Agile Trainings

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If you didn’t attend any agile related training/course before, it is encouraged to attend as these short trainings give you the basic concepts of agile to help you get started real quick. for

  • developers: explore Certified Scrum Developer course, workshops on TDD, ATDD,
  • project managers, analysts: explore Certified ScrumMaster course, LeSS courses, Certified Scrum Product Owner
  • business, analysts, product folks: explore Certified Scrum Product Owner

People aren’t great at evaluating themselves, we all tend to overestimate our talents, abilities, traits. If you think you don’t need to attend any agile trainings, can try these open simple assessments and see if you can get 100% consistently. 🤓 Open Scrum assessment, Open Scrum Developer assessment, Open Product Owner assessment, Open agile leadership assessment.

Having said that, certifications does not mean much. It’s only the start of the journey.

Law Of Two Feet

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tl;dr Law of Two Feet (Lo2F) says: Don’t waste anyone’s time.

Commonly practice in Open Space Tech (OST), Unconferences, GeekCamps or other progressive, learner-directed event, you’d be familiar with the law of two feet. If you are unfamiliar, the concept may seem offensive or disrespectful. But don’t be afraid, because everyone is given both the right and the responsibility to maximize their own learning and contribution, which the Law assumes only they, themselves, can ultimately judge and control. When participants lose interest and get bored, or accomplish and share all that they can, the charge is to move on. The “polite” thing to do is not to waste your time or anyone else’s. The polite thing is going off to do something else. This might be another meeting or dealing with a pressing work or getting fresh air. Read on https://opensource.com/business/10/8/darwin-meets-dilbert-applying-law-two-feet-your-next-meeting

p.s. saying is easier than doing. i know it take real guts to ‘exit’. below are some possible situations to invoke Lo2f.

  1. When the meeting agenda is confirmed, you can decline the invite and say I feel I won’t be contributing to the specifics of the agenda.
  2. When the meeting has started, but derailed from the agenda, or it’s not what you understand the meeting is about, and hence you are unable to learn or contribute, then politely excuse yourself. Maybe the agenda has already accomplished or they do not need you now but later.
  3. Make it easier for people to ‘quietly’ leave the conversation by having meetings in an area where people normally work.

Story Points

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This article by thoughtworks pretty much give a 101 introduction to story points. Story point estimation are done by individual teams with differing type of work which is also why Team A has their own velocity, likewise for Team B and Team C. Velocity shouldn’t be used as a form of comparison among teams.

Story points should not be explicitly linked to man-days of effort, as they are meant to be a purely relative estimate. Advantages include relative estimates are quicker and easier to do and to avoid over-thinking. It is also more likely to agree that story A is likely to be x times as much work as story B than getting man-days estimation from a junior engineer and senior engineer.

https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-sg/insights/blog/all-about-point

Agile Quick Links

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If you’re curious or ’d like to learn more about agile development, can look at the 2 items below.

  • Agile Manifesto (4 Values & 12 Principles, short but meaningful.)
  • The 2020 Scrum Guide (Scrum is a common framework that we are currently using. Reduced to about 10 pages now.)

Arduino Fish Feeder

Posted on , In Labs

So, my mom nag at me for not being home to feed my fish.

Immediately took out the Arduino Nano to build a fish feeder. Feeds every 12 hours.

(IoT) Espresso Lite

Posted on , In Labs

Done playing around with the espresso lite for awhile. So, I decided to leave it alone. Here’s the real-time humidity and temperature of my room. Argggh.

7 things about the Apple Watch

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  1. The watch is a great complement to my huge ass iPhone 6+. The phone is so bulky that I left it lying around not within reach, or it is kept inside the bag. But my work requires me to response to important messages immediately. When I am waiting or expecting something, instead of having to check my phone every now and then, the notifications and alerts on my wrist tells me if it’s what I am expecting.

  2. Battery life is decent. A habit of mine is to wear the watch all day even when I am at sleep or in shower. Now that I have to take it out to charge at the end-of-the-day, I think sleep better and more comfortable.

  3. I silent my phone most of the time and I do not turn on the vibrations because it can be irritating when the phone is vibrating on the desk. At work, I do get call alerts and iMessages on my laptop. But when I am away from desk, the prominent haptic allow me to know when I am about to receive something.

  4. I never scroll with the crown. Using finger scroll works just as well. Maybe I am used to it.

  5. I love that I get rewarded for activity goals. Not much, but still it is some encouragement.

  6. I feel like a fool when I take phone calls from the watch. The speaker is too soft. However, I enjoy texting. It is a quick and easy way to send text messages but weird user experience of having to select the receiver’s name and press send.

  7. GPS is good. However, when I am riding on my motorbike, I could see the map directions through glances but could not feel the vibrations. Probably due to the crazy vibrations from my dual-purpose scrambler-looking motorbike. Apple maps seems fine for now.

I can’t wait for the next release. :)