Notes from a Tool User

Congrats to Alistair Cockburn on winning a Jolt Award

I’ve longed enjoyed Alistair Cockburn’s books and now he’s won a Jolt award for Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game. If you’ve not already read – stop reading this blog and buy a copy.

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Arseholes aren't Agile, they're an impediment. Are you an ARSE?

Bob Sutton author of several excellent books “The No Asshole Rule” and “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense” (my current reading). I took the Asshole Rating Self Exam today and scored 4, which makes me seem pretty normal. More telling what would my score be if my wife and co-workers filled it out, perhaps my score would be a bit higher.

From Guy Kawaski’s posting I also like the story about SuccessFactors and their Rules of Engagement (apparently every employee has to sign these).

These rules sound like very agile/lean in nature. Specifically the rules:

• I will demonstrate respect for the individual; I will be nice and listen to others, and respect myself. I will act with integrity and professionalism.
• I will help my colleagues and recognize the team when we win. I will never leave them behind when we lose.
• I will constantly improve Kaizen! I will approach every day as an opportunity to do a better job, admitting to and learning from my mistakes.
• I will selflessly pursue customer success.
• I will support the culture of meritocracy and pay for performance.
• I will be transparent. I will communicate clearly and be brutally honest, even when it’s difficult, because I trust my colleagues.

Bob's book and test make a great reminder. Arseholes are not agile, they're impediment and road block to getting the job done.

Update this post was picked up in the March 1 Carnival of Agilists - Thanks to Kevin for deciding that a Brit living in Canada is a Brit.

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Agile Software Development

Blogging Retrsopective (or four months in the review)

Getting Things Done, Nightmare with Sears Canada, Scrum and Photography are just some of the subjects that I’ve written about in my first four months of blogging. If you've read every post I've ever written (Hello to Ben and David), stop now, this one will add nothing new. Here are my top posts as chosen by me (far more interesting than letting a computer do all the work).

Tools

Getting Things Done!!! Can't Keep Track of all the tasks you have to do? Need a better Tool to Implement GTD? Always chasing little scraps of paper around the office? Then consider "My Life Organized" (MLO) as a task manager...

Trying to recover files from a corrupt NTFS drive? A friend just asked me what tool I use to recover files from a corrupt NTFS filesystem...

Can Agile methods be applied outside software development? Join the discussion
I've always been intrigued by the application of Agile methods outside of Software Development. Beyond Toyota what other systems use or can benefit from an Agile approach to problem solving.

Nightmare with Sears Canada or when to purchase an extended warranty?
Adrian on Hardware 2.0 quoting a study from consumer reports says that you probably don’t need that extended warranty. However there are just sometimes when you really do need one.

Key Tricks in writing for the Web or more lessons learned at BarCamp2 in Ottawa
Make your keypoints in the first paragraph, include your keywords in the title and url. 150 words is all you have to capture your readers attention.Software Development

Tired of Notepad? Want a better text editor?
I've spend alot of time playing with little bits of text - sometimes from files, sometimes copy and pasted from some other app. I quickly grew tired of the built-in Notepad and all its limitations.

Want to get the best Life from your Lithium-Ion battery?
A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles. Do you know how to get the best life out of your batteries?

Photography

Is the Canon 400D/Rebel XTi - worth the price?
Unlike the D80, the 400D has only been around for a couple of months, so many of my favorite reviewers only have Initial tests up. However there are enough reviews out to give an excellent idea of the strengths and weaknesses of EOS400D.

Nikon D80 - hot or not
Want to to find the best reviews of the D80 and skip rest? This post is place to start. By now I've found over twenty reviews of the D80 and mostly they just repeat themselves. This post is your guide to the reviews.

Software Development

Scrum in a Nutshell or 5 minutes to learn scrum
Heard the buzz about Scrum want to learn more? Want to get a sense of what it is and why many teams choose to use it?

