Clarke Ching's Rocks and Snowballs

Help Needed! Introduction to Agile Presentation

Help!  As part of my personal campaign to spread the good word about Agile, I’ve enthusiastically volunteered to do an “Introduction to agile software development” presentation to an industry group here in Scotland.  It’s a very important presentation for me, career and confidence wise.

So far I’ve spent hours and hours preparing my presentation.  But I’ve now reached the point where I’m so deep inside of my subject that not only can’t I see the forest, but I’m having trouble seeing the trees too.   I think that the basic problem is that I’m trying to prove that agile is best and I’m getting hung up on the logic.  It’s obvious, when I walk through what I have got so far, that there’s too much theory and not enough practical stuff.  All of the thinking that I’ve done so far has been good, but I reckon that I would do a better talk (right now) if I chucked what I’ve done and gave an impromptu speech with a white board.

Can anyone out there recommend a good 45–60 minute “Introduction to Agile Software Development” presentation suitable for wallets rather than techies? 

I don’t want to plagiarize it, or even use it, just to read it and compare with what I’ve got at the moment.

The older I get the wiser I realise I was …

I’ve always said, ever since I started working, that a strong signal that someone is doing a good job or will do a good job is that they worry that they might not.

On the other hand, be weary of the folks who’re convinced, without a doubt, that they’re doing a great job.  They’re probably not.

Fandabadozy - free webinar archive with excellent content

I just love the internet.

I’ve just discovered placeware.com’s archive of their prior online webinars and presentations and there is some great stuff there.  And it’s all free. 

I was off work yesterday and it was sunny so I listened and watched a few of them on my laptop while sitting in my garden.

Here’s just a few of the 20 page-down’s that caught my eye:

• Transform Your PowerPoint Beyond Bullet Points! By Cliff Atkinson
• Be Happy at Work by Joanne Gordon
• Bring 3-DStorytelling Into Your Communication by Ron Crossland
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Close the "Value Gap" and Accelerate Profitable Growth by Jeff Thull

Tip: Each presentation can be viewed using several methods.  My advice is to

• stream the audio using “Microsoft office live meeting reply” (windows media player),
• But also view the presentations using “basic recording with audio” because the slides are much easier to so.

Directions

1.Start at Edinburgh Airport.

2.Catch flight from Edinburgh to London Heathrow Airport.

3.Catch flight from London Heathrow to Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

4.Hire car at Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

5.Start going toward the "Airport Exit" on "International ParkwaySouth" - follow for 0.2 miles.

6.Bear left onto the highway toward "Terminal East Parking" - follow for 0.3 miles

7.Bear left onto "International Parkway North" toward "North AirportExit" - follow for 2.9 miles

8.Take the "Highway 114 west" exit toward "Fort Worth" - follow for29.2 miles 9.Then continue on "US 287 north" - follow for 91.1 miles 10."US 287 north" becomes "Interstate-44 east" - follow for 0.7 miles 11.Take left fork onto "US-287 north" toward "Vernon" - follow for104.0 miles 12."US 287 north" becomes "Avenue F (US-287)" - follow for 2.8 miles 13.Continue to follow "US 287 north" - follow for 104.9 miles 14.Take left ramp onto "Interstate 40 west" toward "Dumas" - follow for7.8 miles 15.Take "Exit 70" onto "US 60 east" toward "Dumas" - follow for 0.5miles 16.Take the "Buchanan Street" exit toward "Dumas/Pampa" - follow for1.7 miles 17.Turn right onto "Old Route 66 (Interstate 40)" - follow for
0.1miles 18.Arrive at the centre of "Amarillo, Texas"

That's the way to Amarillo.

Fabulous Critical Chain Chapter

Here is Chapter 7 from the 2nd Edition of Ed Yourdon’s,  Death March book.  It  is a brilliant introduction to Critical Chain project management.  My claim to fame re this chapter is that I recommend that Ed (notice how we are suddenly on first-name basis) reference Frank Partick’s wonderful website and he does, right at the end.

I’m not sure if this is proper or not … because Ed removed the chapters from his website in 2003 – I guess would prefer that you buy the book, rather than read the draft for free.  This version is the from the July 19, 2003 snapshot from the (equally wonderful and indispensable) Internet archive – you can even find the entire book there if you want. 

I suppose you could think of this version as a virtual photocopy.  

Anyway, I’ve avoid this dilemma entirely by leaving it up to you whether you CLICK or not. 

Here's one I prepared earlier ...

 My wife is pregnant, due in August.  This morning we were in bed with our 2.5 year old daughter in between us.

I pointed to my wife’s belly and said to my daughter “Mom has a baby sister or brother for you in her belly”.

She said, “Wow!”, then kindly patted her Mum’s belly.

She thought a while, turned to me, looked at my splendid belly, and asked “What you having Dad?”

Normal

Ellen DeGeneres :

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."

[from Quotes of the Day]

Ideas, co-operation, conflict and the prisoner's dilemma

Laurent’s nice post about ideas and the prisoner’s dilemma helped solidify some vague thoughts I’ve been having about the negotiations between customers and development teams.  Thanks Laurent.

 

Spelling

I like, and frequently use, the word “Wow” because I can spell it. 

I preferred coding in “C”, compared to “C++”, because it was simpler to spell.

I learnt today that visability <> visibility.  [thanks Craig and Lasse for the correction – I envy your gift]

Oh well … I suppose that it is too much to expect to be both astonishingly good looking and a good speller

 

Two new Poppendieck articles

I’m not a jeolous man.

But, I am jealous of the Poppendiecks. 

Not only are they nice people, but wow! can they write.  If it weren’t for their book I would probably have quit IT by now and I certainly wouldn’t be writing my own book.

I offer two new articles as proof:

• Managing the Pipeline
• Competing on the Basis of Time

Enjoy …