Pain is temporary, failure lasts forever

Two weeks in Khao Lak

2009-12-17T13:15:00.003+01:00

I've now been home from Khao Lak for about two weeks and I'm starting to accept the snow and the chilly weather.

This trip was to Khao Lak. We went to one of our Blue Village, the Khao Lak Seaview. This was the first Blue Village Exotic, and I had not previously understood the difference, even if I'm an employee of TUI Nordic. More of the entertainment and food was local and you could feel the difference.

Here are some highlights from our vacation:
Private pool at our bungalow. Since we travelled with my mother inlaw, having her separate bedroom and bathroom was a hit. The private pool was wonderful in the morning for the first dip. I run in the mornings, so taking a dip before breakfast was just great.

The pool area by the beach. Here we could also eat our dinners, take a drink during the day and see the entertainment.

The beach by the hotel. It was wonderful to have such a nice beach just by the hotel. I love running on the beach and prefer beaches over swimming pools. But since the pool was so near the beach we didn't have to choose.

Some of the days it was lots of fun waves for the guys!

If you're up for some really nice beaches, you have White Sand Beach quite near (15 km north of Khao Lak) and tours to Similian Islands. Here is one of the beaches:

So, what is the verdict? Well, we felt that this was the perfect winter holiday for a worked out family with a child. We had quite different needs for our holiday, but we found an alternative which suited us. This summer, we'll be heading for Crete and a classic Blue Village concept. Keep you posted!

Winter outfit into the deepest corners of the closet and into the bin

2009-04-05T18:01:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, I finally took all the winter running gear and placed this in the deepest corners of my closet. Out came the gear for spring and summer. I usually don't have problems discarding with clothes, but when it comes to running gear, I cannot just throw them away. Like the pants who just had to go. But I wore them both on Vätternrundan and Vasaloppet. Yes, that was in 2001 and they look their age. And the top which I wore during my first marathon. I don't have to look like a homeless runner, so why is this? Yes, there are emotions in these clothes worn during races which meant a lot. But also a false notion that I know these clothes and that they "work".

But the truth is that so much has happened when it comes to runner's gear since 2001. The clothes are so much better. Especially compared to stuff which has been in use a couple of times every week during half the year since 2001.

But now I've let go of those pants, and the marathon top. I hope I've got even better nerve when the autumn comes and throw away the rest of the stuff which I shouldn't use anymore. But who wants to think about autumn now?

Extra christmas

2009-03-22T21:14:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow, the books I ordered last week will arrive. 10 kg of new stuff I don't know where to put and which I really don't have time to read. But not all of them are for me. The husband ordered two and I've bought some scientific books for kids to the little guy. But that leaves eight new babies for me. The Dawkins'es I haven't read, some books on research about traveller's behaviour, Mythical Man Month, an Umberto Eco and a Kotter. And of course, the book I needed for my class.

The smell of spring

2009-03-22T09:39:00.002+01:00

Now, we cannot disregard it any more. The garden needs some fixing. People living in apartments often say that it's so nice to hang around in a garden. They think so because they don't have to see all the stuff that needs to be done when you'd rather just take it slow in the sun. And then there's the smell. When you start lifting the stuff which needs moving you can smell spring. Nice. And no, having a summer home is not the same because the summer home is not what meet you every day coming home from work. You cannot forget it or ignore it because it's in your face.

Well, these are problems I've selected myself, and really: I love being in the garden. So, today I'll do some work with the sun and then celebrate with the first garden beer for the spring.

Finally, spring is really here

2009-03-20T19:35:00.002+01:00

It's been luring me for some time. But now spring is finally here. This is the best time of the year for me as a runner. Not too cold and not to hot. Just crisp air. Not that I really mind running when it's warm, it's more that when it's warm outside people tend to be more on the streets and you have the problem passing them when you run. Because not all understand that they are the fastest ones on the street and seem to be amazed that someone can actually move faster then them. So, when you signal for them to not take up the complete width of the path, they freeze.

This is an increasing problem during the spring season, but really, what do I care. It's just fabulous not to have to fill the backpack completely when you run to work.

Also, spring means new shoes. Each spring, except when I'd just given birth to Pete and hadn't started running properly, I buy brand new shoes. It's a real luxury but a good one. It's really a small investment which can mean the difference between being in pain and enjoying the run. I'm not a heavy person, but the shoes get worn out. I realized this during the year when I didn't switch. The next year the shoes were really dead.

Tomorrow, I'll finally get to saw the tomato seeds for this year. Or to be more precise, Peter is going to do it and I'm going to assist him. Also, since the snow is gone it's probably time for the first session in the garden. And not to forget one of the key pleasures of spring: the spring classics. Having switched jobs, I've found some other professional cycling fans and I have others who appreciate and enjoy spending hours watching guys on bikes. And the rest is just amazed that we actually like that stuff.

Books

2009-03-14T23:21:00.004+01:00

I'm completing the final course of the spring semester, and I found that I needed to purchase a book. We have too many books in our home: you could say I'm a recovering bookoholic and I try to stay out from book stores. I tend to get out with too many books. It's not that I don't read them: I'm a fast reader and have read many of my books many times, but we don't have the space. The book shelves are packed and beyond.

Using a e-com site takes away a little bit of the pleasure of buying books since I don't get to stroll between the shelves, feel the paper and build an interest. The problem is that you can scroll many more books on a web site. And you find books you never knew you didn't knew that they existed. There is the season for book sales in Sweden, so since I was already buying a book, I just happened to scroll all the titles in the categories which I'm interested in. And some other categories too. Yes, I am a bookoholic. Give me a break. Just reading about them does not mean that I buy them... Not all of them, anyway. But I do recommend anyone to scroll the titles under Finance and law. How about these book titles:

Private Rights in Public Resources: Equity and Property Allocation in Market-Based Environmental Policy
The International Sugar Agreements: Promise and Reality
Start Your Own Pet-Sitting Business
Behind the Veneer: The South Shoreditch Furniture Trade and Its Buildings
The Security-Development Nexus: Expressions of Sovereignty and Securitization in Southern Africa
Micro-Regionalism in West Africa: Evidence from Two Case Studies

I could just go on. If I click the titles, there is not much details, but isn't it fascinating that there are all these books out there that someone found interesting enough to write and publish. And what is more interesting,, there are at least one bookoholic who was really tempted to buy one or two of these just to see what they were all about. But I controlled myself. So, besides the book for my class and two books which my husband wanted, I just picked up two Richard Dawkins, the latest Umberto Eco, a couple of technical books for little Pete and two books on e-com in the leisure travel business. So, I'm not fully recovered. But I didn't pick up the book on international suger trade.

What the... Snow again

2009-03-10T20:32:00.003+01:00

It is soon the middle of March. Yes, we live in Sweden, but this morning when I looked out the window it was winter again. The afternoon run home was like running in a march. Two decimetres of snow in about 0C temperature makes is soggy and icy.

I really long for spring and the summer. Everything is so much easier when you don't have to worry about all the clothes and stuff. But then again I have something else to complain about.

At work, the new projects are starting up and they are really challenging and interesting. It's kind of funny because yesterday I finished an exam on my project management class. One of the question was how I selected resources. Like one get to select that. I guess most project managers don't get to see a menu.

I hope I've finished most of the work for all but one of the classes. I have a serious problem getting into the writing mode for classes. I've spent 15 years to learn how to write short and concise and now the volume counts most. One of my teachers commented on one of my exam that I'd answered the question but that I could have written more. A responded by asking if I hadn't answered the question. Well, yes, but I could have written more. Would the answer become more right then? The idea that adding more words to an answer makes it more right does not play with me. Of course if the teacher had felt that my answer was too short to answer the question, but this is hard for me to accept.

Recipe for kids

2009-03-08T17:43:00.001+01:00

My son loves baking and preparing food. The absolute favourite is cinnamon rolls and over time he's learned more and more of the different steps. But to make him more active, I've prepared a recipe which he can follow. I've taken pictures of him completing the different steps and after printing, I'll place the pictures in a small photo album with plastic pages: Then I'll let him follow the pictures instead of me reading for him.

It was a bit of work, since I had to take most of the pictures myself while we were working but it turned out really nice. Hope it will work when we use it in the future

Getting ready to rumble...

2009-02-23T19:19:00.002+01:00

it's not that often that it happens. Actually, the last time little Peter was home sick with the flu, was about three years ago. But now, he's been puking is guts out and that pains a mother. So, I'm getting ready to rumble. Having been home alone with the guy this evening, I know what's coming. But there are worse things which I can imagine. Even if I won't think that when I'm in the middle of if.

Pain is temporary

2009-02-22T21:12:00.002+01:00

When you've run the marathon, or given birth or almost died from gall bladder infection, you might think that you've conquered all. But then there are children. Who turns older and when they do so, they give parties. And to those parties they invite other children. And voilâ, you have the possibility to experience something really special.

I know, my son loves the events and most parents just drop off their kids by this age but when a mother looks at me and says: you are so welcome to stay, who am I to say no? (I guess they know I'm not the type who just sits around but actually tries to control the kids.)

So, instead of taking it easy for a couple of hours I spend the better part of a Sunday chasing my and other's boys and making sure no one dies or destroys something too valuable. 9 boys at ages 5 thorugh 7 is a little bit too much to enjoy. Combine this with suger and toys and you have hell on earth. Well, I did enjoy myself a little bit too, and the food was wonderful, but yes, hell on earth.

But the fun thing was that when I was leaving the party, I realized that in the room where the boys had had a sound volume of an Iron Maiden concert for three hours, a little 6 months old baby was sound asleep. That is not fair! But, pain is temporary and now I have a week at work to get back on my feet again.

Suddenly Friday

2009-02-20T18:11:00.002+01:00

And so, it's finally Friday. This Friday is very welcome. It's been hectic at work and my arms need to rest from the heavy doors at work. And you don't become less tired from staying up too late to watch yesterday's Tour of California. But it's a pure joy to see Armstrong ride again. It's just a shame that in the state of Hollywood, that the TV production is so poor. It kind of interesting to know the gaps between the groups and time differences. But you can't everything and this makes me long even more for summer. But until then I'll just enjoy this weekend.

