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Super Green Solutions

A big thank you and tip of the hat to Super Green Solutions for promoting an article Green Planet Weekly wrote up about the their company. 

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I done this

www.I_done_this.com

I was referred to an interesting web tool that helps foster collaboration, especially with with remote offices.

It offers a way to reply to an evening email reminder with what you did that day. The next day, get a digest with what everyone on the team got done.  

Its simple, intuitive and powerful in promoting communication within small teams.

Questions regarding Digital Reasoning's ShipIt day

I received an email from another company looking to set up a hack-a-thon. I thought I would post my response as their questions revolve around "Who is the event for?"


Question #1: Did you judge after the fact or on the spot?

It is great to have a system set up in place to be able to award a "winner" at the end of the ceremony. It reinforces the concept this is a time-boxed event and provides closure to the emotional investment everyone has placed on the past 24 hour effort.

With that said, Digital Reasoning allowed voting afterward and throughout the weekend. It has become apparent that most of the voting occurred within the first 60 minutes. The balance of the time since then has taken away from an otherwise climatic announcement.

I would suggest having ballots already sent out for people to vote from once the presentation starts. 15-30 minutes after the last presentation is when results could be posted.

Question #2: Did you let teams self judge or have independent judging?

I think this question calls upon the spirit of the event. Who is the event for? (no wrong answer from my vantage point, however a software developer may disagree.)

Digital Reasoning tried to gravitate toward the philosophy "for the developers, by the developers". This was the developers event to work on something relating to the company, however management was not going to place boundaries on it. This was our foundation for nurturing innovation. In essence the company asked "let's see what you got..." (management was pleasantly surprised.) Suffice to say, the developers were able to vote on the projects at the end. Management was also able to cast votes, however we did not set it up as a "judges panel" for critique and comments.

Comment #1:

Laying out the problems the day of the event. Although our event was structured slightly different with regard to letting developers come up with the ideas, I would still recommend a way to role out the problems prior to the event. Personally I have seen it done both ways. In my experience the "heads up" approach allow natural leaders to self organize and maximize the time set aside for the event. Because developers tend to struggle with defining a specific value proposition, it is good to allow them some time to talk it through and get their arms around the 24 hour goal.

As Scrum Master and Project Manager for DR, I enjoyed the process immensely. The devil was in the details on how we executed the event. There were definitely some lessons learned for us, but overall things went smoothly. I tried my best to stay out of the planning process as this was a "for developers by developers" event, however next time I may provide some gentle nudging.

 :-)

Take aways from DR's 1st hack-a-thon

 Digital Reasoning's 1st hack-a-thon was a true success.  It was a memorable experience to sit along side some of the best developers in the world, working on a project that could one day be a productized feature DR offers.  The return on investment our company received far exceeded anyone's expectations.  A few higher level tips for anyone planning there own event would include: 

 

-  Let the developers do what they do best, but make sure they have the tools to stay focused.  It is easy to get distracted on the little things within the event.  If a general outline and obvious details were not prepared for in advance, confusion and distractions are always there to fill the void.  Examples would include:  Why isn't lunch here yet?, How is voting going to work?, Can you vote for your own team?  Who is running the ceremony for presentations? Does everyone have audio? What time do the presentations start? etc... The more you plan and streamline the mechanics of the event, the more time you are providing to the developers to have fun.

-   A week (or longer), before the event starts provide an hour meeting for the developers to propose ideas.  This will create a lot of offline discussions thereby fostering creativity.  It will also help developers be ready to start work on a specific idea at the beginning of the event versus spending the first 3-6 hours trying to get a team all on the same page for a concept. 

-  Over communicate the guidelines of the hack-a-thon.  Once you have a general framework for the event, provide multiple opportunities for everyone to read and then reference the information.  Make sure everyone knows where they can reference material at the beginning of the event.  Furthermore, if any of the email blasts or announcements sent out afterward contradict, the confusion created is difficult to overcome in a short time period.

-  Stay out of the way of software development.  Providing the opportunity for developers to self organize is a valuable tool.  Quick interruptions and general announcements may help the organizers of the event, however it is disruptive to the workflow of the developer.  This only reinforces my first point, make sure the event details are planned out prior to the event.

I hope this generates some discussion for your event.  Best of luck and keep us posted!

Why we need Project Managers

Frist Center for the Visual Arts

Three tips for new Scrum Masters

First, remember the values and principles, the why-we-do-what-we-do:

• The team holding weekly "standup" meetings
• Teams not updating their task status on a Scrum board or tool
• Burndowns that are flat and suddenly drop to finish on time
• Not holding grooming meetings

For a refresher on the values and principles, watch my Scrum for Managers video - about the first 20 minutes - and reacquaint yourself with the why of Scrum and agile.

Another common issue has to do with architecture and design. 

In CSM classes, I discuss design and architecture but I don't go very deep on it. What I do say, however, is...

• Build incrementally
• Grow features over time
• Do the simplest thing possible
• Value feedback over "getting it right the first time"
•  Check out this talk from Microsoft TechDays in Sweden in 2011 for more information.

Lastly, many teams lack a clear definition of done. 

The DoD is a list of sorts that includes the product owner’s and team’s criteria for declaring a product backlog item as potentially shippable, or done. It's important for several reasons.

Red Maples in Nashville

Just a Backlog

A fun little website that serves as a great tool for hack events.

Just_a Backlog.com

The Business Model Canvas

I found an interesting website whose main purpose is to facilitate a responsible planning exercise for the future entrepreneurs of the world.  It is called the Business Model Canvas.  Click this link. 

Agile Implementation

It is important for teams to understand, practice, breathe and embrace proper Agile / Lean / Scrum practices first.  This will drive productivity and business value generation faster than anything. It is the more holistic view. So don't focus on numbers before you have looked at the practices and their implementation.

Agile Reference Material

http://blog.huge.io/

A great resource for any aspiring developer wanting to learn about scrum or agile methodologies.

The site was developed by Brendan Wovchko.

I had the pleasure of working with Brendan while he provided agile coaching and mentorship at Digital Reasoning.  His advise provided a tremendous amount of influence and positive reinforcement to our development group and their implantation of the software development lifecycle.

Promotional Flyer for Main Street Design

www.wckickers.com

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Views from the sideyard

Start Pinching!

I found a great webpage developed by Brendan Wovchko and Jesse Gray.   Pinch  (www.startpinching.com)

The phrase that resonates with me the most is "artisan-entrepreneurs..."

Also a huge endorsement from Jared Bunting:
"Jesse asked if we minded he walked us through some planning. He never mentioned Pinch, but he suggested that we spend the first night doing nothing but planning. This isn't exactly what I expected from a hackathon, but by the time that I went home it was clear that we had a huge headstart. Not only did we have a vision for the final product, but we had a clear path to get there."