CONTACTS 
0202 - Project Planning & Management Servi415 345 9187 fax or 800...                                                                                                  O-00000600 0101

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketng, Sales, Demonstrations

0403 -    ..
0404 - Summary/Objective
0405 -
040501 - Followed up work at ref SDS 21 line 42, ref SDS 19 line 53, 
040502 - 18 line 64, ref SDS 14 line 65, and ref DIP 1 line 29, and ref DIP 2
040503 - line 29, and discussion with Cheryl Leff at ref SDS 15 line 145.
040504 -
040505 - Demonstrated SDS so Cheryl can place the material submitted on
040506 - communication metrics and POIMS technology in the context of project
040507 - management methods and tools.  She has a good sense about positioning
040508 - technologies in the market place.
040509 -
040510 - Should get memo from Cheryl explaining her views about these ideas,
040511 - and on writing a book.
040512 -
040513 -
0406 -
0407 -
0408 -
0409 - Discussion
0410 -
041001 - Communication Workshop
041002 -
041003 - Introduced Bill and explained our meeting this morning on planning a
041004 - communication workshop, per ref SDS 24 line 79.  Explained Rosanne
041005 - could not attend, per call from Mike Sykes, ref SDS 23 line 49.
041006 -
041007 -      Background Rosanne/Topflight
041008 -
041009 -      Reviewed my understanding of Topflight per ref SDS 13 line 93.
041010 -
041011 -      Cheryl mentioned that Rosanne marketed Artemis, which was at one
041012 -      time owned by Lockheed. Cheryl feels Rosanne has strong sales
041013 -      skills.
041014 -
041015 -      Lotus Notes, per ref SDS 18 line 83.
041016 -
041017 -          Cheryl said Topflight does not apply Lotus Notes in the way
041018 -          SDS was used at PG&E.  Topflight is a registered Microsoft
041019 -          vendor and so concentrates on those tools.  I gathered that
041020 -          Topflight had a contract to do something with Lotus Notes,
041021 -          but that evidently this is not a continuing undertaking.
041022 -
041023 - Briefly reviewed our thinking on using the "Planning Theater" format
041024 - as both a training component of the workshop, and to elicit useful
041025 - input from attendees toward a larger conference on communication
041026 - at Asilomar in the summer.
041027 -
041028 -       Cheryl asked about "Planning Theater" methods, and so we looked
041029 -       at the ideas presented at the July, 1990 Asilomar conference by
041030 -       Russ Archibald and Bob Gillis, ref SDS 2 line 250.
041031 -
041032 -
041033 -
041034 - SDS Demonstration
041035 -
041036 - Showed how SDS applies the POIMS concept of "knowledge" as a web of
041037 - connected information.  I opened the SDS record of discussions on May
041038 - 17 with Rosanne at ref SDS 21 line 77, and with Cheryl at ref SDS 20
041039 - line 119 to illustrate how investing in intellectual capital can pay
041040 - off by being applied as often as needed.  In SDS it never wears out
041041 - and is always instantly available.
041042 -
041043 -       Showed how SDS organizes information by time, company, people,
041044 -       subjects and objects (documents, files, correspondence).
041045 -
041046 -       We applied information from Diary records, correspondence,
041047 -       publications (magazine articles, reports, books), to
041048 -       demonstrate SDS versatility, speed and ease of use.
041049 -
041050 -       Cheryl asked me to do a report on a CPM schedule activity from
041051 -       the PG&E CDWR project, which we examined for reference.  Showed
041052 -       how SDS is used to correlate work and understandings from all
041053 -       sources to accomplish project objectives.  This scenario is
041054 -       also explained in the example I gave Cheryl to take for further
041055 -       review, see ref OF 2 line 270:
041056 -
041057 -                      Making Money:  SDS & CPM
041058 -
041059 -
041060 -
0411 -

SUBJECTS
MPM & Communication Metrics
Modern Project Management, Integrate Cost,

0605 -
060501 - SDS & MPM
060502 -
060503 - Explained concept of Communication Metrics per ref SDS 11 line 66, and
060504 - need for a better MPM tool based on Joel Koppleman's presentation on
060505 - Primavera at PMI, ref SDS 14 line 331, where he reported automated
060506 - cost and schedule tools are not enough to ensure successful manage-
060507 - ment.  Reviewed Kerzner PM video conference that resulted in identi-
060508 - fying the advantages of communication metrics relative to cost and
060509 - schedule metrics, ref SDS 8 line 244.
060510 -
060511 -
060512 -
060513 -
0606 -