Softy

2009-02-19T20:10:00.003+01:00

The previous week has been a constant run between floors at work. And the other day I woke up with sore arms. It felt like I'd been exercising my upper body. But I hadn't and I couldn't understand what was happening. Was it the flu? Back at work I understood what was going on. The heavy doors at work. My runner's body wasn't used to the weight of them. I've not exercised my upper body since Vasaloppet in 2001. It's rather embarrassing that a person who runs almost 30k a week and gives spinning classes once a week has so poor strength. To my defence, I've been opening those doors at least 20 times a day, which is much more often than the guys who just leaves the rooms for lunch. Being agile at work is affecting me

Jewellery for the smart girl

2009-02-15T18:40:00.003+01:00

(Agile stuff can be found on http://annaforss.spaces.live.com/)

Jewellery is a statement. A statement of religion, taste and wealth. So, if you're a smart girl, why not show it by wearing Etsy wearable art with a statement? An alternative to rocks, minerals and religious symbols.

Welcome back!

2009-02-15T15:06:00.004+01:00

It was almost surreal this morning when we watched the recording of yesterday night's Tour of California. Yes, the man is back again in the saddle and he didn´t disappoint me. I'm just glad that I spotted the news that Swedish Eurosport for the first time is broadcasting Tour of California. But who won, besides me who got to see the show again? Fabian Cancellara was a secure winner of the day.

Here are some nice photos and reports from the event which will go on until February 22th.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2009/feb09/california09/?id=results/california090

NB: And for you who does not have a clue of what I'm talking about: Lance Armstrong is back in the pack again. The objective is to raise even more money to cancer research and to return to Le Tour de France this summer. I hope the hotel in Rhodes has Eurosport...

Absolutely tired of winter

2009-02-14T22:05:00.002+01:00

I cannot stop being amazed by the fact that my ancestors took the trouble to walk from the warmth of the south to get here. I hate winter and snow. I guess it's tolerable for a few weeks but now I'm really fed up with bulking up with clothes when running, that it's icy out and that it's just a mess with this winter.

So, I'm dreaming of summer. And warmth. I'm the sort of person who never turns on the air conditioning, even if I'm in Florida in the midth of summer. I guess when it's over 105F, I start to think it's annoying (even if runs are best at about 85-90F). I've just booked the summer vacation. TUI's new resort in Rhodes, our first environmentally friendly!

It's called Blue Village Atlantica Aegean Park and it will be interesting to see we combine a concept with All Inclusive with environmentally sustainable.

And of course I'm celebrating 200 years since

2009-02-12T20:21:00.002+01:00

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln was born

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
Charles Darwin

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Abraham Lincoln

New stuff tomorrow

2009-02-10T21:57:00.004+01:00

(Agile stuff can be found on http://annaforss.spaces.live.com/)
Since not just one but two new colleagues are coming with to my spinning session during the lunch, I hastely decided to change the program completely. One of the guys is probably taking Etapé de Tour this year (riding the worst day of The Tour) and the other guy is riding the Tour of Flanders for not professional riders. Two of the most amazing cycling events for non pro's... So, I'm adding some spice to tomorrow's ride. Hope all goes well.

Just think about it and smile

2009-02-10T21:55:00.001+01:00

Hands free

2009-02-08T08:53:00.003+01:00

(Agile stuff can be found on http://annaforss.spaces.live.com/)

www.ted.com is one of my favorite web places for challenging the way I view upon the world. Swedish Lena Maria Klingwall is no exception. With what we would consider 'being born with just one full limb', she has accomplished more than many born without visible handicap. Let's say its telling when she says she was born 'Hands free'.

What is also very telling is that a person referred to as a Swedish mega star was completely unknown to me before reading about her on Ted.

Changing the world - Bill Gates talks about world health and teaching

2009-02-07T18:33:00.003+01:00

Bill Gates is always interesting to listen to but here he shows his skill spreading information about the need for a continued struggle for world health and education. Not through antroposofic stupidity but things that really work.

The morning rain

2009-02-07T16:41:00.004+01:00

(Agile stuff can be found on http://annaforss.spaces.live.com/)

When it's in the middle of the Swedish winter and it's snowy outside and it's around six in the morning, you expect that the stuff falling from the sky is snow. But not yesterday. The morning run was performed in a chilly rain on a icy track on the way to work. I was fortunate that I thought it was colder, so I didn't freeze, but the speed was not what I'd wanted.

But anyway, I got going and the good thing about lousy weather and icy roads is that you have things to focus your thoughts on. I didn't even reflect on the longest upcline since I was focusing on stayin on my feet. After that, a small smile spread on my face and the rest was a piece of cake.

Another lesson is that leaving the run for another day does not make it better. Having done all my weekly runs by Friday I could sit this Saturday and just smile at the even rainier and icier outside climate.

PC Suite... Again

2009-02-01T16:08:00.003+01:00

When it was time to select a phone for my new job, I selected th E71 from Nokia. Not that I liked it best, it's just that testing using different devices are a good thing and now I have three different devices.

When my first reaction on the UI on the Sony Ericsson i770 was that I liked it and understood it, my reaction to the Nokia was next to horror. How was I supposed to stand this ugly, unintuitive UI? Well, I'm getting used to it.

But now it comes to syncing with my PC and hey, they are using PC Suite. Sweet. At last someone has done some thinking and they're using the same software. You wish. Sony Ericsson uses Sony Ericsson PC Suite (currently version 4.0) and Nokia uses Nokia PC Suite (version 7.1).

So, now I'm installing yet another instance of the software from hell. And now I have to quit. Yes, this is Windows Vista but you have to restart your computer to continue. So, to be continued. Because there is a good chance there is a second part of this story.

Why do you bother?

2009-02-01T08:04:00.003+01:00

(Agile stuff can be found on http://annaforss.spaces.live.com/)

As I covered earlier, I'm taking classes in Informatics this spring. The schedule is tricky, I'm working full time and try to spend as much time as possible with the family and also to have some kind of social life. Studying adds a lot of complexity to this puzzle. But I guess it's self selected.

Since I've been working with Informatics in some form for over ten years and with a previous bachelor's degree, this could probably have been a work in the park doing these basic courses. But then, I cannot help getting involved.

Having worked with training and usability for so many years, I get pretty disappointed at courses in the area of for example usability to present sad examples of just that. The tool that is used for the online course (WebCT, Blackboard) is terrible. I don't know if Mittuniversitet is using a very old version but if this is the best of online training systems of the day, the market should be open for new actors.

Then when it comes to the actual classes, the quality of the small things are so poor. For example, instructions in some cases has been written in one paragraph and is almost impossible to read (if the text is a decimeter in height and 1,5 decimeter in width, separating the text in different paragraphs is a good thing..) Word documents sent out to be used as templates are so poorly built that they are rather a hinderence than help. How someone in an academic environment today can fail in making heading numbers is a mystery. Either they lack basic computer and usability skills or they lack a sense of quality. What pride do you have in your work if you don't bother about these rather simple things? It's no wonder that one of the principles for lean software development is: Build quality in.

So, what do I do? I complain and I discuss. I simply state: this is not good enough! As a customer, I require being respected and presenting poor tools, outdated theories and low usability is showing lack of respect.

My husband wondered why I bother. And the reason is not as simple like I have to complain. I think I have a responsibility too. Yes, my primary objective of the classes was learning something new. But I also have the responsibility that with my experience try to make some changes to the classes. New students have nothing to compare with. But I have, and this is below the standard of what you can expect. And I want to say that both to the teachers and the other students.

Just plain cute

2009-01-31T19:58:00.000+01:00

First spinn of the year

2009-01-30T21:53:00.002+01:00

(Agile stuff can be found on http://annaforss.spaces.live.com/)

Finally, I held my first spinning session on Wednesday. It was over a month ago and the legs felt kind of soggy. A new colleague hanged along and since he knows how to ride a bike, he was really with me over the mountains and on that yellow field where we test sprinting.

After the spinning session, I felt slightly dizzy. I guess I need more fluids than I'm drinking. I haven't thought about me needing more from screaming and speaking while having the spinning sessions. I need to get that right. Well, after some refilling with water I got back to my old self. Or at least I thought that.

During this morning's run to work I could feel the cycling in the legs. It was quite cold (-7C) and the legs didn't feel right. For some reason I run a bit faster as well. So, it felt hard. Having meetings all day I wondered if I could stay focused the whole day. But since all the meetings were interesting and active, I soon forgot about that and had a normal day.

This weekend, I'm really going to take it slow. Really slow.

Getting longer

2009-01-25T13:46:00.002+01:00

(If you're looking for the stuff about agile and lean software development, check out my new blog at http://annaforss.spaces.live.com/)

Since I changed jobs, I've also increased the route to work. From having 4,5k to work it's now 8,5. And since the parking fee is much higher, driving is no longer an option. So, it's biking or running for me. I've also gotten back to the tube. But I prefer the bike or my own feet.

I was wondering how it would work, increasing the weekly dosage of running with almost 15k and it was many years since I took longer morning runs. It hasn't been a problem. Quite the opposite. The first k:s are always the worst for me so the run feels perfect.

The only problem is the temperature. During the nights, the temperature goes under 0C and during the days it rains. So, it's like running on glass on portions of my run. But that also makes it a bit more interesting and challenging. I can focus on standing on my own two feet.

So, what does this mean for my running objectives? I don't know yet. I'm still doing Midnattsloppet, even if I haven't decided on a costume yet. Perhaps I'll do a half marathon later this year.

Four new kids

2009-01-23T23:55:00.002+01:00

The challenges with the global environments are many and since my company, TUI Nordic works strategicly with all its objectives, it is important to have clear objectives and take part of the right projects. It is therefore with joy that I can tell you that Fritidsresor has become active in the WARF - Wild Animal Rescue Foundations "Gibbon Rehabilitation Project". This means a lot of things, like posting information how travellers can help the situation for the gibbon monkey and also that we have adopted four gibbon monkeys in the project.

Since Thailand is an important site for the company, this feels like a worthy cause. Read more at the WARF web site.

Splitting into two

2009-01-22T21:58:00.003+01:00

I've been thinking about this for a while, but now it's time to get moving. This blog is about my interests (running, cooking, family, the skeptic movement, and so on) and about my thoughts on agile and lean in software development. The statement Pain is temporary, failure lasts forever fits better for my personal interests than for my view on software development. So, I'm migrating the upcoming posts on software development, agile and so on to my new blog.

Since I always want to try new stuff, I'm keeping the new blog on Spaces and this is the new address:

http://annaforss.spaces.live.com/

On this blog, I'll continue post more on my interests and my personal travel through life. And thanks, Sir Agile, for making me finally do this

New activity in my vaccination campaign

2009-01-21T19:30:00.004+01:00

Today I semi-launched my site for supporting the Swedish vaccination program. Since the campaign is directed against Sweden, the site is in Swedish:

http://barnvaccination.spaces.live.com/

Not the best looking site but this was really the easiest way for me to get the information out. I'm going to give the site some more love in the near future (the weekend) but new job, college classes and a family takes time too...

Concept store in Forum Nacka (Stockholm)

2009-01-21T17:40:00.003+01:00

This is the new concept store for Fritidsresor in Forum Nacka here in Stockholm.

I spent the day in the store, listening to both customers and the sales people. As you can see, the store is quite different from other stores (at least in Sweden) which sells leisure travel.

Half the store is a cozy sitting area, while half is more for self service. Really nice!

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A visit to the real world - the project manager in the field

2009-01-20T21:10:00.003+01:00

You might not be able to tell, but this picture is actually from one of our new concept stores. The store is located at the mall at Forum Nacka, and it will be really interesting to see a completely new environment in which we sell leisure travel (at least in Sweden I've never seen anything like this).

Besides from meeting our sales staff, I hope to meet some customers and listening to their questions and ideas. Meeting real customers and users. Hurray!

A story of growth

2009-01-19T22:03:00.002+01:00

My son really loves baking. From an early age, he loved hanging around me in the kitchen, eager to help. Of course, in the beginning his help was of no help to me in my baking. Then, I had three options:

Since it took less time, I could have done everything myself
Even if it took longer time, I could involve Peter is different tasks, having him learn the stuff.
Combine the two strategies

I went for the last strategies: I involved Peter in tasks which he could learn to master and explained to him which tasks were not suitable to him and then he could only watch. Of course it took longer time and I chose bakery which weren't too complicated.

As time has progressed, so have Peter, and on Sunday, he was finally making a net value. We baked some cinnamon rolls and 3 kg of home made lasagne to a friend who is giving birth this week. Peter took care of melting the butter, taking out the forms and placing the rolls in the forms. He made his own rolls and he really helped me making the lasagne plates, including fixing the dough.

Imagine his pride when he could serve his father his very own cinnamon rolls and guess how much better he eats when he's cooked the meal. Giving responsibility is enabling confidence.

Are you accountable?

2009-01-17T21:38:00.006+01:00

Mike Cottmeyer discusses the combining of the "traditional project manager view" and the "agile leader view" in his thought worthy blog post on accountability.

One very interesting part is when one of the team members says the following to Mike (then new to the agile mindset):

"you just get what you get when you get it."

This is of course true. In all projects it's important that the participants do their best to make the "what" as the right stuff to the right quality and that you get the most right stuff to the right quality as possible. In other words; people do their best to increase the product increment.

What Mike was really worried about was that people didn't do their best, perhaps slacking, perhaps working on other projects or just the wrong stuff.

In other words, he wasn't sure that he count on the team doing their best on his project. Why do project managers feel like this: that they cannot count on people doing their jobs? Are they evil not believing in people or are the participants not to be trusted.

Trust does not come automatically. We all know that. But in agile projects, trust is a necessity. The business people need to trust the developers knowing how to build stuff. Developers must trust that the business people tell them which problems they need solved as soon as they know themselves and that they say when they change their minds.

Managers need to trust their groups doing their jobs. Because everyone on an agile project need to be someone you can count on. That does not mean that managers should stop managing. That just mean that a good manager does not need to scare people to work and they people with a good manager work independently if he's checking on them. He's making sure that things run smoothly and that the team know what they're supposed to do.

Before going agile, make sure the trust is there and otherwise make sure to build trust in your organisation. A good start to get some ideas on the subject is of course reading Five Disfunctions of a Team by Lencioni.

And no, trust is not confiding in someone. Just because a team member told you something personal in confidence does not mean that he trusts you or that you trust him.

Another thing to remember that trust is not absolute. I trust my son being able to make the different exercises at gymnastics but that does not mean I trust him driving the car. You must have reasonable expectations and not give unwarranted trust in someone.

Finally, an important question is how well you have trust in yourself. If you don't trust yourself doing the job, how could anyone else trust you? An interesting insight in this situation is the personal account by Dan Kennedy describing his career in the music industry in the book Rock On.

Go ahead and build some trust: be the person others can trust. Make people wanting to be trusted by you.

Corporate visions?

2009-01-16T20:16:00.004+01:00

This Wednesday I started my new position at TUI Nordic and since then I've been busy getting busy at my new job. It's interesting to finally be working at a company which focuses on a real corporate vision and related strategies. Just after three days, I know the vision and strategy from the heart and this colors how I view the projects I'm getting involved in.

I've earlier discussed the importance of a product vision and a project vision before starting an agile project. But I think the corporate vision is the way to start. From the corporate vision, product and project can be set.

I'm also really excited about working in an organisation actively working with lean values.

I guess this is it for now. Time for rest, but I'll get back to you. From next week I starting to publish the material from my booklet on product ownership in scrum project.

Campaigning with the help of google documents

2009-01-13T16:49:00.002+01:00

Perhaps you think that the outburst from the other day was just a coincidence. I beg to differ. These last days I've spent many hours educating myself and completing a document which will be the basis for our campaign. We are now a handful of individuals working on the same document and even more has been invited to view the content as the work is in progress.

Since the document is filled with references, I used Microsoft Word while creating the first version but now when we've moved into editing mode, I've published the document on Google Documents so all interested can view it and so that we editors can edit it directly. Wonderful! I wouldn't have wanted to create the basis of the document in Google Documents but the collaboration features are excellent in their ease of use and just the right set of features. I was amazed that my footnotes were included when I imported the document. Adding or removing footnotes now will be a bit more complicated than in Word but I agree with Google that the included features are enough.

I've also been in contact with a number of organisations, doctors and researchers and am happy to learn that a complete novice has been given so much time and effort, even if we are in a country which will not be as effected if the battle against measles is not won. I guess that if you've really seen the effects or been in a country struck by measles, this subject is something that affects you.

In a couple of days, we'll be done with the document and then the next phase will commence. Keep you updated!

When your every day chore is an event for you customer

2009-01-13T15:06:00.005+01:00

I guess the lift off of a space shuttle is still not considered an every day thing, but I guess it's kind of mainstream to the guys at Kennedy Space Centre. For my husband, spending a day watching the lift off was a real treat (he took the picture this summer and I hope he won't report me for stealing it from him to publish here but he's kind of used to me discussing his stuff on this blog). For him, this will always be a special occasion since it was the first time he saw a space shuttle lift off on site.

When delivering services like education, travel, theatre, health care, what ever, we have customers to whom THEIR experience is something extra ordinary but for the staff it's an every day thing. Also, the staff is often not be affected after the event has passed.

For example, a friend of me is in a few days having a new baby. Having born two really big boys before (both weighed over 5 KG), giving birth is quite frightening. But having the staff reassuring her that "but we deliver women every day" still does not help her in her fears. Because they don't deliver her babies every day. And they are not doing the actual delivering either. OK, they see it all the time and help out all the time. But that does not make every birth very unspecial to the parents involved. Also, a failed birth might to the staff result in punishment in some form, but for the parents and the kids involved, this is a life changer.

I often found this hard to tackle when giving computer classes. Even if I'd held a class a thousand time, the participants would only participate on that only occasion and really wanted to feel special and "all". And a failed course meant for me ... nothing ... while a failed course for a participant might mean that they could not do their job properly, feel stupid and perhaps cause other problems at their work places. I had a guy taking Excel classes who where going to calculate medicine doses after my class. What if I hadn't helped him get it right. Pride in your work is making every occasion count. Or as Gordon Ramsey put it: a chef is never better than his latest service.

Compare with travelling. What if your latest trip sucked and you contacted the company and they said; well, your trip sucked but the one before was excellent. Why would you care? And it does not matter if that you where the best developer on your last sprint if you produced bad code this sprint.

So, every time you think "Here we go again, yet another X. I think I'll do some short cuts this time because this is becoming boring" while completing your work, think that this occasion is a mark of your professionality. It does not matter that the last time you made X, you were brilliant. That mattered then. But it does not make it OK to do a crappy work this time. If the tasks are boring, find ways to improve them without affecting the quality or find yourself another job.

When technology rule the development

2009-01-13T14:06:00.004+01:00

I guess few people in the industry are uninterested in technology, gadgets and things. I guess the interest in system development in many cases derive from an early interest in the gadget Computer. Embracing new technologies, tools and versions are often good for the creative process, and for productive environment, but this must be prioritized like everything else. The costs must be calculated as well as the benefits. A software project is not about letting the developers have a nice time playing with the newest toys on the market.

This is perhaps best illustrated in the story of The Works. The Works was supposed to be the first computer animated film. Ten years after the project started, they were still not done and one of the main reasons was that the developers too often got new tools and versions and felt that they had to start all over. When the project was canceled in 1986, only a few minutes of actual film had been completed. Another reason for the project failed was that the technology was not ready for what they wanted to do. And that is also an important lesson: only build what you can complete.

But don't forget that most developers are interested in the new things and don't say no to everything. But estimate the costs and benefits and put it on the list. Also, introducing the "new stuff" can be an excellent reward for a hard working team after they've accomplished something grand.

Thanks Hexmaster of Faktoider for sharing the story (here in Swedish).

How much media want to believe

2009-01-12T12:20:00.004+01:00

The history of Carlos is interesting to everyone who wants to easy to become a known medium.

Carlos hit Australian media like a meteor. A young American man could channel to an ancient spirit named Carlos, stopping his pulse during the process. As this medium he could predict the future. Wow! Really amazing. Or was it more amazing that no journalist bothered to check the facts before channeling the story to their audience?

Sad sad times for human health - the anti vaccination movement seem to get what they want

2009-01-09T09:14:00.007+01:00

This morning I became really, really upset, reading about measles in the world. In Sweden, we have an objective to eradicate measles from the population. Because people falsely (yes, falsely since the study which showed this was falsified before published in the Lancet) believes in an increased risk for autism when vaccinating children, measles are still here. And also alarming, we Europeans has yet again spread measles to South America. The last time this happened, the Indian population was heavily decimated and this is a main reason for the Spaniards so easily conquering the continent.

You might see measles like something harmless but one out of 1000 develop meningitis, and this is a deadly disease.

Get yourself educated! Help fight measles and the anti vaccination movement. Here are some links. I've included links from scientific, catholic and skeptic sources, since this is nothing that only the "evil corporate forces" want us to believe. Even the Catholic church states that this is one of the most important issues for the health of humanity.

http://csicop.org/si/2007-06/
http://www.catholic.org/ae/movies/review.php?id=29777
http://csicop.org/si/2004-01/anti-vaccination.html
http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/vaxliars/questions.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19426094.200-us-vaccines-on-trial-over-link-to-autism.html
http://www.gavialliance.org/
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_45489.html
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4055

And for you who don't think measles is such a big deal, here from MSF:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/issue.cfm?id=2397
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=1757

Don't break your back going agile

2009-01-08T13:37:00.003+01:00

When I was starting my first structured agile project, everyone said it was hard. There are many burnt out folks in the business.

I look at it like one of last spring's projects. I was quite annoyed by a bush at our entrance and suddenly I was in to my knees in dirt, digging out the thing. It took me the better part of a day and I saw no end to it. I just kept digging and finding more roots. The area where is stood was kind of small so I also had big problems finding a good place to stand while working. It was raging hot for a Swedish summer. I guess some people would have just cut the roots at an appropriate depth. But that is not me.

But finally, the thing moved when I shoved it and within an hour I could drag the thing from the earth. Success! Going agile feels sometimes the same. It just get worse and worse and you're at a really dirty small area while everyone else seems to be chilling in the shade.

The risk for physical harm is probably not so great in software scrum as in rugby scrum, but isn't it interesting that the risk for cervical spine injuries are the greatest to the hooker, who should be considered the rugby scrum's scrum master? Take care of your scrum master.

Do you have a Collyer?

2009-01-08T09:56:00.006+01:00

The term Collyer is used for an area packed with junk, trash and belongings. The term come from a pair of brothers whose house had to relieved from approximately 103 tons of garbage upon their death. The trash consisted everything from dead horses to abandoned trash from the neighbours. One of the brothers had been dead for two years but the surviving brother had kept his body in the house. And now it's happened again, a man digging tunnels through his garbage got lost and died in England.

One wonders how it got started. I don't think the man in England decided that he was going to gather so much junk that he could make tunnels in it. I think it started in a habit common to many. "I don't know how I'm going to use this but I'll just hang on to it and it will perhaps come to good use sometimes." Another (often combined situation) is when someone is like the birds in Find Nemo: "Mine mine mine." For some, having is not as important as others not having. And then this is repeated over and over again. And suddenly you cannot do anything because all you do is dig through the garbage.

Lean Software and agile development identifies this as one of the most important problems in software development. If you look at you project or your development environment as the Collyer house you probably have those routines and documents that you really don't see how you're going to use but you think can be handy. Right.

This does not mean that you should only have things you need right here and now. There are things like insurance and fire indicators which have a value even when they are not used. But then you know that there is a calculated risk and the consequences if the unfortunate happens. But no one will die because you didn't keep that broken umbrella.

(Thanks to my friends at VoF for supplying with details on the Collyer family.)

Bright lights in a sea of darkness -are bright developers really so rare?

2009-01-08T09:05:00.006+01:00

Yesterday, Mark Levison posted a very interesting blog post on the less productive developers. His post is as always thought worthy and I was already planning on writing about it today. He stresses the importance not starting the blaming game directly but looking at the reasons for someone not performing as expected.

This morning I also read two other posts on the subject of under performers, but from another point of view. They discuss the bad programmers. The bad developers might be productive, but what they produce is garbage. Jay Fields and Soon Hui both gives a rather dark picture of the state of software development. The good developers are like the bright light in the picture; few and shining in a sea of darkness. Is it really true that only 20 percent of developers can be considered good and the rest is crap? I hope not.

In a time of recession, the demands will increase the stress on teams and these issues can be the killer of a team, a project and a company. But before labelling someone as bad, consider reading Levison's blog first.

New music and cold weather

2009-01-07T17:21:00.003+01:00

Today I filled my Shuffle with some well deserved new music and got going in the freezing cold. You who wonder how you keep up the spirit while having a running habit, here is a clue. Change the music now and then. Running with new music can really boost your energy.

But this time I had too little on me. I'm otherwise good at picking the right clothes for running but I thought it was about 0 degrees Celsius (32F) but it was really about -8 (17F). I was so occupied selecting the new music that I lost track of time and to be able to pick up Peter on time from daycare and still have the time for the run to the dog's daycare, I just didn't do the homework.

So now, back at home, I'm still kind of chilled. But happy about my new music and about the winter run. But next time, I'll be sure to wear the right clothes as well.

Amazed again by PC Suite - bad usability

2009-01-07T13:51:00.005+01:00

I cannot believe that this program is so bad. Before going on holiday I used the tasks in the phone for my to-do-list. While on holiday, I deleted the tasks in the phone.

Back home, the tasks are back after synchronization. So, I have to delete them on the PC. I thought synchronization meant that a later edit should be kept over a newer one. I'll think again before deleting something on the phone.

But to edit tasks on the PC...

On the task bar in program you can choose what to edit by choosing an Editor. The picture is in Swedish but to translate you have the option to edit Files, SMS, MMS, Contacts or Calendar. Hey, what about the tasks? But of course, you should choose Calendar and there are your tasks. Again, an example of sloppy work with usability. Yes, you can learn this but why should I need to? Had they put in a button for tasks which just opened the calendar view they would have solved that problem without creating a separate view for tasks.

I cannot copy and paste calendar entries (which I want to since you cannot delete one occasion on a recurring task) and if I change the starting time on a calendar entry the end time does not change and it's only on save that I'm prompted to change the end time in a dialogue box which could have been avoided and is avoided in for example MS Outlook. I need not go on.

And to return to the issue of language, it is kind of embarrassing that a company with much of its roots in Sweden cannot make a decent Swedish translation. Redigerare is used as the translation for the word Editor (as can be seen on the image), but this is just a translation for the word when its used for an Editor for an newspaper, e t c.

Suggestion for a new year's resolution!

2009-01-07T12:58:00.003+01:00

Yes, I know that New year's has passed but it is still time for a new year's resolution from Kevin Rutherford

In your current job, can you identify:

Five regular activities that contribute value towards your organisation’s goal?
Five regular activities that do not contribute value towards the goal?

Something we all can do and probably should. Perhaps it's easier than quitting smoking or exercising more.

Modern project management, or?

2009-01-06T09:22:00.006+01:00

One of the classes I'm taking at Mittuniversitet this spring is Project Management (Projektledning). The objectives of the course:

The course targets people with interest in project management with focus on software development projects. The objective of the course is giving a basic knowledge about project work and project management.

Kursen vänder sig till personer med intresse för projektledning med fokus på systemutvecklingsprojekt. Syftet med kursen är att ge grundkunskap om projektarbete och ledning av projekt.

The main literature on the course is Arbeta i projekt - en introduktion (Working in project - an introduction) by Sven Eklund. The book is from 2002 but you could never guess it. The book could have been written during the golden days of waterfall.

I got rather suspicious when the author mis spelled the word Gantt chart on the back side of the book, spelling it as Gannt. So, I just flipped through the pages. The same error can be found through out the book. This is not a good sign. So, I started reading. I guess that I won't be the teacher's favorite pupil if he shares the viewes of the author. How about this:

9.2.2 Right or wrong?
What is right or wrong while you're testing? Where is the key to how the product should behave? Well, the key can be found in the documents created during the definition- and design phases. During those you have, often together with the orderer, specified requirements, objectives and behaviour of the product. It is also this the orderers expect that the product should be able to do when delivered.

9.2.2 Rätt eller fel?
Vad är då rätt eller fel när man testar? Var finns facit för hur produkten ska uppträda? Jo, facit finns i de dokument som man tog fram under definitions- och designfaserna. Här har man, ofta tillsammans med beställarna, specificerat krav, målsättningar och beteenden för produkten. Det är också detta, som beställarna förväntar sig att produkten ska klara av vid leverans.

Oh my god. I guess the author never heard about agile software development. The word agile does not even appear in the book. Let alone lean. Is this what the informatics major's in Sweden learn? Today? Of course it's good that students learn the classic way of carrying out an software development project. But just giving this picture without even mentioning that other methods are used and that this method isn't always successful. As I said, I guess I won't be the teacher's favourite student. I hope I can pass the exam without selling my soul to the devil.

(The picture is from a Valtech seminar, given by a what I thought rather well known lady.)

Countdown

2009-01-05T08:45:00.003+01:00

After being off for more than a month work is getting closer. Well yes, it has been getting closer all the time, but since I'm starting next week, it really feels like a countdown. Peter is getting back to daycare on Wednesday and I'll guess we'll keep our late mornings for a couple of days, but then I need to get back to track.

It's been really nice to be home. I haven't had a proper time off since I started my previous position so this time was well needed. But now I really feel it's time to get back to work.

Why language is important

2009-01-04T10:39:00.003+01:00

At a previous position, I was in a constant fight for Marketing taking the time and having the appropriate employees so that the language on the web site was correct.

To be frank; I was embarrassed by the many grammatical errors and the lousy language. I know the language on this blog is far from perfect, but this is a private web site.

But my boss didn't agree. He thought it didn't matter. And to some, like my boss and the people at marketing at that company, it isn't important. But I would never buy something from a company who couldn't even spell the product names correctly. And I know others who feel the same. Companies not caring about language are not serious about their business.

But often enough, a poor language can lead to misunderstanding in ways you could not imagine. Look at the waste basket on the picture. What does it say; should I waste more or should I put the waste in the bin? I hope most people understand what they are supposed to do, but could you blame someone for reading is as they should create more waste?

What they really want

2009-01-03T16:48:00.005+01:00

It is now a little more than six month since our trip to Disney World and Orlando and it's fun to see what little Peter (then 3,5 years old) recalls from the experience. Here is a top-six-list:

1. The car was huge. We are used to Swedish cars. This car was big compared with the other cars in Orlando.

2. The swimming pool. For Peter, a hotel is still somewhere you go and there is a hot swimming pool. We realized this during a stay at a City hotel this December. It was not at all what he expected and it took some time before we realized that for him a hotel is the yellow house with the very warm swimming pool.

3. The large and scary figures. He was scared of all of them. Too big. He was kind of close to Buzz but the rest were avoided.

4. The Toontown, including Mimi's kitchen with almost all the things in it and that Mickey had gloves in his drawer.

5. The racing cars at Magic Kingdom. On site we rode them about 15 times. If that is enough.

6. They burnt cars at Universal studios. We had to leave the show because he was so angry and he still gets upset when he talks about it.

These are things Peter can bring up on his own, without us asking so I think they give a pretty good idea of what made an impact on him. When I went to Disney World I had no idea that these were the things he would remember or have these emotions around. Yes, I know he was a couple of years too young but I thought he would love meeting Mickey and Buzz Lightyear. Instead he loved the car. By why would I think that he would love seeing these large figures? Why did I assume that he would like the stunt shows? Well, the simple answer is that I assumed that a small boy would like them.

I wonder how many vacations becomes failures because people makes assumptions about their children's preferences and then are upset when the kids don't appreciate what they get.

These types of assumptions about other people's preferences are also made all the time when developing software. We assume that we know what they want. Perhaps we assume they value the same things we value. Perhaps we have an image of what "that type of person prefers".

Agility is the way to go; having a chance to change is the only way to handle assumptions. I had to rethink my visit to Disney World when I came there and realized what Peter wanted. Shorter visits to the parks, taking the rides he loved over and over and skipping the rest. Long pauses with ice cream and toys.

Letting actual users TEST software during the process instead of SHOWING them when it's all set and done. It is not the same if you handle the software and they sit beside you. They need to be in charge of the device and software they're testing.

And most importantly; don't get angry because you were wrong. Instead see that you've learnt something new about your kid or your users.

Wanderlust and wonderlust

2009-01-02T07:53:00.002+01:00

You can read Alex Garland's The Beach and you can be amazed by the colourful surroundings or you can be troubled by the selfishness by the people described in the book.

We travellers around the world have a big responsibility. To the environment, to each others and perhaps most importantly; to the local people.

When I went to college the word of the day was Information. We were supposed to be information seeking individualists. Information seeking? When starting reading Informatics this winter I understood that this is not fashionable any more. We don't seek information but thrills.

This affects me being a part of the leisure industry. We don't only have the wanderlust in people. We also have a wonderlust to tackle.

But it affects all developing software. People are not content in a system which barely surrenders the information they need. You get frustrated and disappointed if the system is not intuitive and amazing. Developers thinking "well, that (lousy) usability issue is something people have to learn how it works" need to build a sense of craftsmanship or get another job.

On the picture my son is looking longingly at the airplane. Experiences are so much about longing. In the case of leisure travelling this is perhaps obvious. When we start thinking about travelling we start longing for it. The longing period is also part of the experience. But this also applies to the implementation of computer software. Agile software developers leaves room for this phase by their inclusion of users in the development process and this should be exploited better. If you see the introduction of a system as a travelling experience you can give your customers and users so much value.

Most travellers don't only care about the trip from the time the plane lands. They also care about how the alternatives are presented, how the order is put, how the logistics at the airport works, which services and products are available. And I believe the same applies to the users of computer software.

Party tricks

2009-01-01T21:07:00.002+01:00

Do you want to learn some party tricks like how you bend spoons, do you have a mother who thinks she have physic powers or are you in to those tv shows where mediums "solve" crimes? James Randi knows the tricks and is an excellent tutor how these things can have natural causes.

The tv show is old but is still valid. James Randi on the James Patterson show!

Where were you?

2009-01-01T20:29:00.004+01:00

The reason for me working on Confessions of a serial product manager was that even if there are lots of books on scrum, story writing, agile planning, etc, I didn't have a book which brought it together from a product owner point of view. But guess what; Rob Galen of RGalen Consulting Group is just finishing the book I was looking for! The book is called Becoming a great product owner. You can read a free version at their web site. Here are some details from the download page concerning rights:

I've controlled access to the document, so you can't print or copy the contents. Nor do you have my permission to distribute the material--so please honor all aspects of the copyright. However, you can view / read the document as a reference and my hope is that it provides insights and value in that free form

R Galen digs into the deeper questions and details and I can highly recommend you product owners reading his (and mine, of course) view on product ownership.

Thanks Rob for sharing your experience with us!

Happy new year!

2008-12-30T09:02:00.004+01:00

I've really taken these last days of the year OFF. I just started reading some Informatics, since I'm taking some University online courses in the subject during the spring and now I've time to read. I've also read a bunch of skeptic and historic books.

The picture is from one of my runs at the parents house this Christmas.

Today I also took the time to create a document cabinet on My spaces so any interested can download the file so I don't have to e-mail it. The link to my public documents can be found here. Click on the folder and you can see the link to the current document.

I plan on making a final read through in the beginning of the year and then I'm done for this round. I have two weeks left before I start my new position!

Merry Christmas and a happy new agile year

I just finished my final run for this year as well. It was a short run with my dog. He's getting old. Seven years so he'll be with us for many years still but he's getting grey and more and more fond of sleeping and eating. He still loves to play but it's not like when he was a baby and could play for hours.

Home for a while

2008-12-19T12:41:00.002+01:00

The day before last, I returned together with my son from Bahia Feliz at Gran Canaria. This was the last time in a long while I travelled only as a customer when travelling with Fritidsresor and Tui Travel.

But I was not only a customer. You tend to view things differently when you're the customer for your in near time employer. And the people who surrounded me (and yes, sometimes annoyed me) are my soon to be customers. The people trying to make our sometimes contradicting dreams come true are my collegues. Things appear differently when you add that point of view.

Now, I'll just have to spend the final days before Christmas repacking for a trip to my parents. Even if it's a cold rain outside here, my parents have promised a lot of snow outside their house.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Version 0.91 ready

2008-12-19T12:37:00.005+01:00

After some well needed help from a colleague of my husbands, version 0.9 or something of my little text is now finished. I had a plan to post it on google documents, but I don't seem to get it to work. So, if you're interestedd in an early copy, e-mail me att annadotforssatgmaildotcom.

I will now start proofreading and if there is input, I'll include or remove some of the material.

My objective of under 100 pages has been met - it is even under 70 pages!

Version 0.9 ready

2008-12-09T20:27:00.002+01:00

I've completed a first draft of my little text on scrum from a product owner point of view. I've left the text to a couple of people from different organisations and the feedback has started to come in. Tomorrow, I'll be leaving for Gran Canaria with little Peter but when I return, I'm going to complete the first version, which I hope I'll be able to post here before Christmas.

Well, with by bags packed and the son sound asleep, I'm just going to relax and get ready for a long journey to a better climate than chilly, rainy Stockholm.

Break with everyone!

2008-12-09T08:42:00.003+01:00

Well, that sounds terrible, doesn't it. And that is not what Mike Cottmeyer means in his blog entry on success in agile organisations.

Agile is so much about communication is that we perhaps misunderstand the need for communication with the creation of dependencies.

Writing

2008-11-29T12:39:00.004+01:00

This week I finally got started collecting some of my thought and ideas on product ownership in a scrum project in a more structured manor. Now I have the outline for a small text, which I'll publish here on my blog when I have something to show. I guess it will all add up to less than 100 pages, but you never know...

Having written training material for 15 years, it was harder than expected to get started. But again, I'm supposed to be off so a bit of slacking shouldn't be an issue. But then again, I know myself and I know that sweetness of a finish line. I would also be able to have something done before I'm taking the little guy on a small trip in the middle of December. Hey, why am I writing here when I should spend time on my booklet?

Scared or challenged?

2008-11-27T10:27:00.002+01:00

Interesting film on the rapid changes of our and our kids reality (I haven't checked the actual numbers, but that's beside the point). Are you scared or do you see it as a challenge? The complete article can be found on Tyler Blain, thanks Scott!

Victory!

2008-11-25T09:31:00.003+01:00

I fixed it!

It seems like the first installation of PC Suite failed but when I run remove program, the program was not removed. So when I reinstalled it, the error remained. But when I removed all the files manually and restarted the computer, I could complete the installation.

But the installation function of PC Suite is a shame for the industry and for Sony Ericsson. But I fixed it and that is what is most important right now.

Progress bars

2008-11-24T20:27:00.005+01:00

Something that really amazes me is how progress bars are used in software. I might be getting old but a couple of years ago the progress bar showed progress. To get a visual image of how much of an installation has been completed and how much remains.

Now I think a progress bar says "no, you are imagining things, your computer is not dead".

The so called progess bar on the picture comes from PC Suite from Sony Ericsson, a program which I've come to love as much as I love ITunes. You know what I mean. The dialog box has this green thing and it doesn't say me anything. When it comes to the end it just starts over.

By the way, the text is in Swedish but what it does say is that there is an installation of drivers and that this will take a few minutes. The dialog box cannot be closed in the mean time. Well, I've tried this a couple of times and after an hour, I've given up and been forced to end the computer processes. This solution smells. I thought Sony Ericsson could do better. A solution which demands that everything goes right and there is no options for failure is a failure in itself. As an excellent programmer on my previous team said: a solution cannot be measured by how well it handles when the user confirms with 'yes', it is measured by how it can handle the 'no's'.

So what does the Sony Ericsson help say? The help on the web site is non existing and the help in the program.... Well, this seems to be the problem: I can't install it. And the support hasn´t getten back to me. So I guess my husband is going to read this and give it a try.

Back to Sony Ericsson

2008-11-24T19:29:00.002+01:00

When buying a new private phone, I was leaving Windows Mobile behind. I've not used Sony Ericsson for about ten years and I was really wondering how fast I could come in to the different UI. Despite me trying to tap the screen, it went smoothly. Except two things: recurring calender events (I cannot understand how they've let those bugs get out in production) and the PC Suite, which I've not yet gotten to work. I'm now trying to reinstall the program, since the support hasen't gotten back to me with any kind of help. And the connectivity to the computer was something I really wanted. So, I'm not very satisfied with Sony Ericsson right now.

Gladly enough, I'm really happy with the actual phone after two not so lucky sessions with HTC Touch Dual and HTC Touch Cruise.

Employment retrospective

2008-11-21T19:43:00.002+01:00

Today was my final, working, day at my current employer. I'll not be starting at my new position until January 14th, even if I'm spending half a day at Fritidsresor in december, so I'll really have some time to think back and have my own retrospective. I'm going to follow my favorite five exercises for the Agile Retrospective book. The objective is to learn what I should try to improve at my new position.

So, now I'm just going to relax for a couple of weeks and then I'm doing a bit of research to prepare for my coming position. Well, I've already started! Me and the son is heading for Gran Canaria for a week's fun in the sun. And I'm collecting some domain knowledge too.

Agile the reward, not the method

2008-11-20T09:48:00.002+01:00

Some people failing following a diet says 'the diet does not work'. But most of them does not mean that if you follow the diet, they still does not loose weight. What they mean is that they cannot follow the diet.

Reading James Shore's excellent blog entry on the decline and fall of agile, I get the same feeling. When teams pick stuff from an agile methodology like scrum and call themselves a scrum team and it does not work they do not say "we couldn't follow the methodology" since it's easier to say the methodology does not work.

Here is a teaser (and perhaps now you see the parallells with diets):

These teams say they're Agile, but they're just planning (and replanning) frequently. Short cycles and the ability to re-plan are the benefit that Agile gives you. It's the reward, not the method. These psuedo-Agile teams are having dessert every night and skipping their vegetables. By leaving out all the other stuff--the stuff that's really Agile--they're setting themselves up for rotten teeth, an oversized waistline, and ultimate failure. They feel good now, but it won't last.

