October 31st. – Nothing interesting happened today…

Actually, today was the last day of a seminar that I went to on the topic of Agile Delivery. No, it has nothing to do with giving birth and jumping around the delivery room. And even though it is called ‘Agile Delivery’, it really focused more on Extreme Programming (XP) which includes Test Driven Development, paired programming and other methodologies. These are probably good practices in the right environments or in use by people not having been entrenched in ‘lighter’ versions of Agile or Waterfall methodologies. I felt however, that the course primarily focused on developers learning to work with each other in tandem to prevent the creation of defects (which IS a good thing), and also that the methods taught in this course also marginalizes the Quality Assurance (QA) efforts that I think should be used to safely insure successful release of software.

To be fair, the teachers are both recognized somewhat as authorities in their respective fields. Diane Larsen is the chair-person of the Agile Alliance and is a Senior Consultant with FutureWorks Consulting LLC in Portland, Oregon and James Shore is an independent consulting Agilist who also lives in the Portland area. I felt that I was able to take away many confirmations of ideas that I’ve already read about, mainly in a book by Mike Cohn, and learn a few new things about Agile development practices. Check out his blog for more information on user stories and Agile practices. Here are some books he’s worked on. I’ve also included a links to a video lecture he has done.

part 1

part 2

His book, User Stories Applied, is highly informative and if you are a software developer, tester or product owner/manager I recommend that you read it!! It is now on my list of “required” reading as a software development textbook.

Back to James and Diana. Both are very nice people and they put on a pretty good presentation together. The only areas that I thought they could improve on would be to take a class on public speaking. Over my years of experience running sound systems I’ve worked with numerous pastors, lecturers, and singers of various experience (or none) and one of the things I’ve always been impressed with is that, once you’ve learned to ‘naturally’ project your voice to a room, you almost don’t need a sound system. This very easily gives a speaker the ability to ‘own’ the room and command the listener’s attention. A cop out for a lack of this behavior by those with poor speaking ability is to suggest that the audience ‘move forward’ in the room closer to the speaker, removing liability from himself. James did exactly that after I brought up that it was very hard to hear him sometimes as he would speak in a much lower, conversational voice that would have been impossible to hear him at all if not for the PA system (which, although not a ‘great’ system, could also have simply been turned up…and a professional speaker more familiar with the tools of his trade would have done so). Diana did crank up her speaking voice for most of the last day and was very clearly heard. I think she has much more experience in public speaking and for her flexibility (dare I say, Agility?) I commend her.

As for being author’s, I will not be able to evaluate that for a little while but will post a review of two books, one by each author, as soon as I can.

The book that came ‘free’ with the seminar is James’ “The Art Of Agile Development” (pub-O’Reilly). I also bought Diana’s “Agile Retrospectives, Making Good Teams Great” (pub-The Pragmatic Programmers). I hope that they will both be excellent as they have been published by two of my favorite (and very reputable) publishing houses.

Again, overall I enjoyed the seminar except the slight denigration of QA. I would recommend the class to any developer who is entrenched in Waterfall methods looking for a way out, or to persons interested in becoming developers as the concepts taught would be better learned in college or at least early in a developer’s career. Testers, plan on taking on the customer role in the workshops and iterations and doing VERY little actual testing or test planning. Take a testing workshop if that is what you wish to learn about and forgo this seminar altogether. Even though I found that it is enlightening to get a glimpse of what goes on in the programming process of a ‘truly’ Agile team, I find it easier to simply read a book to study the concepts rather than spend a few days helping the developers in this class to “realize, actualize, and utilize” my time to help them learn to do TDD, Pair Programming and Iterative development. I think the class should be LIMITED to developers so that they HAVE to learn the customer side of the issues in the role playing sessions and not just practice getting requirements handed off to them to code against.

You could consider yourself Hooked on Coffee if…

You ski uphill.

You get a speeding ticket even when you’re parked.

You haven’t blinked since the last lunar eclipse.

You just completed another sweater and you don’t know how to knit.

You grind your coffee beans in your mouth.

You sleep with your eyes open.

The only time you’re standing still is during an earthquake.

You can take a picture of yourself from ten feet away without using the timer.

You lick your coffeepot clean.

You’ve worn out your third pair of tennis shoes this week.

You chew on other people’s fingernails.

The nurse needs a scientific calculator to take your pulse.

You’re so jittery that people use your hands to blend their margaritas.

You can type sixty words per minute… with your feet.

You can jump-start your car without cables.

You don’t sweat, you percolate.

You buy milk by the cow.

You’ve worn out the handle on your favorite mug.

You go to AA meetings just for the free coffee.

You walk twenty miles on your treadmill before you realize it’s not plugged in.

You forget to unwrap candy bars before eating them.

You’ve built a miniature city out of little plastic stirrers.

The Taster’s Choice couple wants to adopt you.

Starbucks owns the mortgage on your house.

Your taste buds are so numb you could drink your lava lamp.

You’re so wired, you pick up FM radio.

Instant coffee takes too long.

You channel surf faster without a remote.

When someone says. “How are you?”, you say, “Good to the last drop.”

You go to sleep just so you can wake up and smell the coffee.

You’re offended when people use the word “brew” to mean beer.

You name your cats “Cream” and “Sugar.”

You have a picture of your coffee mug on your coffee mug.

You don’t even wait for the water to boil anymore.

Your nervous twitch registers on the Richter scale.

You think being called a “drip” is a compliment.

You don’t tan, you roast.

You don’t get mad, you get steamed.

You can’t even remember your second cup.

You help your dog chase its tail.

You soak your dentures in coffee overnight.

Your coffee mug is insured by Lloyds of London.

You introduce your spouse as your “Coffeemate.”

You think CPR stands for “Coffee Provides Resuscitation.”

Your first-aid kit contains two pints of coffee with an I.V. hookup.

I Dare You To Live!!! (no, not the song)

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

- Theodore Roosevelt
“Citizenship in a Republic”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

I’m late, I’m late, I’m late….

So much time and so little do….stop, wait, the other thing!

I’ve run so hard today trying to get things done, scheduled, bought….call this the requisite post of the day. No pics or nothin’…I’m just too tired. After midnight….going to catch a few hours sleep and start the final packing before the movers get here mid-morning.

Keys, Outlets, and Montgomery Gentry

Yesterday (and the day before…all last week actually) was very stressful. Waiting for the paperwork on my new (rebuilt?) condo to go thru. But it did….and now I have my keys and am finally an owner (and slave) of a very nicely remodeled 680 square foot, ground floor home. Well, place to live, it’s not a home until you share it with someone you love. Anyway, it’s mine….go me!

Monte and I went out to Home Depot last night to shop for new outlets, cover, and light switches. I knew that there were options but….WOW!!! So many choices and soooo expensive in some cases. I figure I’ll invest about $80 just for the hardware for the outlets and probably at least that much again for the light switches. We spent so much time discussing it that the store closed on us and they were just about to usher us out on our hineys….but we escaped on our own just in time.

Last night on the commute home from work I heard a Montgomery Gentry song that I’ve never heard…might be new? Anyway, it’s called “Lucky Man” and I think it’s my new ‘fave’ as I think I could say I felt almost everything in the song applies to my life over the last 9 years…..except the ‘good woman’ parts. I don’t have that yet. Someday.