Eventyr

Running Wild

There was an odd feeling deep in my bones tonight.  Like spring in autumn, a bounce in my step, a desire to run wild. 

I was on the bus home, cider in my veins, on my way to my family home, my childhood bedroom, my work.  To do work.

I almost rebelled.  This feeling pushed. 

In a moment, in a flash, I would have been off the bus, out to go dancing and socialising, rebelling as if I were still young.  I am still young (I am!) but, as the crowd reminded me as the bus pulled past, not that young.  It has been more than twelve years since I first went to that nightclub.  So long ago.

And yet this need still pulsed through me.  Why do I need to work?  Why can't I still run wild?  After all I do still live at home.  I am still a student.

Instead the bus drew me on, drew me home, to the life that is still in flux as I fail to grow up or live young.  The life in which I failed to decide who I want to be.

I run late, searching for things that cannot be found.  Like a white rabbit joining the hunt for snarks.

links for 2007-10-28

• Beyond the Tyranny of PowerPoint [PDF Flyer]
  Looks like a really, really interesting talk from Yiannis Gabriel that I can't make, on the effect of PowerPoint on education.
  (tags: Organisation Graphics visualization Teaching)

links for 2007-10-26

• ACM's Committee on Women in Computing
  Hmm, scholarships for conferences.   Useful.
  (tags: Funding ResearchMethods)
• Seventh Grace Hopper Conference Opens With Record-Setting Participation
  "ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 2007 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (GHC), underway here today, has set new records for attendance, scholarship awards, sponsorship, and underwriting. More than 1400 technical women and men f
  (tags: conference)
• Gamasutra - "Paper Burns: Game Design With Agile Methodologies"
  (tags: agile Management SoftwareDev)

links for 2007-10-25

• The Story Behind That “Portal” Song, Its Place In Video Game History And Some Delicious Snacks
  "Jonathan Coulton has written a song that is sung in a new video game. People are talking about it. People even want to download it.  That doesn’t happen very often." (via Kevan)
  (tags: music games Fun)
• YouTube - Portal - Credits Song 'Still Alive'
  The song itself.
  (tags: music fun game)
• YouTube - Facebook Song
  (tags: Fun music)
• YouTube - Walk your talk film promo
  Walk your talk Promo video (aka Matt and Ollie go walking)
  (tags: Fun Friends)

links for 2007-10-23

• Marian's Ten Top Tips for Research Students
  (tags: ResearchMethods)
• InQbate - Sussex Control System User Guide
  (tags: Admin Teaching Sussex CETL InQbate)

Leadership on Agile Projects

"Leadership that moves the emphasis from doing-things-right to doing-the-right-things is a better complement to agile methods than the detail oriented task management popularized by modern project management. Interestingly, project management (emphasising achieving things through task control) is a relatively new phenomenon based on Fredrick Taylor’s Transformation View of task decomposition (1900). Whereas Leadership (emphasising achieving things through collaboration and shared vision) is as old as human collaboration itself. "When the best leader's work is done, the people say, We did it ourselves." - Lao-Tzu (604 BC)"

The True Role of a PM on Agile Projects.

...with a cliff on either side...

"On the left is cowboy coding, aka hack-and-slash, aka "lost in the woods" (LITW if you need an XTLA). On the right is "plan driven". Agile is in the middle somewhere.

Actually, agile is really up a bit. There are two separate dimensions in play here, discipline and flux (see Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game, 2nd ed.). Cowboy aka Lost in the Woods development is high in flux and low in discipline, plan driven development is low in flux and high in discipline. Agile development is moderate to high in flux, and moderate to high in discipline (for example, Crystal is moderate in discipline and high in flux, XPv1 is high in flux, high in discipline).

The point is that agile is (can be) the "middle-way". Groups fail when trying to implement agile because they either end up doing "lost in the woods" (absence-of-)practices, or plan-driven practices. Neither is right.

I was asked to name a Letterman-type top-10 list of ways projects fail in trying to be agile, and I found that my answers were mostly of the variety: "If you are straying to the left (LITW), the symptoms are these; if you are straying to the right (PDD), the symptoms are these.""

Agile development as the middle way with a cliff on either side (Alistair Cockburn)

links for 2007-10-22

• Office Collar
  "Office Collar has been designed in response to the open plan working environment. The collars act spatial isolators, narrowing the field of vision, therefore enabling their wearer to focus on the tasks in front of them." (Via The Presurfer)
  (tags: Fun Office Workspace)
• The Presurfer: Cubicle Freakout
  "One of every eight workers works in a cubicle. Cubicle workers complain most often about noise - trying to hear themselves think over the sound of co-workers working, conversing, and talking on the phone. Some lose their temper and start yelling. Or get
  (tags: Fun Office Workspace)
• 8 Simple Ways to Enjoy Life Every Day
  (Via The Presurfer)
  (tags: Fun)

Communication: Toilet Stories

One day, toward the end of a long brainstorming meeting, we came up with the idea of putting up little one-page stories, called episodes, in bathroom stalls discussing new and interesting testing techniques. Somebody immediately called it “Testing on the Toilet,” and the idea stuck.

We formed a team of editors, encouraged authors to write lots of episodes and then bribed Nooglers with books and T-shirts to put up episodes every week. The first few episodes touched off a flurry of feedback from all corners of the campus. We received praise and flames, but mostly what we heard was that people were bored and wanted us to hurry and publish the next episode.

Eventually, the idea became part of the company culture and even a company joke, as in, “Excuse me, I need to go read about testing.” That’s when we realized that we had what we needed: a way to get our message out.

The Google Way: Give Engineers Room - New York Times.

Swearing at work

"Regular swearing at work can help boost team spirit among staff, allowing them to express better their feelings as well as develop social relationships, according to a study by researchers.  Yehuda Baruch, a professor of management at the University of East Anglia, and graduate Stuart Jenkins studied the use of profanity in the workplace and assessed its implications for managers."
Swearing at work boosts team spirit (Yahoo! News) (Via Tom).

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From the paper 'Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: When anti-social becomes social and incivility is acceptable' by Yehuda Baruch and Stuart Jenkins (published in Leadership & Organization Development Journal):

"Social swearing provides stress release for individuals, and helps to develop group norms and cohesion. This subsequently improves both individual and group well being. Conversely, annoyance swearing tends to increase stress for individuals, and hinders positive group norms and cohesion, hampering both individuals’ and groups’ well being."

I'm very curious to look through my data for examples of these two.  I suspect I'll find some more lovely examples. 

I'm looking forward to reading this paper thoroughly, and hope I find time to follow up this reference:

"Taking this point to the extreme, Wajnryb (2003) offers advice for executives who have to make staff redundant: “If you’re worried about which laid-off employee is going to show up with a semi-automatic and shoot up the office, be wary of the non-swearers”."