I am honestly not sure what MLB was expecting.  However, when they get ARod to come north from rehab assignments, it is reported that there is now a plea bargain available to him.  I am wondering what is in it for MLB?  If they have the goods to strike him out and to suspend him for life, why offer a plea bargain?  Do they want him to rat out other players who juiced with him?  I would honestly believe that A-Rod would rat out, turn, cheat, steal or anything else if he believed it would help him in any way shape or form, but what does MLB stand to gain if they are holding all the cards?

The next question I have is posed to any member of a labor union.  We are continuing to hear from more and more players that they don’t want cheaters in the game.  Then why do unions, all unions, have the responsibility to defend, to the death it seems, the most blatant cheaters or worse characters in their organizations who are clearly violating the policies and agreements which have been set up to protect the union in the first place?  I realize that until 2005 the MLBPA was arduously fighting to protect all players, even those using PEDs, since they were not outlawed.  A few players, like Curt Schilling were arguing that the union should do more to protect clean players and not defend players caught, but haven’t times changed?  Shouldn’t, what I suspect the overwhelming majority of players today, demand the union not defend those guilty of using PED? 

I am all for due process and making sure that no single player is ostracized or unfairly thrown under the bus, which is the role the union should play, but at some point in time why does a union have to defend the guilty, rather than admit they are guilty and usher them on their way?  I will take this a step outside of baseball, and look at about the only other union I am somewhat familiar with; the teachers union.  Rather than admit there is a bad or unsuccessful teacher that should be weeded out of the system a union will often defend that teacher and see that person is placed back into another classroom potentially negatively impacting other children and preventing a more qualified teacher from obtaining that room.  Again, I am all for due process, and making sure every person has a fair opportunity to defend themselves, but after a certain point of time, wouldn’t the union and its members be better served, by saying you are guilty and it’s time to move on, before ridiculous dollars are spent defending someone that is probably not worth defending in the first place?  Maybe it’s just me?

Finally, why does MLB and Bud Selig have such a big Jones for ARod and Ryan Braun?  Obviously Selig wants Braun to be his bitch since he beat the system last year when he tested positive but was able to get the suspension overturned.  He is now relying on this scumbag Tony Bosch as his primary witness, even after Bosch attempted to extort money from ARod for his defense.  When he could not get the money, he decided to turn evidence over to MLB.  Everyone is talking about how getting these two (or 20) cheaters will solidify Selig’s legacy as having cleaned up the game.  Well folks that is quite frankly the largest load of bull shit I have ever heard, and if you believe that then I have a bridge to sell you.  

Bud Selig has single handily been the worst commissioner ever.  Ford Frick may have been an asshole for establishing the asterisk, and Bowie Kuhn may he been boring in comparison, but Bud has done more long term harm to the game from the fans perspective than any predecessor.  Though he has done a stupendous job of creating excessive wealth for those owners that employ him, while alienating hard care fans, the fact is he remains a putz in my mind.

So what is Bud’s legacy?  He has cancelled a World Series, expanded the league, moved his own Milwaukee Brewers to the National League, introduced the Wild Card, turned what should still be an exhibition game into something that matters (though no one really treats it that way), introduced interleague play, and then made it permanent with the forced move of the Houston Astros to the American League and these are only the tip of the ice berg. 

He single handily oversaw the strike of 1994, and the aforementioned cancellation of the playoffs and World Series which could have kept the Expos in Montreal.  This lock out led to a rapid decline in the popularity of the sport and revenue was down dramatically.  Only the efforts of home run hitting Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998 brought fans back to the game, and what was driving those balls out of the park?  That’s right the same PED/Steroids that Selig is using today to drive Braun and ARod out of the game.  How quickly Acting-Commissioner-for-Life Selig forgets that the resurgence of the game that he almost killed was sparked by PED and he (along with the owners, players, media and fans) completely looked the other way while they lined their pockets with fans who were all too happy to come to the park, to watch these sluggers hit (myself included), and buy beers, programs and hot dogs.  So to me his legacy will always be that of a hypocrite, nothing less, nothing more.  Now, please return so we can have a new commissioner clean up the shit you have left us

Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Source: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

The Decline of Baseball Card Collecting

Why Card companies are missing the boat

The real reason for the decline of card collecting

There is an article in the NY Times today, which talks about the decline of people investing in baseball cards.  The shame of the situation is that the remaining card companies (Topps and Upper Deck) are not making it easy for adults or kids to collect baseball cards anymore.  They are not easily accessible, and the market is so saturated with different products that it is impossible for a person to know what to collect.  For instance a quick search of Cardboard Connection lists 39 different sets, which you can buy and collect of 2013 baseball cards, 25 which are branded Topps.  That does not even take into consideration the other sports and trading cards that are available, further muddying the novice collector and deterring them from possibly making their first purchase.  Yes it was supposed to be a better investment than the stock market in the 1990's when cards were flooding the market, but then there was a sharp decline, and now the card companies are complaining that the market is not returning, but yet they seem to be doing everything they can to kill demand, and continuing to produce more supply than is probably needed.  