The blog entry is really recommended to you, thinking about going agile, or thinking about dropping agile.

Precisly wrong or roughly right

2008-11-18T13:26:00.006+01:00

When attending the Product Owner Class, Mike Cohn gave the reasons for estimations being given using story points and in a relative scale.

The reason is that an estimation should be roughly right rather than exactly wrong. If you give an estimation which is 350 hours, the risk for this not being the exact answer is great. But to say something is about twice as big as X, that is a completely different ball game.

This also applies to other areas than estimation of development work. How about a map. The picture is of an add for google map in the NY sub. The problem is that the map shows the wrong location.

The ultimate team

2008-11-17T08:55:00.001+01:00

Have you ever felt there is someone missing on your team? Well, look at this scrum team who have found the missing role in scrum

The world just got a bit bigger

2008-11-17T08:42:00.005+01:00

Take a good look at the image and that little spot. It's one of the first published images of a real planet, in another solar system.

First when I looked at the image I thought, well. What the... But then again. It's a planet. A planet. Somehow the world just became bigger. And smaller. At the same time

Lectures by Jim Collins in MP3 format

2008-11-16T08:17:00.002+01:00

Getting the links to my previous post I found this little treasure at Jim Collins site: lectures by Collins on different subjects. So fill up your MP3-player!

http://www.jimcollins.com/hall/index.html

At least it was not my fault

2008-11-16T08:07:00.002+01:00

From Good to great is a book I often recommend. It goes to the root of an organisation and discusses some basic traits which gives ground for a successful business. And one of the basic rules is the type of leader the organisation has. Collins boils it down to the guy who looks in the mirror for the reason for failures and out the window for the reason for success.

But this is of course not just true for company bosses: it's an interesting trait for all of us, as Uncle Bob points out in his interesting post on scrumdrels. So who are you going to blame next time?

A true leader

2008-11-13T17:16:00.005+01:00

The word/title mom is quite interesting for me, being a mother of a boy of four. He uses the word in two ways. First, we have the vague "a mom" which he uses for every woman collecting their child at daycare or mothers of friends. Then we have the more passionatly used "my mom", which he uses when he talks about our special relationship. This is an honourary title he has granted my. I'm his special mommy.

Today, while reading an article on leadership, I sense the same dual use of these titles stating that someone is a bit up in an hierarchy. There are the use of the printed word on someone's business card and then it's how a person can be seen as something. The most obvious example is Leader. Look at this list, being traits of what Peter Scholtes thinks is a leader:

The ability to think in terms of systems, and knowing how to lead systems.
The ability to understand the variability of work in planning an problem solving
Understanding how we learn, develop and improve. Leading true learning and improvement.
Understanding people and why they behave as they do.
Understanding the interdependence and interaction between systems, variation, learning and human behavior. Knowing how each affects the other.
Giving visions, meaning, direction and focus to the organization.

Isn't this good traits for a mommy too? Or a daddy?

A good idea

2008-11-12T14:17:00.004+01:00

Why make life complicated? Why choose the difficult solution?

We can laugh at the advice in the add but professionally, how often do we choose to swim in alligator infested water when we don't have to?

Sometimes when we choose between two options, one can be the alligator infested water. It can be obvious from start but there are also water which becomes alligator infested if you continue swimming for a while. Unmaintainable or untestable code are examples of this. The hardest choice is of course when you have to choose between the alligators and the sharks. And then you just have to pick your fight.

Reading list

2008-11-12T09:11:00.001+01:00

Stumbled upon this page on kanban! My reading list for the winter!

http://availagility.wordpress.com/kanban/

Cost Value Curve

2008-11-12T08:43:00.004+01:00

Reading about Kanban, I've stumbled on this nice article on scrum and kanban in gaming industry by Clinton Keith. I know that the gaming industry is very different from other software industries, but since the author is very good at pointing this out and stressing the specifics of his industry, it's not a problem. So, it's a very good article, which I recommend.

But I did react to this simple diagram. It states that you come to a breaking point where added costs don't add so much more value to the customer. I believe that it is somewhat true, but there is a greater challenge to the product owner than just spotting the breaking point. All costs are not created equally.

Que?

No, what I mean is that if you have a functionality X with the requirements A, B, C and D which for just simplicity reasons are as costly, they probably do not add equally value to the customer. It might be that D is what makes it all worth it - for the actual user. I've often seen projects where the thing that makes it all worth while is cut. "Now we've spent enough on X so D have to wait".

And more often than not D is not the most costly feature. More often it's the feature the less vocal user identifies but does not stress enough. And not seldom it's the stuff you hear responses like "well, they'll get used to that" or "it's a learning issue" from someone who does not understand why this is important. And it's often the stuff that when you do implement it is hardly noted since it is taken for granted. So we return to expected behaviour. D is the stuff which makes X have an expected behaviour.

So how do you work this? Well, one method used by for example Mike Cohn is that when you calculate business value you don't just calculate how much value a feature introduce, you also calculate how much it costs when it's not included. D might not bring so much business value but it costs a lot if it's not implemented. I think this is one of the best methods to give room to usability issues. For more on this subject I recommend Agile Estimating and Planning by Cohn.

A manual

2008-11-11T19:43:00.002+01:00

Not having written a handbook or educational material for many years, starting up with a manual was hard. My final effort at my current position will be giving ground for a user manual.

But my first question was: which space does user documentation have during an agile project, for example if you're using scrum?

I believe it is important to include the people formulating the user manual in the team and the user manual should be part of the iteration increment. And the reason is this:

You have failed a product increment if there is no useable software delivered.
You have failed a product increment if the result cannot be used by the users.

And how can the users find the new stuff and how do they know how to use it without documentation. Of course you have the delivery notes but should a user collect all the delivery notes and try to find their way?

I'm currently thinking about the best form for a user manual in an agile project. One solution is of course a wiki: just add new pages and specify which version this applies to. Or something. But how does this work in an offline setting? For example, technicians in the fields. And not everyone loves reading on the screen: they like something to hold. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many books on for example Microsoft Word. As with everything else in an agile project you need to go back to the users and their user stories: which process do they want to follow when they get updated or learn about the application?

So, I'll be doing a classic Microsoft Word document with pictures and lists. And I'll continue thinking about how to deliver user manuals in agile projects.

90 years

2008-11-11T19:28:00.003+01:00

As I wrote earlier, it is today 90 years since cease fire of World War I.

Reading the news today, it is obvious that this haven't made the headline news. World war II is much more interesting to the general public.

Wars never makes sense but perhaps the reasons for WW1 are harder to understand for the general public. When I read about WW1 during High School they talked about the shooting in Sarajevo, but how could that result in a world affecting war?

I see similarities with the recent Balkan wars - it was really hard to grasp what the real reason was. WWII had Hitler to blame but there is no clear villain in the Balkan Wars or WW1. And we love stories when you know who the bad guy is. In these other wars everyone seemed bad or good at different occasions. And we don't like that.

Perhaps it all boils down to how effective the winners were writing history: the allied during WWII made a lot of effort making it clear that they were the good guys after the war ended Probably the increased tension between the winners made this important. I don't know.

But I still recommend each and every one reading something on WW1. Being a Swede, I have the fortune to be able to read the Swedish historian Peter Englund's brilliant book.

Playing by the rules

2008-11-07T10:00:00.003+01:00

It is easy to fall into the belief that you on the development team believe that the business people are far off in their priorities. "How can they think that X is important"? Well, as I discussed earlier, they have to live with the decision. And this is why you have a product backlog: the users can see what they get and what they don't get if they prioritizes in a certain way.

And what if you are wrong: their priorities suck. They have to live with that. It is a good thing if you, if you do not share their views, share your opinion. They might not have seen the stuff you see. Or perhaps you learn something: why the stuff they want is prioritized.

But don't fall in the pit that Andre Luiz fell into. I don't know what he did. I don't know if the referee made a faulty decision. Even if André didn't earn that yellow card, what everyone will remember is that he failed to understand the most fundamental rule of soccer: the referee is always right. He makes the decisions and you have to live with them. You can give your views, but it's the referee's call.

Charrette

2008-11-06T14:01:00.002+01:00

By chance, I stumpled on the term charette, and thought about the need for including charettes in software development projects. A charette is, according to Wikipedia, is an 'intense period of design'. The wikipedia article is interesting, again the similarities between software and urban development are many.

And so with the term charette: it describes a very creative and positive phase but it can also have another meaning:

'Historically, the term charrette also has been applied to the cart or tumbril used to carry the condemned to the guillotine.'

So, what becomes of your creative phases: do they evolve into magical software or do they make way to project death?

A historic moment

2008-11-05T19:28:00.004+01:00

It happened just a few days ago. Windows 3.x died. You might have thought that Windows 3.x met the Gods years ago but until November 1st, Windows 3.x survived in some imbedded systems. For example on air planes.

Being an old Mac gal, the transition to Windows was hard, and there is still some kind of sorrow and feeling of loss. But why? What I felt as a Mac user was that the people making the user interface had the user in mind when they thought of ideas. They were not just thinking usability but predictability. Then, that you ejected the floppy by putting it in the trash and some other stuff wasn't that easy on my poor users. Or that the computer icon was on the desktop, but the stuff you saved on the desktop was saved on the computer. Strange.

Involving users

2008-11-05T18:19:00.006+01:00

Getting users involved is hard. They don't appreciate what you have done. They ask for more. They say stuff you do not understand and make demands that make no sense.

Is that so? well, they are paying that cool stuff back at your home. And the shirt on you back. The food you put in your mouth.

The problem is that the longer you wait getting them involved, the problems described in the first sentence just becomes more severe. The gap between you and the user just becomes wider with each thing you build. And the frustration goes both ways: when you feel that they don't appreciate what you do they think you don't listen to them since the stuff you built wasn't what they wanted. Or more often: you're somewhat right but missed something really important.

I get amazed watching developers standing having long discussions on a functionality, using terms like "well, they want it this way" without involving an actual user. Well, if they are really far away or cannot be reached, this is of course acceptable. But when they are not further than the next room, it is showing disrespect. You're just coding stuff: they are the ones that have to live with it. So, if you're having this kind of discussion and it takes more than ten minutes, go grab yourself a real user. And not the type that don't use the product but just talks about it in a conference room.

Tranquility

2008-11-05T15:09:00.004+01:00

Is there something better than waking up early a Saturday morning at a hotel in Karlskrona? The guys are sleeping so you go for a run around Trossö, an outpost to the Baltic sea. It's kind of frosty outside and the sun is just coming up from the sea and meeting the yellow sky.

