Trying to be productive

Some time ago, someone recommended the book Getting Things Done to me. They had noticed my fondness for running a tight ship in terms of detailed task tracking and realised I may be a candidate to take it to a new level. When I am leading a development team, I always end up employing XPlanner, which I will openly admit is not perfect. But it is simple enough that it fits my methodology quite well. In my system, its key job is to track what is and isn't done such that when Bob is sick, Jane can pick up where he left off, and don't have to walk the beat to find out where things are at.

Early in my XP journey (some four years ago), I worked under a regime where no work was done unless there was a task listed for it, with estimate, on the wiki. I liked this system, as the tasks were small enough to guarantee completion within a day and you could go home at the end of the day not having to remember any 'todos' for the next day. The following morning you came into work, had Stand Up, looked at the roster to see who you were pairing with and the went to the wiki to select a new task. It was such a mental freedom to not have to remember (and thus forget) all kinds of little tidbits. I actually believe that this created a more creative state, making it easier to solve difficult problems.

This brings me back to GTD. The key concept the resonated with me was capturing tasks in a logical trusted repository outside of your head. It sounded a lot like what I had experienced before, and was certainly the hook that got me in. Now, the book is quite detailed and at the time I was involved with a project that was not moving particularly quickly so, after reading the first section, I put it on the back burner.

At moment, though a lot of projects of various size and shape are coming up and I believe that it is time for me to delve further. I figure that having experience with such system will hold me in good stead for when I get really busy.

When is an architect an Architect?

The term architect is an ambiguous one in the software industry. Far more so than in its more traditional home, the building industry, where a firm certification is the deciding factor. And it is an interesting topic because the title is going through a period of uncertainty. Speaking personally, I saw the title as a traditional way of declaring, look I can write program code but, more importantly, I can design the overall system so that others can code it. So when one sees a team, especially a manager, they know the lay of the land.

The problem comes about when two of these 'architects' are compared. Is the architect of a personal website the equivalent of an Internet banking architect? In this case, if this matters to you, then you basically have to drill into their resume and find out what they have really done and see how it lines up with your needs. After all, architects covers everything from system design to CIO-level enterprise strategy planning.

None of this would be insurmountable and probably parallels the building world: house architects versus industrial complex designers. However, when we add the lack of certification to the mix, we pretty quickly discover that everyone is an architect. If I had a dollar for every resume that has passed my desk where the applicant had spent all but their first job as an 'architect', I'd be rich. And from experience, I have worked with many architects who elevated themselves to that position so as to avoid the dirty work of actually coding. This is another cause of problem, since when you are relieved of the burden of implementing the system, you are also relieved of the practical implications of your design.

So what's the answer? Dunno. I can't see certification working because the industry is so dynamic that it would be obsolete within a year. The more progressive elements have compensated for the everyone-is-an-architect problem by expecting hands on philosophies. If you don't want to code, you can't architect here. This is probably the pragmatic approach, as it gives a nice feedback loop from design to implementation. And the corollary is that there are now architects who feel comfortable saying: "I don't want to just draw boxes and produce documents, I want to get in and build the thing."

Thommo's gone

The St Kilda football club have taken a bold and probably timely step and decided to change coach. Unlike in other football codes, especially soccer, this is a big event in AFL where coaches can be in place for many years.

While this was probably a tough blow for Grant, I think it is ultimately what the club needs to move to the next level and win a flag. Saying that, he can look back on his achievements with pride as the team he inherited was a shambles. Ill discipline and a self destructive culture was the order of the day. It is enough to say that Barry Hall used to play at the club and was only notable for his getting dragged at least once a match. You could say that the fact that the coach was surprised by his sacking means that it was timely, rather than too late; it meant he was doing his best until the end. Ultimately it is his employer's job to judge whether or not that is good enough.

So where to from here? Well, comparing last Friday's game against Melbourne with the subsequent Sydney and West Coast game, it is clear that the new coach needs to bring tactical nous to the position. Injuries are a part of the game and a lead is a lead - it must be defended at all costs and this is where football thinking comes in. It is conceivable that a radical plan could have allowed Saints to hold on, no matter how ugly it turned out. Interestingly, in AFL, tactics are much harder to see, but finals footy is where you really see what happens.

Virtualisation

While I have known about virtualisation products for a while, it required a day home sick to get me to actually have a look into one. I had done some preliminary looking at Xen, and as a result decided to look into VMWare Server. Xen's idea of ported OSes was a little bit too much for me, although I suspect if you were after high performance it might be your ticket. I was looking for an easy way to pursue my hobby of investigating operating systems. I don't do anything useful with them of course, but I find it interesting to see where things are at. As an active Linux (Fedora Core) user, I like to look at similar alternatives.

So as a result I downloaded and installed the server, which even on Linux was simple (there was an rpm). I very quickly set up a virtual machine and was ready to install my first OS. Solaris 10 was my first victim, and given that I have tried to install 8 in the past without success on a real machine, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was.

Virtualisation appeals to my computer engineering background, because essentially it is a piece of software that acts exactly like a real physical PC. It would probably be quite fun to work on.

V for Victory

My football team won over the weekend. Which helps to deal with the fact that my other football team lost.

Blogging

I have decided to begin blogging again after a year or two break from my initial attempts. This time, I feel that I bring a new (and hopefully better) approach to it. Last time, I felt I should be a blogger and therefore I tried to, with the inevitable result that I struggled to write, probably because I was trying too hard. Also, I think that this time I will set the bar low in terms of frequency. I tried to write too regularly (at least weekly) last time and I have to accept that there are some people who have more to say than I do.

My summary of my new philosophy is this: write a minimum of one posting a month and write on any topic. I am hoping that initially, I might use it like a newsletter and schedule a writing time to look back over the month for something to blog about. As it becomes more natural, I expect the blogging to match the occurence of interesting events. Also, I want to use the blog as an outlet for exercising my written skills, which these days is normally restricted to emails.

I have chosen to use Blogger for this new venture because, as a online service user, I really enjoy using services that upgrade themselves and I have confidence that a Google-backed system will follow suit. Other online services that I regularly use are: Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, del.icio.us and Remember The Milk.