Too many bugs making it to production? The role of QA in Agile/Scrum
Do your team members spend a lot of time interpreting bug reports? The traditional waterfall QA model is broken.

Online Code Reviews suck - even Guido van Rossum can't fix that
Guido van Rossum has created a new tool project called Mondrian for online code reviews. But even Guido can't solve the fundamental problems of an online code review. Nothing beats face to face communication.

Nasty catch with: Royalty free licensing of the Office User Interface?
MS just announced the royalty free licensing of the Office User Interface. At first glance this seems like a very generous offer since it includes much detail on how to what behaviors you must implement (Ribbon resizing anybody?).

Top 8 Agile Books: Beyond the Basics
Now you’ve read the basic introductory books to Agile Software development and you want to learn more, here’s my recent reading list...

Too much abstraction?? Bah Humbug
Ted Neward laments the habit of building: "building abstraction layers on top of abstraction layers on top of abstraction layers…

Best Introductions to SCRUM
Looking for a good online introduction to Scrum? Here are my favorites

Retrospective Agility
"Retrospective Agility" by Tim MacKinnon (part of a long pdf - too bad you can't easily link inside these beasts) is a great starting point for running a retrospective.

Influence Science Practice

Influence – How and why does it work?
I’ve never read a book twice and not since undergrad have I taken notes on a book. Yet Robert Cialdini’s "Influence Science and Practice” is so engaging that I’m enjoying a second read.

Influence: Science and Practice - other sources
After my introductory notes, I've received a few inquires about more notes on Cialdini's Influence Science and Practice. So I dug around on the web and offer up my discoveries.

Why are we so easily influenced? Weapons of Influence
Do you ever walk into a clothing store just to buy a suit and walk out having bought the suit, tie, belt and several shirts? This chapter will explain what just happened.

Food

Cafe Chez Victor
I've never lined up to pay my restaurant bill but last Tuesday night at Chez Victor it was so busy that I had to.

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Why are we so easily influenced? Weapons of Influence

 

Do you ever walk into a clothing store just to buy a suit and walk out having bought the suit, tie, belt and several shirts? This chapter will explain what just happened.

This is the third posting in an ongoing series of notes from Robert Caildini's " Influence: Science and Practice". This posting covers Chapter 2 "Weapons of Influence" Other postings in this series: Introduction, Other Sources coming soon: Reciprocation, Commitment/Consistency, Authority, Social Validation, Scarcity, Liking/Friendship

"Weapons of Influence" introduces the concept of fixed-action patterns or automatic responses.

Influence: Science and Practice - other sources

After my introductory notes, I've received a few inquires about more notes on Cialdini's Influence Science and Practice. So I dug around on the web and offer up my discoveries.

The best of the bunch (much like my own) is a series in six parts starting on Janin's (sp?) blog happening-here. Update: Just discovered Marshall Soules class Media studies 205: Promotion, Persuasion and Propaganda. Fall 2006. (at Malaspina University College, Nanaimo BC). Marshall's course also has an extensive summary.

 

Other pages of interest:

• Scott Foresman's one page summary: http://pages.prodigy.net/mschnall/cialdini.html
• Some good notes from the Mind Hack's blog
• An extended review courtesy of PronettSolutions
• Another extended review by Jack Thomas
• Back issues of the influence report - a monthly report put out Robert's company that contain new snippets.
• Robert Cialdini's company offers seminars
• Finally the inevitable Wikipedia  entry

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Influence Science Practice

Top 8 Agile Books: Beyond the Basics

Now you’ve read the basic introductory books to Agile Software development and you want to learn more, here’s my recent reading list:

" Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game (2nd Edition)" by Alistair Cockburn. Possibly the most interesting book I've ever read about agile software development. Its not about any one methodology, instead Alistair analyses game play, individual communication, team cooperation the elements that are the core of all software development. The second edition (which is finally at Amazon as Nov 13) builds on the strengths of the first with a number of new sections including applications of Agile outside of the computer industry. To get a taste of the second edition read the story of Alistair's home renovation in Mishkin's blog - this is what finally crystallized Agile Software development for my wife. If you want to understand the principles and philosophies of Agile Software development start here.

