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...Much like the Mac, this book “just works”, because it takes the best from lessons learned from team leaders and team players and takes the mystery out of the project management processes as appl...
-Robert Pritchett |
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They have gathered together the ‘best bits’ of various styles and methodologies they have been directly involved with, and combined them into a practical approach with the focus on delivering a pro...
-Mitch Wheat |
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Do it right from day one or you never will
-Andy Hunt |
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(Nov 25)
I've been meaning to write about my new job for a while, but life has been busy. I'm not working with NFJS One, but instead working for a software shop here in North Carolina called Logos Technologies. For a variety of reasons, this year really burned me out, and travel was a huge part of that, so I did some shopping around. I talked to some shops about jobs with some travel, but local was where I wanted to be, and it's where I am.
I know many people who are adamant about being independent and not working at a day job, but if you know me well, you know I'm pretty flexible... after writing Ship It! and hitting the conference circuit pretty hard, I'm ready to step back, sleep in my own bed at night, and spend the evening watching TV with my two daughters. My commute is 15 to 20 minutes when traffic is bad, and under 10 if I catch all the lights just right. You can keep your hotel food and frequent flier miles. I'll take my old couch any day of the week.
Looking back, Will Gwaltney started working on Ship It! in (I'm approximating) in 2002 or so. The starting point was a series of articles I'd written on my home wiki. I was sure we'd have it done in under a month! (ha!) A year and half later, we had a book that actually sold a few copies. It's now in German, Indian Reprint, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Russian. I still meet people who have no idea who I am, but look shocked and excited when they realize that I'm "that Ship It guy!"
Then I discovered the No Fluff conference tour. I did two cities the first year (Atlanta and DC). My first talk started so badly! I arrived at the conference center during the break before my talk was to start. I opened my suite case in the lobby behind a post so the attendees wouldn't see me getting my laptop out from under my underwear and clothes! Then I finally reached the room and all four attendees. In about 10 minutes, I lost one of the four! :) What a way to start. My voice was shaking, my points were lost... but after he left I found my footing and did a decent job. For that talk I had three excellent reviews and one horrid one. I like to think I've gotten better since then.
For the next few years I spoke at every NFJS I could, as well as a number of other events. I got to hang out with Dave Hussman, Bruce Tate, Dave Thomas, Neal ford, Scott Davis, Venkat... I can't even list everyone! I was privileged to visit tons of Java user's groups and Agile user's groups. I've been in nearly every state in the continental US, visited Canada a few times, and been recognized by Starbuck's counter help in other states!
As I ramp down my traveling and speaking, I'd like to thank so many of you for coming to hear me speak, for blogging about the talks you liked, for buying my books, and for helping to make the last few years an incredible experience. I have good friends in San Jose, Denver, Boston, Memphis, and so many points in between.
I realize this is rambling a bit, but what's the point of having a blog if you can't wander off topic from time to time? :)
Once I catch my breath, I'll start writing again. I've got an update to Ship It! and book on testing rattling around in my head. I still might do an updated version of the Career 2.0 book as well.
As I write this, my daughters are creeping down the hallway... you'll have to excuse me now. I'm going to play with my kids. :)
Category: Personal
(Jul 9)
I've done a lot of interesting work at NFJS One over the last year, but I underestimated how much travel would be involved, and now it's time to find something that can keep me closer to home. So while I'll still be doing engagements with NFJS One, I'm also looking around to see which direction to move next. Talking about it on the blog seems like a good way to start conversations with more people than I could reasonably email.
One very appealing idea is to bring many of the courses I teach across the United States to the local RTP market. I've found that the price point for training in DC, Atlanta, and Chicago is a bit higher than it is here in North Carolina. NFJS One wanted to offer consistent pricing for the NFJS One courseware in all markets, so the local market struggled a bit. I've been teaching courses on test automation training, integration testing, selenium, introduction to Java, introduction to Ruby, transitioning to Agile, and team wide tune-ups. I've also done coaching and mentoring for teams. One of the more popular engagements is me teaching your team about effective test automation, while at the same time cleaning up your existing test suites alongside them.