SUBJECTS
Farming model for Investing

0704 -
070401 - Advantages of Investing (Farming Metaphor)
070402 -
070403 - Discussed the solution to the common objection to SDS that managers
070404 - feel there is NOT ENOUGH TIME to invest intellectual capital, per ref
070405 - SDS 16 line 94.
070406 -
070407 -     Submitted the scenario, ref OF 2 line 695, which contains recent
070408 -     discussions with Jane Hiller Carpenter at Wharton about lecturing
070409 -     on Communication Metrics.  We briefly considered the concept of
070410 -     executive management as "nomadic hunter/gatherers," which tech-
070411 -     nology is rendering obsolete, ref SDS 16 line 126, and at ref OF 2
070412 -     line 770, submitted to Cheryl during the meeting.
070413 -
070414 -     Did not review Wayne Wetzel's comments (Deputy Director, DNRC) on
070415 -     the role of human drives in cost/benefit considerations, ref SDS
070416 -     5 line 90, where executives hope they can simply show up and
070417 -     "pull the trigger" rather than do the spade work contemplated by
070418 -     SDS.  This "hope" gives rise to the need for a communication
070419 -     engineer, in the same way we need accountants, structural
070420 -     engineers, chemists, lawyers, sweepers, truck drivers and so on.
070421 -
070422 -
070423 -
070424 -
0705 -

SUBJECTS
Difficult to Explain SDS/POIMS
Difficult to Understand
Communication Metrics
Metrics, Discover and Fix Mistakes

1507 -
150701 - Explaining SDS - Communication Metrics
150702 -
150703 - I explained the challenge of EXPLAINING SDS, per discussion with Mark
150704 - Sackett at ref SDS 17 line 64. (I gave Cheryl a copy of that record
150705 - for reference - this illustrated how SDS records are popped to
150706 - produce perfectly formatted reports, simply by pressing a key; Cheryl
150707 - asked about suppressing the line numbers).
150708 -
150709 - Bill DeHart who sat in on this meeting, noted how the details in SDS
150710 - more sharply focus the efforts of a diverse project team in the PG&E
150711 - mold, per ref SDS 6 line 110.  He indicated that despite this history
150712 - SDS is hard to explain, ref SDS 7 line 106, and so this led to
150713 - "communication metrics" as an easier way for people to grasp what SDS
150714 - does and why it improves their work.
150715 -
150716 -     During lunch, Bill introduced Ron Swilling, who is still with
150717 -     PG&E.  Cheryl asked about the projects Ron manages.  Ron gave an
150718 -     overview of various project work he does.  Bill asked about the
150719 -     effect of recent "re-engineering" changes.  Ron said the effects
150720 -     have not fully taken hold yet, so much of their work methods and
150721 -     management practice continue as before.
150722 -
150723 -     I mentioned situations where communications fail because critical
150724 -     details are misunderstood (see example at ref SDS 3 line 80).
150725 -     This leads to an "official position" that simply mushrooms over
150726 -     time. Ron, Cheryl and Bill seemed to recognize these occurrances
150727 -     as common to their management experience.
150728 -
150729 -     Communication Metrics is aimed at avoiding these maladies, also
150730 -     referred as Murphy's Law, for the reasons at ref SDS 8 line 264.
150731 -
150732 -
150733 - Cheryl expressed uneasiness about using "communication metrics" to
150734 - describe SDS because "metrics" is often applied in relation to
150735 - "measuring" something numerically.  She feels "understanding" is not
150736 - readily quantifiable in this manner.
150737 -
150738 - Cheryl said SDS identifies accuracy.  She said this is important, but
150739 - still different from measuring a quantity of "understanding," as
150740 - implied by "metrics."
150741 -
150742 -
150743 -     Pending Studies
150744 -
150745 -     We considered briefly how writing stuff down "measures"
150746 -     understanding.  If you cannot write it down and "link" it up in
150747 -     SDS, then you don't "understand" it.  So testing or "debugging"
150748 -     our understanding is a form of metric.  Another metric is to
150749 -     submit understandings to others who can give notice of perceived
150750 -     errors.  This is the court room cross-examination model.  These
150751 -     methods of measuring "understanding" (set out in the POIMS paper
150752 -     at ref OF 1 line 411), are the best model under the current state
150753 -     of the art.
150754 -
150755 -     Another perspective on this issue is a discussion with Morris
150756 -     Jones at Chips & Tech on designing studies to show a quantifiable
150757 -     improvement in management productivity and the ability to think,
150758 -     remember and communicate, ref SDS 10 line 149.
150759 -
150760 -         Efforts are underway to develop measurements of improvements
150761 -         in cognitive capability using SDS.  This was discussed with
150762 -         Cheryl at ref SDS 20 line 75.
150763 -
150764 -         Sandia Lab has turned down participation in studying this
150765 -         phenomena, ref SDS 12 line 216; however, Dr. Ralph Holloway at
150766 -         Columbia University has under consideration doing such a
150767 -         study, ref SDS 22 line 97.  We are pursuing other opportuni-
150768 -         ties to develop support for the concept of "metrics."
150769 -
150770 -
150771 -     At ref SDS 9 line 194 Morris and I considered how the complexity
150772 -     of management communication does not lend itself to quantififica-
150773 -     tion in the traditional sense of measuring performance of a
150774 -     refrigerator, automobile or circuit board, but that this is no
150775 -     excuse to avoid the critical need to formulate methodologies for
150776 -     measuring management productivity, which gives rise to the idea
150777 -     of "Communication Metrics."
150778 -
150779 -         [See later work by Tom Landauer that shows how metrics might
150780 -         be applied to human "understanding." ref SDS 25 line 337.]
150781 -
150782 -
150783 - Cheryl requested a copy of the SDS Schematic.
150784 -
150785 -     I put this together from the Help screen, but it did not turn
150786 -     out very well, so I will submit a better presentation.
150787 -
150788 -
150789 -
150790 - Venture Capitalist, ref SDS 20 line 147.
150791 -
150792 -     Did not discuss this.
150793 -
150794 -
150795 -
1508 -

