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Archive for June, 2009
Agile Open La Plata 2009 Results
02 years ago
On Saturday June 20th the Agile Open La Plata 2009 took place, more than 65 people attended.
After having breakfast, we did the official opening, which I facilitated. An incredible experience: it was my first facilitation in an Open Space model. At the beginning, it was exactly as we’re used to see in these kind of events: people does not understand the expectations on them until after 10 minutes of actual work, the result was almost 40 sessions proposals, a very fluid voting and the following schedule:
Agenda AO La Plata 2009
I highlight some sessions I was able to participate in, all of them of an excellent level:
Lean introduction (facilitated by Juan Gabardini) and Agile introduction (moderated by Nicolás Paez) were the first two sessions. I saw people very engaged on the topics, I admit it was hard to stop those sessions on-time due to the atendees’ enthusiasm.
The starts of the second track were SCRUM intro (proposed and moderated by Marcelo Belnicoff) and Agile Team Communication (moderated by Nicolás and Esteban).
Lunch arrived on-time, there was an excellent climate where people exchanged concerns, experiences, questions, solutions, doubts, opinions. A great networking context.
We started the afternoon with the “Pajarraco” Game, during which I took some photos (taken with my cell phone) and a lot of other parallel sessions, more advanced ones in which I was lucky to participate: CMMI+PMI+Agile, Scrum with very little teams, Agile Testing, How to engage the client in Agile Projects, Non IT-industry implementations of agile methodologies, etc.
* Pajarraco Photos:
After a coffee break during the afternoon, there was an interesting debate about Retrospectives (open discussion format) and an Agile Architecture presentation (by Diego Fontdevila).
We reached to the closure with more than 40 people. It was facilitated by Diego with excellent results, as we’re used to in every Open Space: great people interaction, highly engaged & active people,really interesting topics, living experiences, etc. The result was more than positive:
Resultado AO La Plata 2009
The next steps we’re taking at “La Plata” level is to organize a monthly event where to discuss agile topics following the same approach that has been working for months in Buenos Aires, while at a national level we still have the organization and realization of the Rosario, Mar del Plata and Bahía Blanca Agile Opens. And any new city who wants to have one.
A new Agile Open was finished, and -same as the previous ones- it left it’s footprint.
Working with Y Generation
12 years ago
Being a leader of a young-people’s team (and with this I’m not referring to the inner child we all have) requires both to know about them and to understand the way they interact with the agile methodologies.
Who are they? The Generation “Y” or also know as the “Millennials”, “The Internet Generation”, or even “The Google Generation” is the one comprising the demographic segment borned between 1981 and 1997. And they are now entering the global workforce.
It’s the MTV and “All Stars” Generation who experienced the end of the Cold War, the spread of non-traditional family models and the technology revolution. There are the young people who couldn’t conceive life without technology (SMS, mobile phones, IPods, Reality Shows and Internet 2.0) and who probably wouldn’t also live without it.
The strong sense of group identification through which they build their personal identity has become one of their most forceful features (who haven’t heard about “urban tribes”?). The Generation Y doesn’t think in a future based on a single job (unlike previous generations), nor they think in a long-term plan. Their life plan is “today”, they are curious, they love to experiment, to change jobs and “not take sides”.
For some reason and unlike the previous generation, they Gen Y feels unenthusiastic for public participation and doesn’t accept the traditional authority figures, being more collaborative than hierarchical.
What is important to bear in mind when working with them in the software development, but also in any other kind of job?
- They have a very low attention span and get bored easily. Thus, not-to-long tasks which bring frequent outcomes are strongly recommended. This doesn’t mean they are not willing to work, by contrast, they’re really enthusiastic, but need immediate gratifications (as they received during their childhood).
- They ignore long-term plans, strictly defined scopes. They have an affinity with both incremental planning and development in which they want to participate actively.
- Gen Y is willing to learn, and they keep up quite well with technologic advances, this is something very positive to grasp new concepts and ways of working.
- Impatience: They cannot wait to get a better position, even though they have just started and they haven’t gained experience enough. They need help in controlling their anxiety.
- Gen Y is used to chaos, and doesn’t feel uncomfortable with confusion. This represents an advantage when considering the constant changes today in businesses. However, they require both a strong coaching to lead them and an environment which accepts these changes to keep them focused on objectives continually being defined.
