I’ll be leading a workshop called “What Makes Engineering Managers Succeed?” at the next IEEE Silicon Valley Engineering Management Society event. It’s open to the public, and a real bargain. For the cost of dinner, you get a facilitated networking session, dinner, and my workshop.
When:
Wednesday, January 30th, 6:30 PM.
Where:
Ramada Inn
1217 Wildwood Ave, Sunnyvale CA 94089
All the details are here.
Young IT workers disillusioned, hard to hold, survey says
I’m amused that the woman interviewed in this article thinks that the solution to the problem of retaining IT workers is for the workers to change their expectations. I wish her good luck with that. If you would like to find some more realistic ways to improve retention, come out the January Engineering Managers Support Group meeting.
Sometimes I wonder if I should find another line of work. You know, something a bit more thrilling…
A struggling young cruise line offers a cruise from London, bound for Miami. At the very beginning of each trip, the captain and the two helmsmen make a navigational plan for the voyage. It appears that a straight line, southwest along a compass heading of 220 degrees, will get them to Miami. They plot their course on a chart and file it away, eager to get on to the real work of sailing the ship.
The helmsmen work alternating 12-hour shifts watching the compass closely and adjusting the rudder any time it moves away from their heading of 220 degrees. The work is grueling, but the helmsmen are diligent.
Karl Scotland has an interesting post over on the Agile Practitioners Forum. He describes how and why his team moved to a Kanban system.
Approximately 30 people came together Sunday morning to examine the question: “What makes agile projects succeed (or fail)?” This was one of my sessions at Silicon Valley Code Camp 2007, an open space conference that had over 900 registrants.
We generated and clarified almost 50 success or failure factors. Next the whole group participated in ranking the factors into tiers, from most important to least important. Dot voting was used to allow each participant’s experience to count equally, resulting in a result that reflects the collective wisdom of the group present. We managed to do all of this in less than an hour and a half! To learn more about the process and how to use it, click here.
Code Camp is a free conference by and for the developer community. Speakers volunteer their time and everyone attends for free. It’s a place to learn, to network and to dig into some code. It’s happening this weekend.
I’ll be doing two sessions Sunday morning:
“Agile Intro” and “What Makes Agile Projects Succeed (or fail)?“
Agile Open California 2007 has come to an end. I am sitting on a pier here at the Fort Mason Center, enjoying a muffin from Greens, watching sailboats, and collecting my thoughts.
I met some truly interesting people, heard some amazing stories, and learned much. I am exhausted and energized at the same time. I am so inspired, that I have volunteered to be a part of the conference team for next year! This was the most amazing conference experience that I’ve ever had.
Wow! The people and the energy are fantastic!
I was a busy guy today. I facilitated three sessions:
