Importing your Outlook contacts to the Mac Address Book can be tricky, especially if you want to avoid losing non-text data like images or if you don’t want to spend money on tools. Here’s a free and easy method to get it done:

1. Open Outlook (I’m using 2007) and go to Contacts.
2. Select all the contacts, right-click, and choose “Send as Business Card.” This will attach all selected contacts to an email.
3. Send the email to an account that your Mac can access.
4. On your Mac, open the email and save all attached contacts (Save -> All) to your hard drive.
5. Use Finder to navigate to the folder where you saved the contacts.
6. Drag and drop the saved contact files into the Address Book.

This method is a bit cumbersome if you have many contacts—I had 238, and sending them took some time—but it’s a free solution.

For...

Last week, during the Kanban course, we discussed Root Cause Analysis multiple times. It’s a powerful technique for identifying the “root of all evil,” or at least the underlying issues causing problems.

While the fundamental concepts of Root Cause Analysis are straightforward, having some guidance and best practices can be incredibly helpful. Henrik Kniberg has once again come to the rescue with a great article on cause-effect diagrams, complete with a humorous touch.

Thanks, Henrik, for the valuable insights!

Yes, I know I’ve already written about an online PowerPoint tool, but this new tool might just replace the need for both PowerPoint and similar software altogether.

I often find myself struggling with presentations that end up being dull and overly reliant on bullet points. While PowerPoint offers ways to enhance presentations, I sometimes find it lacking in creativity.

Enter Prezi. Prezi allows you to create dynamic, visually engaging presentations that are more like interactive mind maps. It’s incredibly user-friendly and has helped me produce presentations that are visually appealing and engaging.

Check out my first attempt which summarizes some key points from a Kanban class last week, as noted by David Andersson. I think it turned out quite well!

Prezi might just be one of the coolest GUIs I’ve worked with—give it a try and see how it transforms your presentations.

During the last week, I attended a course on Kanban (Jedi level, mind you) at Crisp in Stockholm. The course was conducted by David Andersson, who is considered a key figure in applying Kanban to the software industry.

If you’re new to Kanban, I highly recommend this article by Henrik Kniberg as a great introduction. Keep an eye on InfoQ for a comprehensive book on the subject, which includes some excellent case studies.

The course was fantastic and provided a deeper understanding of Lean thinking. Kanban offers simple but powerful tools: visualization (put it up on the wall!), prioritizing value-adding activities, minimizing waste, and performing root-cause analysis.

Kanban itself is straightforward to understand, but mastering it is like any game—simple rules, but a lifetime to perfect.

I also felt a need to delve into the underlying Lean principles that are foundational to both...

OK – this has been quite a journey, and I’m not completely satisfied with the solution yet, but it works. Along the way, I’ve had to delete all my contacts and calendar items on my phone about five times… Brrr – equally scary each time.

Here’s the problem: As a consultant, I work for customers who have their own Exchange Servers (or similar). When I start at a customer, I’m given an account, for example, marcus.hammarberg@anycustomer.se. My coworkers at AnyCustomer start sending me emails and making appointments in my AnyCustomer calendar.

I also work for Avega, which provides me with an email address and calendar.

Lastly, I have a private Gmail account for personal stuff.

So, I have three synchronization issues: mail, contacts, and calendar items. Here’s how I’m handling them right now. I hope a better solution will present itself later.

Contacts

I keep all my...

Last Thursday was an exciting day. After a not-so-well-planned post about a previous article, we finally had the chance to host a visit from one of the giants of IT, Ivar Jacobson.

I’ve made a brief recap of his visit here (in Swedish). What stood out for me was not just the wealth of experience he brought, but also his enduring enthusiasm for the field.

I was particularly struck by his perspective on the IT industry as a fashion industry, constantly chasing trends. Ivar now emphasizes focusing on the practices used within various processes, rather than the processes themselves, as a way to provide great support for organizations.

One of his statements made me laugh: “We really have gone crazy with the documentation” (my translation). This from the father of RUP, a methodology that many have turned into a documentation-heavy behemoth…

It was truly an honor...

I recently discovered a great tool for creating, editing, and presenting slideshows online: 280slides.com. It’s a free platform that offers a lot of functionality.

With 280 Slides, you can:

• Create and edit presentations directly in your browser
• Upload presentations in PowerPoint format
• Save your presentations “in the cloud”
• Download presentations in several formats, including PPT(X) and PDF

I find it to be a really useful tool!

By the way, this is my 600th post. It’s been a fantastic journey, and I have no plans to stop anytime soon. I never imagined when I started here that I’d reach this milestone.

Although some time has passed since the vacation, I realized that I haven’t posted photos from it. Here is a short summary of what we did and where we went during those lovely summer months. Not too far away…

Albert enjoying himself on the seashore - he stayed here most days…

Here we are on our way into the water. Again.

Elin and I went to Liverpool for a short holiday without Albert. Together with Kalle and Fanny, here is a picture from the shores of the Irish Sea.

Albert in Västra Bodarna where his cousin Hilda lives. She wasn’t born yet, but she is now.

And...