Driving in Brazil is a bit different than driving in America. It is perhaps hard to understand these differences until you have experienced them but I will try to convey a few of the differences and then make some unique comparison with how it is similar to Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress portal development project.

While they have many of the same laws for driving, in Brazil, they are not as strictwith enforcing these laws so driving is a bit like the wild wild west. Every one seems to be beyond impatient and they are pushing to pass everyone and often "get nowhere fast vs. someplace slowly". There is an unofficial imaginary lane for passing where you are just expected to get out of the way if a car is passing and coming at you head on (Big Trucks included and there are many). Not a place where you can win "The game of Chicken". The biggest violators are motorcycles since they seem to dominate this 3rd lane even on the curviest roads with the busies traffic and inhibited sight lines for oncoming traffic. Driving a motorcycle though can get you to your destination often in a fraction of the time than with other vehicles. Though there are many accidents most folks drive bumper to bumper and fearless to the consequences. The first time I road as a passenger in Brazil I never let go of the upper right handle and I felt incline to say a sincere prayer prior to getting in to any vehicle. My 7 year old son has two words for driving in Brazil; "impatient and maniacs".

In the world of web development I see several similar contrasting approaches to developing a web site and the same "maniac and impatience" type of behavior. Most folks are in far to much of a hurry and they too drive their projects fearless to the consequences. I often see folks burn up a lot of time and money going too fast with little thought of the impact or steps involved to make the best decisions. I know everyone else is in just as big of a hurry but making a fatal mistake will leave you frustrated on the roadside as others pass you by. Technology and globalization are moving forward in near chaos as folks are trying to latch on to where they want to be in the world of the web, what lane to travel on and which vehicle to drive.

One of the things I like about the not so recent trend to use content management systems such as Joomla CMS, Drupal or Wordpress is that these sites are dynamic and allow you to respond quickly in real time. Joomla! CMS in particular is very flexible and offers over 6500 extensions. While this is a great opportunity, if you run off like a maniac installing every cool widget and extension you can find this can create a big mess and leave you on the sidelines starting over or cleaning up a lot of garbage. Our Joomla CMS team has many of times been tasked with transforming Frankenstein into sleeping beauty and it is not often an easy or an inexpensive feat once the monster has been created and presented to the public. On the contrary, since this is Open Source code and a global community of developers have contributed so much already, you can build just about anything imaginable with less cost and in shorter development cycles.  Make sure though you think through the features that are most important and research the components you are using for compatibility and usability.

One thing that Joomla CMS and other Content Management Systems do is they allow you to progress  like the unofficial 3rd lane in Brazilian traffic to charge in front of your competitors by getting information presented quickly and dynamically. However, you have to be careful as you scoot through the windy roads and limited visibility so that you do not lose sight of making sure your portal is secure with proper upgrades and support. In other words "wear a helmet and be careful when you try to pass". One fatal mistake is to think you can just "turn on your car and drive without caution." Folks with the most successful Joomla Drupal or Wordpress portals realize that ongoing maintenance is part of the cost of doing business online and they budget monthly for technical or development support and proactive security maintenance.

Building your Content Management System and presenting your content is also still a bit like the wild wild west since doing business online is now global in nature and while the technology allows us to connect and interact with each other the laws and governance are still being sorted out. There are a lot of maniacs called "hackers" that are trying to "Game the system" and disrupt your initiatives. This past year alone hacker activity is reported to have increased over 600%. There are though a growing set of web standards to prevent this and to allow developers to respond to vulnerabilities quicker. One of the most encouraging aspects of working with Content Management Systems in general and particularly in the Open source community is an incredible sense of collaboration and cooperation.

In conclusion, there are a lot of approaches to driving down the road of success and getting the right balance of speed to market with the thoughtfulness of ongoing security and maintenance. If you combined this with careful planning it will get you further down the road with less cost and risk. You need to be aware as standards and technologies evolve so you can protect your online investment and continue moving forward at a reasonable pace and in the right direction. Do not let impatience or some other maniac on this ever changing road of technical chaos dictate how you should respond to the marketplace or present your content. Best in my book to remain calm, aware, responsive, thoughtful and move with cautious aggressiveness.

 

 

 

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Ahh it is siesta again...

I am working remote this month from our office in Brazil. One of the things I am growing accustom to here is siesta, which is a 2 hr break in the middle of the day from noon to 2pm. As an American, when I first experienced this I thought it was rather inconvenient since I was used to working through the lunch hour and it always seemed to be when I was able to get the most done.

Well it has taken several trips here now for me to get used to it and rethink my planning of a regular work day. However, what I have found is that it can actually help me be more productive with less stress and better insight since the "down time" time allows me to recharge a bit and enables me to be able to jump back to my work with new perspective and fresh ideas.

When I think about this concept I can not help but notice how the same mindset or process can be effective with Project Management. The tendency with most projects is to charge forward and get everything done in as short of a life cycle as possible and then transition into maintenance mode. While there are many advantages for this methodology there is also value in shorter spurts of forward progress with brief cooling off or reflection periods to help you gain perspective and evaluate where you are and where you are going. This can reduce the potential for mistakes and add more insight and creativity to your outcomes.

Of course every project is unique and there is not a cookie cutter solution for every project.  There is value though in taking time in your process to reflect in a way that is not under intense pressure for a deliverable.

There is a old saying about "not seeing the forest through the trees" and it is my opinion that a little "Siesta" at appropriate times in your project life cycle is a good idea for seeing both with clarity.

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Every couple years our family ventures back to my wife Sony's native country of Brazil. When we do this it always offers an outside looking in perspective on what we are doing at CNP and gives me a chance to reflect on the things we should be focusing on to ad value to our customers. I am often making comparisons between the many cultural differences and observations about the many similarities . My analogy is that it is the same ice cream with slightly different flavors. Our second home in Navegantes SC is a community exploding with tourism and the people come from all parts of Brazil to vacation there. In some ways it is a step back in time since there are a lot of local folks that have not caught up with use new technologies since this grew out of a fishing village. Many of the visitors are well in pace with the trends of globalization so this makes for an interesting perspective on how technology is getting integrated in to the commerce and culture here. It makes me remember the importance of human relationships and something we should never lose in our engagements with customers or friends and family.

One interesting example of this community is when I wanted to purchase a used bicycle and was asking a group of older local gentlemen for directions to a place that would sell me a good used bike, since a gringo on a new bike stands out and I just want to blend in and relax a bit when I am here.

The response was... "go up the road to Edwardo's place and ask anybody" since everybody knew the guy that sold used bikes. Well I think you can get the idea here that these directions implied first the value of reputation since Edwardo's place was just an ordinary house of someone respected in the community. It emphasizes the importance of gaining the trust and awareness of real people in your community since it is often how others will navigate to your business. In a virtual web world this is kind of like saying "go to Google and type in "XYZ" then read the comments of others for direction".

I will be the first to admit that I am a bit of a geek and I like my techno toys/software and all of the magic they can do but one of the lessons I take from this is how important it is to not get distracted by all of the "cool" technologies we have and lose sight of developing real relationships in the right circle and community of your piers.

The priority should always be the relationship and the technology should never get in the way or distract from nurturing quality relationships.

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