The silence is breath taking. The view is splendid. The run is wonderful.

Coming back, everyone's still a sleep.

A quick shower. An empty breakfast area with just the stuff you like.

A nice breakfast by the open fire, slow jazz playing on low volume and a new book on WW1.

Isn't it amazing how wonderful the small treats can be.

Taking for granted

2008-11-05T11:09:00.003+01:00

Since I'm leaving my current position, the product owner hat has been passed to another person and I have the chance to view the role from the outside. And this gives some new insight.

First: a product owner should never take for granted that he understand how other prioritizes or what other think is important. Especially a product owner who lacks actual business experience. It is so easy to believe that something is probably not that important and ignore it. But this is one of the worst errors you can do. The reasons are mainly two: first, you do not know and the only way to know is to ask - before you cut the stuff which do do not believe is important. Second: if you cut something stating it is not important without checking with the people who do know, you will loose their faith in you. It is easy to loose someones trust and rebuilding trust is very hard.

I think the core trait is thinking that you use the word 'believe' instead of 'know'. It is one thing to believe that something is not important, another to know something is not important. And the only way to move from believing to knowing is communication and getting knowledge. And don't forget that thinking agile is realizing that you never know, you just get less uncertain.

Why believe in gnomes when there is a magnetic portal between the sun and earth

2008-11-04T20:53:00.003+01:00

Mother nature is amazing. This article from Nasa proves that you don't have to believe in God or gnomes or fairies or mystical non traceable electric fields to live in an amazing world.

Star Trek, here we come!

Patterns and practices Acceptance testing

2008-11-04T10:39:00.003+01:00

Got a tip from Richard Fennell that a beta on Patterns and practices for acceptance testing is to be released on Codeplex.

Sure read for yours truly! According to Fennell it will include several methods for acceptance testing, both working agile and waterfall. The download includes a table of content for you interested folks

Giving a retrospective for another development team

2008-10-31T09:59:00.003+01:00

Yesterday, I helped my husband and his development team at Concordia Bus IT to have a retrospective. I used some of the exercises earlier discussed on this blog, staring up with some emotions, drawing a time line, prioritize with dots and appreciations.

It was really interesting watching another team during a retrospective and it's really something I recommend to anyone being responsible for a retrospective. Not being a part of a team or a project changes how you view upon the whole experience and the exercises. I also think it can be a good thing for a team to have an outsider hosting a retrospective: they can all focus on the retrospective.

It was a really good and interesting experience and I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to participate.

Fly away fly away fly away

2008-10-31T09:44:00.003+01:00

Early next year I'm moving along to new exiting challenges at Fritidsresor, part of TUI Travel. I'll be a part of the development department working with project management and requirements. Fritidsresor is an interesting company which embraces lots of the ideas I've tried working for at my current position. I love the idea of not viewing something as a software development project but everything is business and process development.

When given the question what I believe will be hardest at my new position I believe it is understanding and embracing the business. But this is also the most important challenge.

In december, I'll be taking some weeks off and perhaps try gathering some of my notes on product ownership and if all goes well, I'll try publishing a more structured document which describes my ideas and suggestions from project initiation to release.

Who's this?

2008-10-29T20:17:00.002+01:00

Have you heard of Manfred of Richthofen? If you're into WW1 (isn't it strange that so many were interested in WWII when no one seemed interested in WW1 in school??) you probably know. But for the rest of us normal people, this is not a name which we remember. And if you're not German it is probably a name which you have a hard time spelling. Manfred of Richthofen is not a good product name.

If I say The Red Baron, more of you know who I'm talking about. How many of you believe that Manfred would have made himself one of the most recognised icons of WW1 haven't he been called The Red Baron instead of his given name?

This is of course nothing weird or strange: people who are good at marketing know the importance of product names and logos. But still, the story of Manfred of Richthofen is an interesting one, and it would have been such a shame that the story could have been lost due to his name. But most people doesn't know more than "German flying ace".

On November 11th, it is 90 years since WW1 ended. Wars are horrible for those involved but WW1 was more horrible than most. I'm taking the time to read some books and texts on WW1. We never read much on WW1 in school and I must say I'm an illiterate on the subject. So, why not take the time and get yourself educated on one ugly war which set the basis for the 20'th century. Why not starting with the wikipedia article on Manfred?

Taking some time getting to know Kanban

2008-10-28T17:42:00.003+01:00

As I've discussed earlier, I believe there are no silver bullets in software development. But I do believe in having as an objective to have the code so stable that users and acceptance testers "often" (and what I mean by that of course differs between solutions, cultures, users and so on) can start up the current version and test the current functionality. Why? So they can confirm that the development is going in the right direction.

Therefore I believe in agile software development and that is why I believe in many of the habits of a acting scrum team.

But something I and my team has struggled with during the project is that we still have the problem that sometimes nothing works. I cannot test anything. The reason for this is multiple stuff in progress. Stuff that makes things stop working.

Kanban is said to address this problems, so I'm going to take some time now getting to know the fabrics of kanban. Keep you posted!

Some changes to the blog

2008-10-27T10:33:00.004+01:00

I've at last given some time on my blog and for example added some links to my favorite blogs and a gadget which shows my most common tags on Delicious. The blog links shows the initial text of the blog's latest entry. (And I've changed my picture to one from Midnattsloppet, where I ran as a Knight's Templar)

Get yourself educated

2008-10-26T09:15:00.003+01:00

Looking back at this project going scrum and agile, there are many mistakes done, many experiences won. But the thing that made the most importance was training and knowledge. I've read many blogs and books: for me one important lesson was not just following the advice of one guru but listening to many and choosing the right path for your organisation. Toyota states that going lean is not just following a book on Toyota and expecting everything to work. The solution has to work for that line of business, that company, culture and so on. I do not suggest just picking and choosing: it is important to have a clear strategy. And you do not get a clear strategy if you only pick small stuff without any thought.

The thing that made the greatest impact on me was attending the certified product owner class I took early this year. And now I don't mean the title and stuff, but putting it all together during two days was awesome. It made me really understand the objectives of the stuff I'd read on the blogs and books and in all the advice. Now I had the privilage of attending the class with Mike Cohn, a pragmatic and direct no-nonsence-guy with a huge experience. Also, he knows this is not about being into the cool stuff for the moment, it's about delivering the right stuff to the right price and with the right quality. He discussed not only how you arrange post its but the really important tasks, most prominently: communication (with stakeholders and team) and estimations (of cost and time).

I know there are two day classes and one day classes: for me a two day class was really good. Going home and thinking things through made room for some interesting questions day two and there was also room for all these exercises. These were interesting in two ways: they illustrated some chores in scrum and since there were 50 or so product owners present one could also see how different personalities work with that role.

Spice up your retrospectives

2008-10-25T09:29:00.003+02:00

Even if I believe in having about the same tasks on a sprint retrospective, sometimes you should spice it up with some new stuff. And if there is a project retrospective or a release retrospective, you should really spice things up. Mark Levison gives some really good advice on both Info-Q and on his blog on some fun activities which real objectives.

New tactics with free software

2008-10-25T09:14:00.005+02:00

Being the kind of gal who reads Seth Godin and Chris Anderson, I'm of course interested in new ways of marketing products and concepts. And having a free version of software is a well used concept, but now I've really seen it with a new twist.

Scrumy is a product for handling sprint backlogs and like most others they have a free version and a pro version. And like most others they difference their versions with functionality. But not always the way you think: the free version has something the paid for version lacks: sometimes the free version shows Fresh Prince of Bel air. Since I could never stand the annoying guy when the show first aired, I would gladly pay to not have to see him. It's a wonderful idea. And their commercial is lovely! I hope their product is nice!

Getting to learn yourself - have a meeting

2008-10-24T12:43:00.003+02:00

Having had a number of meetings the previous weeks, I've gotten into some interesting discussions on how I view software development, Agile, Scrum, requirements handling, team work and communication within and around a project.

And what never stops amaze me is how much you learn about yourself in these discussions. Now, I've had the privilege to meet people who really listen and who does not only accept what others say, but who questioned my views and statements. It has been some excellent discussions which has gotten me thinking a lot about my self and the subjects we've discussed. And one thing is for sure: I've gotten to know myself much better.

The human interaction is something powerful and should be used in projects. I know there are all these useless, long meetings and that many developers sits through them thinking "when can I start working again".

A meeting should be as it states: a meeting. A meeting is between people and does not constitutes someone giving a lecture which the participants does not understand how it affects them. The thoughts of the developer reflects on him not thinking that the meeting makes them do their work any better.

So, the first thing a meeting should do is make sense. ALL the participants must know why they are there and what the exit criteria is. If there is a meeting there are participants. All should be participants and therefore participate. If someone is "present but not participating" that should be clear to everyone.

And finally, if the "meeting" is really someone giving a lecture, just call it that.

There are no magic pills

2008-10-23T08:32:00.003+02:00

If you've read Lucky Luke you've seen them: the witch doctors which sold those magic pills which were supposed to cure every problem. Being a skeptic, I know there are no such things as magic pills. Not in medicine. Not anywere. Not even software development.

In accordance to Swedish IDG, Scrum is under heavy attack. Be happy that the story is written in Swedish, for I've seldom read such a sorry story. Ivar Jacobson, one of the fathers of RUP goes to "heavy attack" on Scrum. It is good for small agile projects but not on large ones with a service oriented architecure. Well, if one of the fathers of RUP weren't of that opinion, I would find that more strange. Or?

Then the writer of the article states that Jacobson is being backed up by a master's thesis from the university of Karlstad. The writer of the master thesis states that scrum is customized in larger projects. Well, that is only true for scrum. Right.

Then the story becomes really weird. The writer states that there is no room for sprint reviews. I had to re read this a couple of times and I still do not understand what the problem was, besides companies not taking time for retrospectives or acting on the result. And I guess that is not only true for scrum.

Scrum is no magic pill and I've never heard Ken Schwaber stating that. If you have a product owner who lacks domain knowledge, who doesn't participate in daily work, if the scrum master and product owner does not communicate properly to stakeholders, if there is no product backlog, if there is no product/project vision, there is a good chance the project will fail. No one has ever said that labeling a project as using scrum automatically makes it a success. What I've heard is that software development is no walk in the park. Scrum or no scrum.

The diluted mobile phone

2008-10-21T12:33:00.002+02:00

Being Swedish, I'm of course happy that Sony Ericsson has a mobile with Windows Mobile. But the name is taken: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X1!