- Flexibility (may be too much). The variety of options they have at the reach of hand makes them think that if they don’t get what they want by one mean, they can get it by another. This affects directly their job as far as when picking a job, many of them don’t work “because they need to” but “because they want to” and timetables, job requirements, salary and expectations become crucial to decide whether to stay or go.
- “Multi-tasking”. Gen Y has developed an ability to deal with more than one issue at a time. What could simply be considered as an advantage can turn into an drawback because of their lapse of concentration and the delay rooted on multi-tasking activities, contrary to a work focus on one single thing at a time.
They are still too young. Even though they look like as know-it-all people by the way they ussualy introduce themselves, the Generation Y people don’t rely on a vast labor experience, and we don’t know exactly what to expect from them. Furthermore, their recent introduction to the job market and the way they behave could generate integration conflicts with previous generations. Thus is necessary to understand how they work and to keep alert for the sake of the team.
With its pros and cons, Generation “Why” is here to stay and agile methodologies will grow with them, retrospective after retrospective, taken their input into account and being shaped based on their behavior. Definitively.
(Español) Agile Open La Plata 2009
02 years ago
by Martin Alaimo
in Agenda
Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.
The Pomodoro Technique
142 years ago
Some time ago I wrote an article about the defragment your day technique. From that moment on, I tried implementing it in my day to day without much success, honestly. The issues i found during that time would probably be due to a particularity of the context: I work in a global team, with people from Spain and Chicago, what gave me a hard time grouping the meetings. This definitely ruined the technique.
Then I decided trying another technique which I had on the shelves for a while, that seems very interesting and not too hard to be implemented: The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo. Something that really caught my attention on it was the similarities it has with some basis agile practices: incremental planning, ROI prioritization, time-boxing, retrospectives, etc.
In this post I’m not intended to do a detailed analysis of The Pomodoro Technique, I’m just explaining in a very short way how it works so that someone not knowing about that can eventually try it. If anyone would like to go deeper in details and reasons, there’s an excellent PDF on the oficial site and a book called The Pomodoto Technique Illustrated, which I recommend 100% .
Introduction
The Pomodoro Technique has it’s basis on the assumption that time is considered an enemy by many people and the anxiety generated leads the persons towards an inefficient behaviour both in studying or working. The immediate result is: postponing things in time.
The Pomodoro Technique identifies two different aspects that are closely related between each other regarding time:
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Becoming: An abstract and dimensional aspect of time, which leads into the habit of measuring time (seconds, minutes, hours); the idea of representing time using an axis, the concept of “duration”, the idea of “late”.
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Event succession: A concret aspect about time. I.e.: We wake-up, we take a shower, we have breakfast, we study, we have lunch, we take a nap, we play, we have dinner and finally we go to bed.
The purpose of The Pomodoro Technique is to provide a simple tool/process to improve the productivity (our own and the team’s one) with the following abilities (between others):
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Alleviate anxiety linked to Becoming
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Enhance focus and concentration by cutting down on interruptions
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Boost motivation and keep it constant
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Bolster the determination to achieve your goals(for the complete list, see the oficial paper)
The Artifacts
There are three different artifacts in the Pomodoro Technique:
- Activity Inventory: A list where all tasks that needs to be done are recorded while they appear. At the end of the day the ones that were finalized are checked.
- To-Do Today Sheet: A list of tasks to be done during the day, ordered by priority. And a section called “unplanned and Urgent Tasks” where any unplanned and urgent task is recorder while they appear. These kind of activities can alter the entire day plan.
- Registry sheet: A place where to record all completed tasks at the end of the day and the amount of Pomodoros (we’ll see what a Pomodoro is shortly) invested on it until completion.
The Pomodoro
The heart of the Tecnique is a kitchen chronometer (from where it takes the Italian name “Pomodoro”, because of its tomato-like shape). This chronometer is used to measure the time-boxes which gives rhythm/iterations used to work on the different tasks during the day.
The Iterations
Called “Pomodoros”, are fixed time periods (30 minutes) from which 25 minutes are dedicated to a task and the 5 minutes remaining used to rest, recreate. Once these 5 minutes are passed a new 25 minutes iteration is started. The tool to measure each of these 25 minutes set is a chronometer with alarm.
Each Pomodoro is indivisable and can’t be interrupted. If for any reason I must interrupt a Pomodoro, then that iteration is considered as voided and a new one must be started from scratch.
