Jinn of Quality and Risk

Usable Help: The Theory Into Practice Database is maintained by Dr. Greg Kearsley and provides descriptions, cogent examples, and references for over 50 theories related to learning and instruction. 

I once witnessed a project where the contract was designed with such warped million-dollar incentives that some consultants were strongly motivated to not work in the best interest of the client. Dishonest people would in such circumstances focus on the contractual bonus, thus knowingly and actively undermining the client's business strategy. Even worse would be a situation where some employees on the client side have been given irrational incentives. John Kay: If the chief executive needs a bonus scheme to ensure his 100 per cent commitment to the job, he is the wrong person to hold it. The scheme is unlikely to affect the intensity of his effort but it will affect the intensity of his interest in how numbers that report that effort are compiled. All incentive schemes reward good performance more than they penalise bad performance. The result is undue risk-taking and excessive readiness to claim credit when risky behaviour pays off. [via Davos Newbies] 

Pete McBreen: The original evidence for an exponential cost of change came from Boehm's book Software Engineering Economics. What most people miss when they read this reference is that there are actually two lines on the famous graph. One supports the well known assertion that various factors combine to make the error typically 100 times more expensive to correct in the maintenance phase on large projects than in the requirements phase. There is also a dotted line of the graph that shows data from two smaller, less formal projects showing a 4:1 escalation in cost-to-fix between early and later engagement phases. In other words, a smaller project scope helps to manage change and keep its cost more acceptable boundaries. Early prototyping also alleviates the cost of change. [McBreen quote via Tony Bowden] 

Six months ago — George Bush, West Point Address to Graduates: Some worry that it is somehow undiplomatic or impolite to speak the language of right and wrong. I disagree. ... By confronting evil and lawless regimes, we do not create a problem, we reveal a problem. And we will lead the world in opposing it. 

Originally meaning a combination of smoke and fog, smog now generally refers to air pollution. Google Glossary: A mixture of pollutants, principally ground-level ozone, produced by chemical reactions in the air involving smog-forming chemicals. A major portion of smog-formers come from burning of petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline. Other smog-formers, volatile organic compounds, are found in products such as paints and solvents. Smog can harm health, damage the environment and cause poor visibility. Major smog occurrences are often linked to heavy motor vehicle traffic, sunshine, high temperatures and calm winds or temperature inversion (weather condition in which warm air is trapped close to the ground instead of rising). Smog is often worse away from the source of the smog-forming chemicals, since the chemical reactions that result in smog occur in the sky while the reacting chemicals are being blown away from their sources by winds.