The Quick Brown Fox

Total fail this week as far as keeping track of what I've been doing. It was a sprint boundary week, and I feel like I spent most of it running. The good news is that I finally feeling physically better, which has been a boost in terms of the energy I can bring to my work. I'm trying to sell people on some practices I believe in, like team charters; we'll see how it goes.

How to Take an Idea from Good to Great Why I Quit Google - This post may actually change my life.  You Can Count on Me - A Team Exercise Change Fatigue - An oldie but goodie on the subject of why change often fails 

Monday - Half a year of these posts. I'm feeling blue today (still sick), and even more so as further "tweaking" of team rosters appears to be in the offing. In the spirit of taking whatever victories you can get, I am happy to report that I have pretty much gotten used to Win10 already. The start menu is stupid, but that's my only real complaint... well, that and the fact that it blue-screens twice a day (so far). Oh, and I went out to David's Tea and stocked up on breakfast blend and their lemon black tea.  Tuesday - Ran a great retro for my old Kanban team -- their first one. The group has a lot of challenges -- their biggest issue is despair, the sense that they're struggling under a weight of problems that will forever prevent anything from changing. It would be good to see a success story here. Interviewed a candidate. Good conversation on organizational dysfunctions. All of that = I don't feel useless today.    Wednesday - Started the day with a

This has been a lost week, dear readers. Between another blizzard that knocked out my internet service all day, getting sick again , and getting my laptop upgraded to Win10, absolutely nothing useful was accomplished this week.

Monday - Still hacking up a lung on the regular. Feel blue and desperately unmotivated. The whole industry is just a million rats on a treadmill, doing nothing of any utility. Worked on release notes for three products going out in two different releases this week. Confusion continues to reign. We all took our new Scrum Master out for an excellent lunch, which was def. the high point of the day.   Tuesday - Feeling better physically, huge relief. A reference to pattern languages led me to wonder if that isn't what I'm doing at this stage of my life -- assembling a pattern language for living? It seems like we know so much and make so little use of it, and so many people are actively prevented from being able to live well, and for what reason?   Wednesday/Thursday - Snoooooooooooooooooooooooooow. Very quiet at the office. Met with our new Scrum Master to get her familiar with the schedule and practices followed here, some of which met with raised eyebrows.   Friday - Got som

Monday - Anxiety levels on the rise. Team members unhappy with the amount of information they're being expected to absorb at speed in their new configuration. (My shocked face, where did I put it.) We have a release on Friday, so I spent much of the day making sure that my documentation ducks were orderly.  Tuesday - Sprint review day. I learned something valuable about myself, namely that my claustrophobia is considerably worse than I realized. Or maybe it was just that I was getting sick piling on to the existing anxiety. Wednesday -  Came down with a cold. Made it through sprint plannings, albeit grumpy, snappish, and headachey throughout. Put together velocity metrics and burndowns. Went out for lunch with one of the teams. Learned that they don't get Saturdays off in India. ????  Thursday - Home sick. Messed with more metrics reporting.  Friday - Went in to the office, but I definitely wasn't feeling 100%. The release got pushed out to next week. sigh