When I was a kid, you get baseball cards everywhere.  You could not walk into a gas stations, a drug store, a department store or any other major retail establishment and not find baseball cards.  I used to make treks to different stores across town, just to find an elusive Johnny Bench or Ozzie Smith card, because my local haunts were not producing the cards I need to complete my series.  Little did I know that I need to go somewhere like Tennessee or Montana, light years away from Binghamton New York, to find those missing cards, but I was on a mission, and boy was it fun.  Today, my kids don't understand baseball card collecting and don't understand why I still do it to this day.  Neither do I really

A few years back I was speaking to the owner of a local convenience store and he happened to have a box of basketball cards.  I asked him why he had them, and why he does not regularly carry trading cards.  He said he got this box at a deep discount, not telling me what he paid, so it was worth putting them on his counter so he could move these cards.  He said there is simply not enough profit in trading cards as a whole to regularly give them any space in his store.   This got me thinking about it, and my town, like my others, as had a recent influx of super drug stores, huge CVS or Walgreens, or Rite Aid, or whatever, that have aisles and aisles of all the crap you could ever need. As my wife was shopping for something I started wondering the aisles, figuring one of these huge stores might have baseball cards.  While they had 3 different aisles for candy, not a single trading card could be found and this leads me to the final reason why the industry is in a decline, the product is simply hard to find and not at all cost effective.  Its almost as if they don't want you to buy it and if you do, they don't give you a lot of value for your hard earned money.  

The Stamford CT area is a fairly large community with a population of close to 120k people.  However, the only places where I have been able to find cards reguarly is at the Target and the local comic book shop.  If you go a little further north there are two Walmarts in Norwalk CT where you can get cards as well.   However in both Target and Walmart, they are located off in the corner near the cash registers, and in one of the Walmarts, they are actually next to the cigarettes, which makes them seem almost forbidden where you need to ask an associate for assistance in selecting your pack of cards.  All the cards are thrown together on the wall in a singular display so finding what you are looking for, in my case the plain old regular Topps Series 1/2, is especially difficult.  

Then if you are lucky enough to find the set you are looking for, there are additional choices.  There are the small packs of 8-12 cards, for about $1.99 each.  There are 30-36 cards for $5.99.  And there are 81 cards for $9.99.  

Why 8-12 cards you may ask?  Well because in every pack, there may or may not be a special insert, which ultimately means even if you choose to collect a particular set, then you are also getting additional inserts that you might not even want (like me).  So if there is an insert you might only get 8 cards, which actually increases the base cost ranges from $0.17 to $0.25 per card, when the secondary market for the majority of these cards goes for between 5-10 cents, especially when you can buy the complete set of 660 cards for $49.99 (or $.08/card) at the end of the year.  It really seems to me that is the real goal for the companies.  

Back in 2007 I started reading Ben Henry's baseball card blog and decided to start buying individual packs again for the first time since 1982, when my original collection ended.  I really enjoyed opening them up, seeing who I got, eyeing a few stats of a key players, and ultimately (mild case of OCD?) putting them into numerical order to determine which cards were outstanding.  At the end of the season, I would find online shops like http://www.baseball-cards.com//  or http://www.baseballcardzone.com/ that would sell me individual cards to help me complete my sets.  

Each year since then, I find myself buying less and less individual packs simply because it feels like I am getting less cards, less value and more crap, plus my wife keeps telling me I am wasting our money, which might be true too.  It is a shame, because as my kids gets older, I am seeing none of their friends interested in pursuing this hobby, I see only a few of them actually following the game itself (but that is a whole other story), so unless the card companies drastically change their strategies in how they are pricing and how they are marketing to their consumers, then this article is correct that there are going to continual to be a shrinking market.  Eventually it will just be Lee Goldinger and I trading cards back and forth.

In the meantime, I am still looking for a 1984 Jim Beattie (#288) and the Toronto Blue Jays Team Card (#606). so if you have an extra one of these laying around hit me up and lets see if we can work a trade so I can mark that set complete