Hi Michael, +1 to you, Bruce and all re lean startups + agile methodology. As a fellow brother in our federal system I still look to E. F. Schumacher?s 1973 essays for guidance, Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered See for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful
What I did learn from Jim Wood in Chicago, who had a bad rep as an anti-tech person, is to keep your eyes on the prize and achieve many small goals in sequence brick by brick. In 2005 we built our DAM for $10,000. Still using same and now managing 250,000 image records. We do finally need to upgrade, but after seven years not a bad life cycle. After traversing the RFIs, RFPs, and requirements mazes we acquired NGA Images software for about $125K. A very small federal procurement as web projects go. Lots of spade and hoe work to customize, but it was a small is beautiful DIY customization. Launched March 16, 2012. Nothing bad happened since. Only good will. Come join us. Jump in. The water is fine. 96,000 free downloads to date. Cheers, Alan On 7/23/12 10:44 AM, "Michael Edson" <EDSONM at si.edu> wrote: > +1 to this ;) > Goood goood cool aid. > Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup" is an important read - - everything I've read > about this subject seems important! We tried to bake as much of this way of > thinking/working into the Smithsonian web strategy as people could tolerate, > and an agile methodology is baked into the Smithsonian commons project charter > (http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Smithsonian+Commons+Project+Cha > rter) > > The trick now is getting our organizations to recognize this way of working as > a legitimate (better!) way of perusing the mission/results/outcomes than > monolithic RFP's and multi-year design/build contracts - - and to get good at > it. I've talked to quite a few vendors who are uncomfortable doing lean/agile > projects with GLAM's because they feel that we (the clients) aren't very good > at it yet and we can't get decision makers to make decisions/commitments as > quickly as the process demands. > > In addition to Bruce and others, Dana Mitroff Silvers at SFMOMA has been doing > great work transitioning towards lean/agile and has a lot of wisdom on the > subject. (At Dana's recommendation I did the Certified Scum Master training > and it was great - - life changing! - - and affordable. > http://www.scrumalliance.org/scrum_certification ) > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of > Bruce > Wyman > Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 5:18 PM > To: Museum Computer Network Listserv > Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Lean Startup advocates? > > I'm a huge fan of Eric's writing and his general approach was reflected in a > bunch of the original work that we did in Denver Art Museum's galleries. I'd > recommend him to anyone in a heartbeat that's trying to figure out how to make > some change and is frustrated by your institution's process. Hell, even if > you're not, it's still a good read. > > When I first joined DAM in 2004, before the expansion opened, we chose an > early exhibit about the construction of the expansion to start trying out a > slew of interface ideas and pieces of tech. There were maybe a half-dozen > interactive bits that tested out RFID, tangible interfaces, oversized > projections, and interactions that embedded visitors in the experience. They > were all relatively simple in execution and we treated the exhibit as the > testbed for more complex tech elements that we would develop later and, more > importantly, how our visitors would interact with the ideas that we were > proposing. Everything we did later --- experience, additional software, and > complexity --- all iterated on those early tests and we constantly refined > what we were doing based on what we were learning. > > I ran the tech department as a startup in the museum and publicly described it > as such to the rest of the senior staff, trustees, and outside advisors. It > was very much ingrained into my thinking and we frequently did most of our > work on a shoestring budget and with only 1-2 people. It meant that we were > able to do a fair bit of work that couldn't be done elsewhere at a much lower > price point in the end. We had to build internal tolerance for iterating on > projects and creating awareness that an opening wasn't a finish line, but > instead just another milestone in the longer-term view that we had of tech in > the museum. > > I am a huge fan of just getting stuff out into the public. We can discuss and > prototype ideas ad nauseum but seeing how visitors interact with something > over the course of a few days will tell you far more than all the anticipatory > discussion and wondering will do. You just need to be prepared to iterate, > accept that all of your original assumptions about the experience could be > wrong, and, perhaps most importantly, be prepared to quickly capitalize on > opportunities you might see in how people interact. > >> Nate Solas <mailto:nate.solas at walkerart.org> July 20, 2012 1:43 PM >> Anyone out there implementing (or wanting to) advice from Eric Ries's >> book The Lean Startup? It's been vigorously recommended to me and at a >> glance some of the ideas are pretty appealing. Especially a fan of >> testing before committing to big projects / changes, etc... >> >> Article from Wired last month: >> http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/07/features/the-upstart?p >> age=all >> >> Just curious if anyone's drunk the kool-aid? Tips / ideas / warnings? >> Happy >> Friday! >> Nate >>
