First, a little fun. I found this survey asking just that question, but in a humorous way. Here are the results, which were presented at the Agile 2008 conference in Toronto. I also found (through LinkedIn) a post on Peter DeYoe’s blog with a humorous job posting for a Scrum Master.
Now for a real live case study. In my job hunting, I discovered this article by Damon Pool on Litle & Co. The reason I like this story so much is that not only did the push for Agile come from the top, but they started out that way. They didn’t adopt Agile, they were born with it. That eliminates a lot of problems that come along with trying to adopt Agile later on:
Read on…
Many problems have been caused throughout history due to lack of information flow from subordinates to superiors. This post discusses some examples. some reasons why this might be the case, and asks how we can move forward.
Today I’m trying to fix a friend’s Windows Vista laptop that BSODed because we had the audacity to hook up a Bluetooth dongle to it to use Bluetooth headsets with. Now it won’t run for more than a minute or so before it crashes again. My usual mantra of “Install Linux” is not an option in this case, because it needs to run iTunes. So far, the computer is winning. CHKDSK is running, and the percentage done on stage 5 is stuck at 11% , even though it continues to count how many files it’s processed, so I can see it’s about 80% done. Learn to count, and maybe I’ll think about buying your OS.
As a form of therapy, we went to Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse (yes, their food is much better than their website), to help them celebrate Hogtoberfest. For an appetizer, we shared Death By Bacon, which is chicken-fried bacon with southern gravy. I am afraid it was insanely good. Dangerously good. I’m glad this is a temporary special, or my Doctor would probably have me banned from the joint. Memphis dry rub ribs for the main course, natch. I’m not a big fan of BBQ sauce. It takes away from the flavor of the meat too much. Dry rubs tend to complement the taste instead of hiding it. I washed it down with a Three Philosophers, which is a Belgian beer.
For dessert, we had bacon drizzled in chocolate with spinkles. Again, I was pleasantly surprised how good this was. The bacon had a heavy maple component, which made it pair with the chocolate very well. The extra sugar in the sprinkles tempered the salt in the bacon nicely. Note that this bacon was cooked to the point that it was still moist and chewy, not hard.
Evil foods, truly. And I would do it again.
On 09/30, I was part of a layoff at my employer. I am on the hunt again.
I am looking for a full-time hands-on Team Lead/Manager, Architect, or Principal Software Engineer position in the Greater Boston area. I prefer to work in Java and other cross-platform technologies, but I’m fluent in many others. I would also prefer an Agile/Scrum environment, but that’s not a requirement.
If you hear of anything, my resume and portfolio are available here.