Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

News:  Power10 Midrange Machine: The Power E1050.
Learning:  Common technology terms that you should know.
Leadership:  IT leadership: Why adaptability matters.
Modernization:  Rip up your org chart and reorganize around Value Streams.
Programming:  What is a simple coding solution?

News

Power10 Midrange Machine: The Power E1050

This is the fifth part of the series on “midrange Power10 machines” from Timothy Prickett Morgan.

This week, Timothy ends “the hardware deep dives with a look at the Power E1050 midrange machine. This is one of the best and most capable servers that Big Blue has ever designed, and it is a damned shame that it does not run the IBM i operating system.”

But, like in the past, all you need to do is convince IBM that it should.

Take a deep dive into this article to build your case.

Learning

Common technology terms that you should know

“Even when two people think they’re on the same page, they may not be. Some tech terms overlap or require more clarity.”

While many of these terms might be obvious to you, some might not.

Leadership

IT leadership: Why adaptability matters

“While some skills are considered useful assets in modern organizations, others have become must-haves. One of the most critical is adaptability. Organizations like IBM and the United Nations are investing significantly in understanding, exploring, and developing adaptability: What makes one person, team, or organization adapt while another does not?”

“The challenge for leaders and organizations is that adaptability is complex, dependent on factors such as the emotional investment a person has in a situation or setting, their underlying psychology, and the environment in which they operate.”
“In the right environment, even the most change-averse person can be willing to adapt; conversely, in the wrong environment, even the most adaptable among us will prefer to play it safe.

The three elements are needed to be adaptable:

Traits. Preferences. Environment.

Modernization

Rip up your org chart and reorganize around Value Streams

I find the discussion around Value Streams fascinating.

“To compete in the digital economy, teams must optimize both efficiency and effectiveness–it’s a tough ask.”

Most organizations function within silos, handing off tasks and information between departments. This is inefficient.

“One way to eliminate the delays and waste associated with silos and foster autonomy is to arrange around value streams.”

“Traditional organizational charts arrange resources according to expertise. This means that work is handed off to different teams as it progresses through the value stream.”

“Value streams exist whether or not people call them that and whether or not they actively manage them. Every time a hand-off occurs, it creates an opportunity for delays or errors.”

“It also means it’s hard for people to understand the end-to-end system.”

“Instead, they do as they are told to optimize their piece of the puzzle without really understanding how their actions impact work that’s upstream or downstream.”

On the other hand, “value stream orientation promotes team diversity by recognizing the individual background (cross-functionally) into the value delivered to the customer.”

In summary, “organizing around value streams is the foundation for nurturing the value stream-centric ways of thinking and working that drive both efficiency and effectiveness. Then, customer experience is improved and higher levels of organizational performance are achieved.”

“All organizations are composed of value streams, regardless of whether they have been made visible, and most large organizations have complex networks of interconnecting value streams. These dependencies are not easily decoupled. They’re not easily visible, either. But once you’ve mapped them, you can start seeing where they connect and manage the dependencies.”

Programming

What is a simple coding solution?

While this is written for PHP it can easily apply to RPG or any language, for that matter.

“There are several aspects of simplicity we’d have to consider. For instance, we could consider simple solutions in programming to mean several things:”

Easy to use
Easy to understand
Requires the least amount of code
Requires the least amount of classes
Independent
Easy to change
Allows for reuse

“These properties aren’t exclusive.”

This is a series of articles, so dive in.

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