If you're in the Research Triangle Park area (that is to say, local to me!), please drop me a line (jared@agileartisans.com) and we can discuss details. If you don't have the budget to send your entire team, I've also hosted public training events on request. Then you only need to pay for the two to three attendees you need trained, and let other companies attend too.
I’m considering some remote training, using more of a webinar style presentation as well. I’ve already had some companies express interest in that format, but please let me know if you’re interested too.
I'm also talking to a few local companies about full-time employment. I'm not religious about being independent or a full time employee. I'm passionate about working where I can make a difference. The companies I'm talking with are interested in moving various internal efforts forward, and I find that very appealing.
One of the best ways to explore options is to discuss them publicly, so that’s the reason for this blog entry. Here's hoping some interesting conversations come my way!
Category: Personal
(Dec 8)
I just bought an MSI Wind laptop/netbook and so far I love it. It's tiny, weighing in 2.2 pounds. This includes the bigger, 6 cell battery that provides 6 hours of use. I haven't had a chance to push that envelope yet, but it's on my list of things to do. :)
Here's a picture of it sitting on my 15" MacBook Pro (link). It literally makes the sleek MBP look clunky. It feels that way too. 2.2 versus 5.5 pounds.
The most surprising thing about the Wind is that it's got a hyperthreaded CPU. (Traditionally ultra small notebooks had a single CPU and were slow). It's got the Intel Atom CPU, but with hyperthreading, so it's amazingly responsive. My model came with 1 gig of memory (I've already upgraded it to 2) and a 160 gig hard drive. The external monitor drives my 19" widescreen nicely. So far I can't tell that it's any slower than my MacBook Pro for almost everything.
The keyboard's alphanumberics are fine to use, but the "edge keys", like CTRL and ? are odd to use. I've added an external mouse and keyboard for desktop usage.
I'm also planning on loading Linux on it (big surprise!). The 8.0.41 Ubuntu live CD boots it just fine and the Open Office presentation tools does a very nice job with most of my existing Power Point decks.
My plan was to use it as my presentation laptop. We'll see if that becomes a reality. I really don't think I could write code on the built in screen, but I'll try to do some JUnit tinkering in advance of this week's test automation class. With the external keyboard, mouse, and monitor though, it's fine for everything I've thrown at it.
I've found the push back from my Mac friends to be very entertaining. The MSI runs Windows XP (even though there are hacked versions of OS X for the Wind). So far the reaction from my Mac friends has ranged from surprise to hostility. Remember guys... "think different" doesn't mean to think just like you. ;)
Category: Personal
(Nov 4)
Jurgen Appelo has an ongoing interview series on his blog. He's published a lot of very smart people and I'm honored to squeak in too! ;)
Five Easy Questions for Jared Richardson
From the page...
On this blog I have published interviews with Steve McConnell, Johanna Rothman, Alistair Cockburn, Robert L. Glass, Scott Berkun, Mary Poppendieck and Grady Booch. Everytime I ask the same five questions, and everytime I am pleasantly surprised by the answers I get...
Enjoy!
Category: Personal
(Aug 20)
I'm currently w/o a Mac and existing on web mail interfaces... If I owe you mail and I haven't replied to you, I apologize! Your email is probably trapped in subfolder in Mac's backup image.
But I'll be live again soon. Someone's loaning me a MBP this weekend to bridge me through the September 15th Apple announcement. If Apple doesn't update the MacBook Pro line (as rumor says they will), I'll be very unhappy. :)
Category: Personal
(Aug 13)
Next week I'll be starting an exciting new career opportunity. I'll be working with Jay Zimmerman and a few other key people to provide a "one source solution" for a variety of consulting and training services. The inspiration for the name comes from the No Fluff Just Stuff software symposiums that Jay started back in 2001 and I regularly participate in. The idea is to provide an additional level of superior service to companies who want private training or that last a few days building on the 90 minute presentations offered by a No Fluff Just Stuff show. There are many opportunities to take training to a deeper level and that's what we'll be providing as well as some public classes centered around agile testing, Ruby, and Rails classes very soon.
