Monday 17 November 2014

Oakton DVS Agile


When I complete a project delivery, I like to make sure that I list the agile practices that were used to achieve this goal.

No matter what people tell you about agile, there is no one way to do it. I have delivered and managed many agile teams over the years and even the same team across multiple projects and I have never once seen exactly the same agile practices set used twice.

Just as fingerprints are different between individuals, so are agile practice sets for teams. The variables are so vast that no two will be the same, beit the product being built, the team and parts of its sum or the baggage we all carry from job to job.

This is normal and this is why I keep track of all the combinations as I go along.

In the case of the Document Verification Service that we built for the Commonwealth Government's Attorney General's Department, the picture above shows the practices and some of the tools we used.

It is grouped in to development, management and analysis (BA and QA together) practices. Some of course, overlap.

Always keep track of what worked and what didn't. Try them in your next project but don't force them. Sometimes the best practice on one team will die brutally on another and vice versa.

Just as agile allows projects to adjust with changing requirements, agile itself changes for its team requirements.

Rigour over rigidity, always.

Thursday 6 November 2014

Resume + Character is what I want



A resume does a good job of describing specific skills. Today I had lunch with a group from my last contract and then an evening of pampering with the women I work with in my current role.

Reference checks and resumes don't tell me how awesome you are as a person or why your ex-colleagues still love being around you. How do we judge a person's character when all we have is a list of jobs?

I think it's a combination of what is on paper and what you see in an interview. Let people reveal themselves face to face. Talk to people who know them. Look for character as well as a checklist of skills.

Acknowledge Me

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