Influence – how and why does it work

I’ve never read a book twice and not since undergrad have I taken notes on a book. Yet Robert Cialdini’s "Influence Science and Practice” is so engaging that I’m enjoying a second read.

  The book is about the psychology of compliance. How do salespeople ("compliance professionals") and others get us to do things that may not be in our best interests? Along with the usual scientific experiments Cialdini spent three years doing field research: working, training and interviewing sales professionals, fundraisers and even their natural enemies police and consumer groups.

  One of the things that I’ve enjoyed most is the relevance of the book to everyday life. I'm amazed how often that I see the principles that Robert talks about being used. Most recently I noticed the tactics of someone trying to sell me a fixed price gas contract. First he tried to find something we had in common principle: “Liking: The Friendly Thief”. Then he told me ‘all your neighbours have signed up’ principle: “Social Proof”. Finally he concluded with not doing this will cost you money principle: “Scarcity: Loss is Worse”. I felt the tug of his pitch, in the past I might have signed up (and felt like a patsy five minutes later). Now I’m better able to see his manipulative tactics for what they are. I can sit back and analyse the value of his offer (a loss in the ensuing months). Does anyone know where natural gas prices will be in the next five years? Can you predict the futures market for me?

  In the coming weeks I will share what I’ve learned about Cialdani’s “Weapons of Influence” and how I’ve seen them used in the real world.

Next up “Weapons of Influence” or why do automatic responses work so well.

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for helping me discover this book via his Top Ten List and reviewing it here Book Review: Influence--Science and Practice. If the rest of the books on his top ten list are this good I won't run out of reading for another few years. Now according to the Reciprocity Principle I should just have to ask Guy for a link to my blog.

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Influence Science Practice

Retrospective Agility

"Retrospective Agility" by Tim MacKinnon (part of a long pdf - too bad you can't easily link inside these beasts) is a great starting point for running a retrospective. I was trying to find a short description of an Agile Retrospective to share with my team when I stumbled across this article. Tim has some excellent ideas especially for those of us just starting down the path of holding retrospectives.

Key Ideas:
- Create Safety - how to create a safe environment for developers to say whats on their mind.
- Types of Retrospective: Iteration, Incident, Release, Project
- Lists of Common Things that went Well and Common Things to Improve - these could be very handy as a starting point for teams that don't have much experience do retrospectives.

I just wish that more of the ideas mentioned in the article (like Gold Cards: intended to allow programmers to work on tasks of their own choice leading to increased innovation and a higher sustainable pace on the project) had been defined in the paper itself. It made the paper difficult to read on the bus ride home.

Over all Tim's article made for a great introduction to Agile Retrospectives while I'm waiting for my copy of " Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great" (Esther Derby and Diana Larsen) to arrive.

As for the description In the end I wrote my own (feel free to reuse it):

What are Retrospectives?
A meeting where a team looks back on a past period of work so that they can learn from their experience and apply this learning to future projects. Traditional waterfall driven projects normally hold these meetings after a release or some other significant event. Following the original description (Norman Kerth " Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Reviews") these were 3 day offsite events.

Agile Retrospectives/Reflection?
Agile retrospectives differ from Kerth's approach by being held at the end of every iteration and by being short thirty minutes to two hours (they tend to get shorter over time). They involve the team, management and the product owner. The scope includes: Reflect on the product: did the Product Owner get what they wanted, etc.; Reflect on the Team's Progress: What did we accomplish? Was it what we set out to do; Reflect on the Team's Process: What worked well and what worked poorly?

What Retrospectives aren't
Blame fests/Witch-hunts - Retrospectives aren't about who did what wrong - they're about what the team can do to improve

Many of ideas for this description were taken from Alistar Cockburn's "Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game (2nd Edition)"

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