In addition we'll be organizing several regional Ruby conferences and Agile conferences. The Agile One and Ruby One events will be very similar in size and composition to the NFJS shows. Smaller numbers (capped at 250 attendees) to ensure a great level of interaction between the speakers and attendees.
It's been a busy year, and it's just going to get busier!
Category: Personal
(Apr 30)
I never got why people liked Twitter, but I saw enough people I respect using it (like Ward Cunningham, Dave Thomas, Venkat, and Neal Ford, to name a few) that I decided to try it out... I like it. A lot.
Now that I can "twit" from my iPhone, I don't have to use desktop time to update or track other people's streams. I can post or read at a stop light or in an airport.
Also, the iPhone has a killer app called Twinkle that shows me Twitter feeds based on my location. There's something compelling to me about being able to see feeds within 1-2-5-10-100 miles from my current location. And it's amazing how many people there are "Twitting" on Twinkle within 2 miles of my house.
(In order to use Twinkle, you'll need to "jailbreak" your iPhone. You'll find a nice GUI on the ZiPhone page. It's a busy page, you'll have to navigate a bit. Also, only jailbreak. Don't unlock or activate unless you really know what that means.)
And just now I read an article titled Tweeting for Companies 101. Don't let the title fool you... while there's a decent amount of information for a corporate Twitter movement, there's tons of good information for the individual user as well.
Here's a page of Twitter Apps to get you started. Scroll down to find non-Windows apps.
Here's my link. Come visit. Get addicted too. :)
Category: Personal
(Apr 29)
I'll be giving my keynote talk Career 2.0: Take Control of Your Life at the local Java User's group next month. I gave this as a keynote in Chicago a few weeks ago and it was very well received. Brian Goetz summed it up as "actively manage your career". Pretty close. More than just an admonition to do that, it's also the steps you need to get started.
Triangle Java User's Group
Here's the talk description:
Has your career been a random product of your manager's whims or company's needs? Never rely on your company to keep your skills current and marketable. Take control of your own career with a proven strategy.
These are solid, repeatable steps to get your career in the trajectory you want. The first step is deciding where you want to go. We'll walk through creating a long-term plan, then break it down into manageable steps. Learn to lead within your own company, then stretch out to your local, regional and national community, building your reputation as you go. From coding to writing to speaking, each step will move you closer to where you want to be: in a position of having options and in control of your career.
Category: Personal
(Apr 25)
I've had a Twitter account for a while now, but never done anything with it... however I just added my iPhone as a data entry device. I'll try to start keeping it up to date now that I can do updates in an airport or taxi.
If you're into such things, here's my link
http://twitter.com/jaredrichardson
Category: Personal
(Apr 25)
I was recently on a panel discussion that was asked why should a developer should bother to learn Groovy. They cited Dice.com job results. Much like this blog entry.
Trendy Bastards, Aren't We?
My response to the question "Why should I learn any new technology" is this... do you want to wait to be one of the cogs in the machine? Just another developer among hundreds with a buzzword compliant resume? Or do you want to be the person who learned the new tech, like Groovy and Grails, ahead of the curve, and was then in huge demand while the rest of the industry plays catch up? Do you want to be the person who knows the new, cutting-edge tools and introduces them at work? Or do you want to work with what someone else chooses?
Don't get me wrong... I love Ruby and Rails. I've done very little with Groovy and Grails. But if you limit your learning to existing projects, that means you're limiting your role within your company, and limiting your career, to following the crowd. It's hard to catch a wave after it's crested.
Will every technology you learn be a home run? No. It's like buying stocks. Some will be a home run, some will be a solid return... others will be a learning experience where it's a complete loss.
But over time, if you invest regularly in your knowledge portfolio (or your retirement account), you'll always end up with a decent return and be very comfortable.
Category: Personal
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