I'm an OK speaker and a better listener. I tend to passively engage in regularly scheduled meetings (you know which ones I mean). When some interesting points arise, my radar lights up and I lean forward. When some of those points turn into horrifying half-truths, I gasp inside my head and wonder what in the … Continue reading Good Communication as the Starting Point of Change
Why projects fail and how to make them succeed with more transparency
Imagine you’re driving your car through uncharted territory to a destination only vaguely described by "That Guy" who told you to go there. "That Guy" was kind enough to give you an absolutely non-negotiable deadline too. With that in mind, you race to the first waypoint - you should already be able to see it … Continue reading Why projects fail and how to make them succeed with more transparency
Stop missing out on collaboration opportunities by creating situation awareness
Yesterday, I was waiting for the train to arrive for my daily commute. After it pulled up to the station, a mother with a baby carriage tried to disembark. She struggled with the carriage while carrying a heavy bag, a second child pulling her arm. Naturally, I jumped in to help out and she was … Continue reading Stop missing out on collaboration opportunities by creating situation awareness
How to set up wordpress on ec2 using puppet and git
Having started out on a Joyent appliance, migrating to Linode, and, finally, to Amazon with a Bitnami stack, we noticed the common pain of manually configuring each of these environments. Bitnami caused us an even bigger headache by being very difficult to update (apt-get doesn't update the bitnami wrapped AMP stack). We decided to get … Continue reading How to set up wordpress on ec2 using puppet and git
Agile Web Development & Operations: What do YOU want it to be?
For nearly four years Dan and I have shared our experiences and ideas about agile development and DevOps. We would like to ask you, our dear readers, how we could help you to become even more agile and have more fun doing your job. Please help us to understand your needs better by taking our … Continue reading Agile Web Development & Operations: What do YOU want it to be?
How over-capacity hurts your scalability
You’re a lucky guy. Your web app runs on the biggest server available. It takes a mere 10% CPU and has tons of free memory available. Everything is great. Well, not everything… One tiny, little detail might jump out of the darkness at the worst possible moment… That tiny, little detail is a collection of … Continue reading How over-capacity hurts your scalability
The Daily Standup: One step closer to the goal
Almost 9:30am. Time for our stand-up. What did I finish yesterday? What do I plan on finishing today? What's stopping me? The daily routine of the morning stand-up is so ingrained, I go through the above liturgy without conscious thought. For me, the stand-up provides a focused center for the team, our morning huddle. We … Continue reading The Daily Standup: One step closer to the goal
How to make a team self-organizing
Self-organizing teams perform better than micro-managed ones. The ability to really make a difference motivates the team members and makes everyone contribute his best effort. But how can we create self-organizing teams when everyone is used to hierarchical command and control patterns? To be able to self-organize and perform optimally, a few basics need to … Continue reading How to make a team self-organizing
The DevOps Dudes
After DevOps Borat and BroOps it's time for The DevOps Dudes!
Optimizing Offshore Software Development with Agile
This is a guest post by Prasad Chaudhari, freelance java consultant. He was appointed as a project manager for the project mentioned below and played a role of ScrumMaster. The first prerequisite to going agile offshore is a mature and realistic understanding of agile at home. We've been practicing scrum on-site for several years including … Continue reading Optimizing Offshore Software Development with Agile