Every 4 valid Pomodoros the break is longer: from 15 to 30 minutes.
Note: Each break and it’s lengths have an actual reason; for more details read the oficial paper.
The Tasks and The Process
The tasks that appear, if they are not urgent, need to be registered in the “Task Inventory”. At the beginning of each day all the tasks in which the work will be split between are selected an placed in the “Todo Today” sheet. This plan can be done as part of the first Pomodoro of each day.
For the next Pomodoro I take the first tasks in the “To-do Today” and I focus 100% on it. I can’t take-out the attention during those 25 minutes. This means: not reading e-mails, not chatting, not wasting time. There are several minuted dedicated for that at the end of each iteration.
if the Pomodoro finished before i get to finish the task, then I still have to take the 5 minutes break, no choice. After that I start a new Pomodoro focused on that same task I’ve been working on which is still not finalized.
While I spend the iteration, I need to mark an “X” for each one next to the task I’ve been working on. It’s really important to focus on a single task during each iteration. It the task is too short to dedicate an entire Pomodoro on it, then it should be grouped with other tasks, if the task is still finished before the pomodoro ending, then i should keep working on that task, improving quality until the Pomodoro ends.
If I finish a task during te initial 5 minutes of a Pomodoro, then that iteration should be considered as voided. I don’t record an “X” there and I start a new Pomodoro, moving into the next task.
Simple Example of the Process
Let’s suppose for a while that these are my pending tasks:
| Activity Inventory |
| Write Article about the Pomodoro Technique |
| Review article grammar |
| Go to the supermarket |
| Send e-mails about the event organization |
| Pay TV clable and car insurance |
| Build Karaoke list for next Saturday |
| Translate pomodoro Article into Spanish |
At the beginning of the day I choose which are the tasks I’ll be working on and then I record them in the “To-Do Today” sheet. I can dedicate 25 minutes for this plan, using a Pomodoro iteration for it:
| To-Do Today – June 7th, 2009 | |
| Write Article about the Pomodoro Technique | |
| Review article grammar | |
| Translate pomodoro Article into Spanish | |
Right after taking the first 5 minutes break, I set my chronometer for 25 minutes and lunch it, that way I’m starting my second Pomodoro, dedicating it to the firat task in the list. After those 25 minutes the alarm of the chronometer will sound, that means the Pomodoro ending; I record an “X” next to the task i’ve been working on (in red below):
| To-Do Today – June 7th, 2009 | |
| Write Article about the Pomodoro Technique | X |
| Review article grammar | |
| Translate pomodoro Article into Spanish | |
After another 5 minutes break, I lunch the 25 minutes Pomodoro again, following with the task until completion.
After the first set of 4 Pomodoros, it’s time for a longer break (between 15 and 30 minutes):
| To-Do Today – June 7th, 2009 | |
| Write Article about the Pomodoro Technique | XXXX |
| Review article grammar | |
| Translate pomodoro Article into Spanish | |
After that longer breack, I lunch a new Pomodoro. I should continue that way, one 25 minutes Pomodoro after the other, taking a 5 minutes break in between pomodoros and a 15 to 30 minutes break every 4 Pomodoros… until i get to finish the first task, moment in which I cross-over it:
| To-Do Today – June 7th, 2009 | |
| Write Article about the Pomodoro Technique | XXXXXXX |
| Review article grammar | |
| Translate pomodoro Article into Spanish | |
And that way, I continue, Pomodoro after Pomodoro until the day finishes:
| To-Do Today – June 7th, 2009 | |
| Write Article about the Pomodoro Technique | XXXXXXX |
| Review article grammar | XX |
| Translate pomodoro Article into Spanish | XXX |
Dealing with Interruptions
The interruptions are the most sensible aspect at the time of implementing the Pomodoro technique.
The length of a Pomodoro, 25 minutes, seems short enough to make it possible to resist being distracted by various kinds of interruptions. But experience shows that once you’ve started using the Pomodoro technique, interruptions can become a real problem.
Source: The Pomodoro Technique, by Francesco Cirillo
The Pomodoro Technique proposes an effective strategy to minimize the amount of interruptions, and to do that, it divides those interruptions in two different categories: Internal and External interruptions, concept that will be addressed in a later post. 
Important
As said before, this post is just a partial summary of the Pomodoro Technique. To get more knowledge and details I recommend each reader to visit the official site: The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo.