SUBJECTS
Automated Management
Relational & Hierarchial Design
Hierarchial Relational Design, SDS is
Integrate Time, Information, People,
Remembering (Linked Records - Traceability,
Traceability to Original Sources
Intelligence Incite Correlations
Innovation aided by Understanding
Artificial Intelligence, Decision Support

2512 -
251201 - Advancing the Art of Automated Management
251202 -
251203 - Cheryl noted that SDS provides both hierarchical and relational data
251204 - base features.
251205 -
251206 - She asked about using automatic noticing of prospective links,
251207 - similar to emerging object oriented technology.  We talked about the
251208 - possibility of a technology that would produce a list of likely links
251209 - from which the user would accept or reject, similar to a pull down
251210 - menu.
251211 -
251212 -     I briefly reviewed work on artificial intelligence, per ref SDS 4
251213 -     line 95,, which seems to indicate getting a machine to anticipate
251214 -     "understanding" and meaningful relationships is more complex than
251215 -     hoped for by researchers/developers.  I mentioned the work of
251216 -     Jeremy Campbell, but did not review the analysis at ref SDS 1
251217 -     line 54 and at ref SDS 1 line 122, on this point.
251218 -
251219 -     We reviewed this idea from the discussion with Axiom Management a
251220 -     few weeks ago, ref SDS 16 line 102, which applies Campbell's
251221 -     thesis.
251222 -
251223 -     After we looked at the SDS Subject Index, and Cheryl saw how it is
251224 -     applied, she feels this listing of organizational objectives
251225 -     applies the idea she has in mind.  Bill DeHart noted that the
251226 -     practice in SDS of linking current analysis with prior
251227 -     understandings is another way SDS alerts the user of correlations
251228 -     and implications that are not otherwise apparent.
251229 -
251230 -
251231 -
251232 - During lunch we considered the evolution of SDS as an application of
251233 - speech recognition, using object oriented programming, and of course a
251234 - Windows interface.
251235 -
251236 -
251237 - Follow-up
251238 -
251239 - I asked Cheryl to prepare a memo of her understandings for Rosanne.
251240 - She indicated SDS could be useful to her.  I would be willing to
251241 - provide SDS to Cheryl at no charge in order to help her work with the
251242 - ideas discussed today.
251243 -
251244 - Preparing an initial memo will help crystallize the ideas on function
251245 - and implementation, and indicate to Rosanne how SDS might fit into
251246 - Topflight's marketing strategy, which was my purpose in inviting
251247 - Rosanne to see SDS today.  It will further show me how effective my
251248 - efforts were and what more needs to be done to improve "communica-
251249 - tion" about SDS.  In other words, writing a memo about SDS is a first
251250 - step in applying Communication Metrics.
251251 -
251252 -
251253 -
251254 -
2513 -