A group close to my heart, Extreme Programming San Diego (XPSD), is looking for speakers to talk about their experiences applying Agile software development practices.  XPSD meets on the 1st Thursday of every month at The Linkery in North Park from 6 PM to 8 PM to network, share ideas and discuss trends in the Agile software development community.

XPSD is an excellent, knowledgeable community resource on the topic of Agile software development, Scrum and Extreme Programming in San Diego County.  I am consistently impressed with the experience and passion in our group.  I am very proud of how much XPSD has grown over the years and I am glad we have created a friendly space for great dialogue on Agile in San Diego.  We are seeking speakers in these three areas:

1. Experience reports on applying XP, Scrum or Agile techniques in your organization.
2. Explanations on the business and management side of using Scrum on projects or the enterprise.
3. Technical presentations on useful tools or the technical practices of XP or Agile software development (pair programming, iterative design, refactoring, TDD, testing, etc.) that enable agility.

We provide a variety of ways for our speakers to contribute (see below), so if you just want to share some ideas on how something might work or to talk about what your team did, please get in touch with our organizers – Carlton Nettleton (carlton@lookforwardconsulting.com) or June Clarke (joonspoon@yahoo.com) – for more details.

These are the formats we provide for our speakers:

• Roundtable: a casual discussion where we can examine one or two ideas from a variety of perspectives for about an 60 to 90 minutes. The roundtable “host” provides a 10 to 15 minute overview of the topic(s) in order to frame the conversation and then starts the discussion with a provocative question.  This is a great format to get a number of expert opinions on a difficult problem you’ve been facing.
• Lecture: in-depth discussion of one or two themes or ideas and is expected to be about 60 minutes, but no longer than 75 minutes. Great format for an experience report or sharing some results with a wider audience.  XPSD is an inquisitive group, so expect questions during your talk.
• Short topic: intended to explain a technical topic or highlight a new idea.  This new, short format (15 to 30 minutes) is provided by XPSD to help new speakers, ideas, perspectives and experiences get in front of the members.
• Workshop: illustrate a concept or technical skill primarily through audience participation and ideally should not exceed 90 minutes. Workshops are fun and members love them.

A bag full of Christmas links.

1. Grooming the Product Backlog – Laura Brandenburg talks about the role of requirements management through the Scrum Product Backlog.
2. Make the Product Backlog DEEP – more on good practices for maintaining the Product Backlog from Mike Cohn.
3. Why is Agile so Hard to Sell? – describes some of the issues growing Agile in the enterprise.
4. Is Scrum for Lazy Project Teams? – looks at the misconception that Scrum does not challenge teams to work their hardest.
5. When the Scrummaster Becomes the Impediment – different perspectives on how to solve the problem when the Scrummaster becomes a bottleneck.
6. A Day in the Life of a Scrum Team – a short 6-minute YouTube video of a Scrum Team in their native environment.
7. Agile Business Analysts – what is the role of the business analyst on an Agile team?
8. Building trust – five concrete things you can do to build trust on your teams.
9. Something in Agile Needs Fixing – Rob Bowley summarizes the Open Space discussion on the topic of “Agile isn’t solving our customers problems because they aren’t here.”

Merry Christmas to you and yours.  2009 was a great year and I am looking forward to 2010.  Next year, make sure you stay off Robot Santa’s naughty list.

Here are links to the best of the blogs for the week of Dec 18th 2009.

1. A ScrumMaster’s Checklist – a comprehensive checklist from Michael James offering four areas a ScrumMaster should pay attention when coaching: the Team, the Product Owner, the organization and the technical practices.
2. Agile Leadership: Methodology Ain’t Enough – the Hacker Chick brings us a blog article about the management beliefs and behaviors which support the growth of Agile teams.
3. When Should QA be Engaged in an Iteration? – Hiren Doshi PMP discusses the role of QA on a Scrum team and tackles the myth that QA folks “have nothing to do until the end of a Sprint”.
4. Five Reasons to Hire a Coach for Agile Teams – Ester Derby talks about five pitfalls of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Agile coaching.
5. Scrum Doesn’t Do Anything – explanation of how Scrum only comes to life when people are added to the framework and the importance of the following the rules by Tobias Mayer.
6. Practical Agility: On Estimation – Dave Rooney describes the Agile estimation lessons he learned while undergoing a recent move.
7. Overcoming Technical Challenges for Adopting Agile Methods in the Enterprise – Vijay Narayanan over at InfoQ discusses the importance of having an development environment which supports your Agile process.
8. Flipping Out – short description of how Flickr uses Continuous Integration and a Single Code Base to add features to their application without branching.

There was a lot of great stuff to read this week, unfortunately I can only go with eight or so entries.  Cya next week!!

I have had a lot of fun working on my Spanish at Pura Buena Onda and listening to podcasts from the folks at Notes in Spanish in 2009.  Today, I met with Carolina – who is an excellent, excellent instructor – to check on my progress and make some new goals for 2010.  In 2009, I just wanted to get better at conversation; improve my listening comprehension and pick up my pace and confidence speaking.  In 2010, I want to get to the next level and begin using Spanish in my work.

These are my strengths:

• Excellent comprehension.
• Good vocabulary (actually she said “great”).
• Great pronunciation of the letter “j”.
• Passion for the language, dedication & willingness to use it.

These are the areas I need to work on:

• All verb tenses.
• Ser & Estar.
• The use of haber.
• Pronunciation w/random words…often words with accents or many syllables.

The good thing about all these things?  They are all grammar related.  ”All I need to do” is to study grammar more and I can bump up my Spanish to the next level!  Of course, easier said than done, but certainly achievable.

Here are links to the best of the blogs for the week of Dec 11th 2009.

1. Agile Project Management (Part 1 of 2) – short article from Agile Journal looking to bridge common Agile vocabulary with PMI practices and concepts.
2. “Ideal” Team Size and Ratios - Johanna Rothman explains the the optimum size for Agile teams.
3. The Benefits of Feature Teams – more on teams, this time from Mike Cohn, and why traditional component teams are risky.
4. The Daily 15 Minutes of Fun – description on how some Scrum teams have extended their Daily Scrum beyond 15 minutes.
5. Where has XP Gone…and can We Have it Back? – Open Space report from XP Days London asking what happened to one of the more popular Agile processes from early 2000′s.
6. The People’s Scrum – Tobias Mayer looks at how Scrum is really a framework for change, not a process or methodology.
7. Why Hasn’t Vista Sold – not directly related to Agile, but discusses how poor software quality has trained our consumers not to purchase upgrades.

Hope there is some good reading here.  Cya next week!

Wow! What an incredible movie! This is a story about two brothers who take up arms against the British during the Irish War of Independence and how they then become involved in the Irish Civil War that follows. It is a very sad movie and I imagine quite representative (I don’t know – I’m not Irish) of the repression the Irish suffered under the British. A truly a griping film that shows us how regular people can be driven to commit great acts of cruelty and violence to achieve an end that many people would consider “good”.

To me, war is a force of nature like a hurricane, earthquake or a tornado. We have no control over its destructive power, where it goes, how many lives it will ruin or how long it will last. War corrupts and destroys everything it touches. I hate war with all my fiber because it is so evil and terrible. This movie shows these effects on the lives of the characters and how twisted everything becomes as a result of the war.

This was a ridiculous movie, but in a good way.  The plot, acting and special effects were so over-the-top.  It is the sort of movie you have to watch when you are in the mood for big explosions, silly costumes, stilted dialogue and want to kill some time with mindless entertainment – like flying over the Atlantic Ocean at 33,000 feet.