And to make things worse, X1 is a term used in homeopathy: describing the least potent concentration of a mixture. That is the one least diluted. (For you who do not understand the principles behind homeopathy: the more you dilute something the stronger and more potent it becomes. I've often found this true with alcohol...)

It's hard to find a good product name but if something already has ten or so entries in wikipedia, you might opt for something else.

You get what you measure - so how to create key values on bugs

2008-10-20T17:52:00.003+02:00

Bugs are elusive. Not only that they occur, but that it seems that most key values which measures bugs is contraproductive but reading about Yahoo and their transition to agile, I've found a new interesting metric: number of critical bugs found in X within Y days after placed in Test/Production/etc. For example if you have the metric "The number of critical bugs found in production within 5 days of production".

Why is this interesting? Well, if it took the users less than five days to find the problem, the software development team should have found it as well.

The same type of metrics should be applicable in the different stages of a sprint, for example number of critical bugs found the first day of acceptance testing.

There is probably a downside to this metric but so far I like it

Linking tasks in Microsoft Project

2008-10-20T17:28:00.004+02:00

In my series on how to use Project as a product owner blessed with Team system, I've come to links!

Everyone that have ever used Microsoft Project soon discovers that you can link task. The first method used for most users is probably dragging the bar of one task to the bar of another task.

What happens when you do so is that the field Predecessor becomes filled in. And for the more advanced users there is also a Successor field.

Predecessors
The ID of tasks which affects the current task
Successors
The ID of tasks which are affected by the current task

When you double click the link between two tasks, the Link Task dialog box becomes visible and in this you can control the link. Let us say we have task A and task B. You can find the ID of A in Predecessors of task B

Finish-To-Start
The finish time of Task A affects the start time of B. This is the default link and can be translated into "The finishing of The foundation of the House controls when we can start the work with The Walls"
Start-To-Start
The start time of Task A affects the start time of B. This can be translated into "We cannot start testing before we've started developing".
Finish-To-Finish
The finish time of Task A affects the finish time of B. This can be translated into "We cannot stop testing before we've stopped developing".
Finish-To Start
The finish time of Task A affects the start time of B. This can be translated into "We cannot stop using the old system before we've started using the new system".

When you changed the link type you can see this in the Predecessors field: 3SF means that a task cannot start until task 3 has finished.

To make it a bit more complicated you can also add a gap. A link with a gap can read 3sf+3d. Observe that if you're using gaps you need to specify link type. Remember that all units possible on Duration is also valid on gaps, including Elapsed. And gaps can also be given in negative numbers (3SF-3d) But just to give you an example on the most common settings:

3FS+3d
The task cannot start until three working days after 3 has finished.
"Three working days after delivery, operations can start upgrading."
3SF+3d
The task cannot finish until three working days after 3 has started.
"We need to have the old system functual three days after the new system is operational"
3SS+3d
The task cannot start until three working days after 3 has Started.
"Three days after we've started developing, we can start planning for new sprint"
3FF+3d
The task cannot finish until three working days after 3 has finished.
"Three days after we've finished developing, we can finish testing"

But why not simply drag the tasks in the calendar and not link? I'll get back to that!

Specifying duration in Microsoft Project - working with elapsed time

2008-10-19T09:21:00.003+02:00

One of the errors newcomers to Project do is that they do not grasp the difference between Work and Duration. Not so strange, since only the Duration column is visible in the Gantt chart. But Duration is the calendar time between a task starts and the time it finishes. Work is the man hours spent on the task. You could say that work affects the costs of the project and duration the length of the project. On my post on task types you can see how these fields works together. But back to Duration.

Duration is the calendar time and when you set this on a task you type in a number and a unit. The units can be minutes, hours, days, weeks and months. How you print in the unit depends on which cultural version of project you use. For example you can type in t for hours in the Swedish Project but you need to print h in the English. Also, remember that m is minutes and yoy need to type something longer (for example mon in the English project). Be sure to check the metrics used in your version!

If you set the Duration of a task to 7 you can see that there will not be 7 calendar days between start and finish. There will probably be 9. Why? Well, by days Project means working days. If you go to Tools-->Change Working time you can see that Saturdays and Sundays are non working days. This means that the tasks will proceed during these days but no work will take place. If other days are marked as non working days in the calendar, they too will be skipped. And remember that if you mark days as non working for a specific resource, they will be skipped on the tasks where the resource is set.

But then there are tasks which work will commence independant on if it's working time. For example, I want to give a customer 14 days to think something over. Or concrete dries in a specific time. What I can do is that I can add a e in the English project before the metric. For example 14 ed. Remember that the e is dependant on which version of Project you are using: in the Swedish version you type in a t instead. The e stands for Elapsed and means that work will take place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Working with part time resources and focus factor in MS Project

2008-10-19T08:41:00.002+02:00

I dislike UI and programs which are not working in a predictable way, but then: who doesn't. What I can't stand is when the built in help doesn't help or gives me the wrong information. And Microsoft Project on part time resources is a good example on this. So how do you work with part time resources and focus factors under 100%?

Getting started - setting up the project
First, when you start up a new project file: go to Tools-->Settings and activate the tab which specifies working time. There you can set the number of hours on a day, the number of days in a month and so on. Change these to your likings but make sure your calculations work together: Project will accept settings that does not make any sense together. So, you also need to set the default start time and default end time. This specifies what start time and end time a new task will have when you create it. This is by default set to 8:00 to 17:00. So an example of good settings are:

Hours per day: 6
Default start time: 09:00
Default end time: 16:00

If you only change the hours per day setting to 6, you will see that linked tasks will start behaving strange. Since a task consisting of one days work leaves 2 hours every day the next task will start the same day as the previous. Believe me: change hours per day and default time.

After the changes have been confirmed, it's time for a visit at Tools-->Working time. Here you should select the headings for Monday-->Friday and change the settings to the same settings you set on default start time and default end time. Why? Well this settings is when the resources CAN work, the default start time and default end time was how the tasks where created.

So, now you've specified the default focus factor of the resources and your project. Now it's time for the separate resources.

Setting the focus factor of the resources - part time resources
When you view the resource list in Microsoft Project, there is a field called Max Unit, and when you read sloppy documentation on Project, they state that this can be used for setting if a resource work part time. Well, not part time as I know it. Here's how it works:
When you choose Tools-->Working time, you can use a drop down and select your resources calendars. All resources have their own calendars and this specifies their working time.
What the max unit settings under Resource list specifies is the max value of unit on tasks (see my post on task type for info on unit) on a specific moment a resource can have before he becomes over allocated. This is when his post in the resource list becomes red. For example, we have two concurrent tasks with the same resource allocated:

Unit: 50%
Unit: 50%

This means that you have two concurrent tasks which the resource spends 50% each on. If the Max Unit of the resource is 100%, this will not be an over allocated resource, but if the Max Unit is 99% he will be over allocated.

This far, it seems like a good solution for part time resources but the problem is that Microsoft Project does not care if the tasks are 5 minutes long or a month. In other words, if you have a resource with max units 50%, he can only participate in a 1 hour meeting with a focus factor of 50%.

So, what do you do with part time resources? Well, you need to change their working time using their calendar. For example, you can set that they only work afternoons if they're working 50%. And you keep Max units as it is since Max Units sets percentage of the resource's calendar. If it becomes hard to visualize which resources work part time, you could take the time creating calendar templates for part time resources and setting those on the resource.

So, how do you use Max Unit? Well, if you have a resource group with interchangeable competence. For example if you have a group of three testers. You are not interested in assigning them to specific tasks, then you can create a resource called Testers and set Max Unit to 300. By doing so, you can say that we can assign three individuals at one specific moment.

Task type and Effort driven in Microsoft Project

2008-10-18T19:16:00.002+02:00

I usually do not do Microsoft Project any more, but since there is a Project integration in TFS, I sometimes get some questions. And since people use MS Project, they fall into the task type hell.

When you work in the task views like Gantt Chart you work with the task table in the project database. In this database you have three, connected, fields, namely Work, Duration and Unit. Connected by a formula. Namely:
Work=Duration *Unit
Work is most of the cases have the metric Hours, Duration have the metric Days and Unit % (even if these are settings found in the wonderful Settings dialog box under the Tools menu). So one example can be:
80[h]=10[d]*1
Which means that if one person works full time during ten days this results in 80 hours work. So the definitions of the fields are:

Work = man hours to be spent
Duration = number of working days between the start of the work and the finishing of the work
Unit= Percentage of time spent on the task

If you question my using the 8 hours a day, this is the default setting in Project. And yes, you can change this too.

If you want to try all of this stuff, you need to show all the fields in the view: the easiest way is right clicking a column name and inserting a new column. Select Unit and Work (you need to do this one column at the time) and since Duration is visible by default, you now get the complete picture.

So, now you can start playing around with the figures. (One tip though, never add Work before you set a resource on a task, then you're in for a real challenge. And also, never set a resource on a task with sub tasks. But now, back on track).

When you start changing the values in one of the columns, you can see that the other values change. But how do you know which one? Well, on the task table there is also a field called Task type and this value specifies which column should not change when you change the other values. This means that if you set this column to Work, the Work column will not change if you change Unit or Duration. Get the picture? If not, e-mail me.

What you also can remember is that there is another column: Effort driven: if you set this column to Yes, adding new resources will divide the current work on the task between all the new and current resources. But is that not always true, you think? Well, imagining creating a task for a meeting. If this task has Effort driven set to yes, adding new participants decreases the length of the meeting...

So, what should you choose? Well, you choose depending on task:

Work
When you know how much work will be spent. Often used for development tasks when you have an estimation in hours (this will take me 40 hours to program)
Duration
When you know how much calendar time a task will take. All meetings for example. And tasks where the estimations are in the terms "it will take us three weeks to be ready". Should always be set without Effort Driven
Unit
When the focus factor of the participants cannot change. When you have a resource on 40% and this will under no circumstances change.

When creating a project file, be sure to have these columns visible so you know what you're doing. And if you know that you will only use one setting, please free to visit Tools-->Options to set which setting all new tasks will have.

Changed behaviour - why why why

2008-10-17T14:40:00.002+02:00

As I've discussed earlier, I prefer talking about expectable behaviour rather that usability. And today, I found yet another example of why there is a difference.

Having used Microsoft Excel since like forever, I thought I knew which behaviour to expect. For example double clicking in a cell makes it active. YES! I know that you can press F2, and I do that too, but sometimes I see an item in a list and wish to change it. So, I double click the cell and I expect the cell to become active.

But no. Someone decided that changing this behaviour to moving marked cell to next empty cell was the thing which had highest business value.

Both behaviours has it's usability thingies but I don't expect the selected cell to move from a cell which I double click.