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Networking = yawn-fest?I used to think that “networking” was some type of dreary activity that only terminal bores went to. However, increasingly I can see that getting together with like-minded people to share experiences can have benefits. Geeks in the nightI live in Oxford, which along with its Dreaming Spires, also has a healthy geek scene. A foremost example of this is Oxford Geek Night, ably organised by JP who also works at Torchbox, an Oxfordshire web agency. The basic gist is that there are a variety of technology related talks (keynotes and shorter “microslots”) with healthy gaps in-between to discuss the issues with geek-minded folks. It is held every couple of months and is generally a good night, although the PA system sometimes lets it down. Most of the talks are archived on the OGN site and are worth a look. I also sometimes stop in on the Oxford Internet Professionals meetup, which meets monthly with no particular agenda (i.e. talks), just some chats over a couple of beverages. I’ve met some fine folks such as Rob Jones, the organiser and head honcho at Surefire Digital and David Langer, a co-honcho at the fast-rising startup, Group Spaces. In my previous job, I was in London 2-3 days a week, so another group that I often attended was the London Scrum User Group, which is held monthly. The format of this user group is a bit different to the OGN in that it often used the Open Spaces concept, although that might have changed. Agile OxfordAs far as I know, there is no equivalent group that meets to discuss agile development/Scrum/Kanban and so on, in Oxford. There used to be an agile book group, The Oxtremists, however that seems to be undergoing a hiatus. With that in mind, tonight I met up with James, a developer and quite freshly minted Scrum master, who was keen to discuss setting up an agile user group in Oxford. The basic idea for the first event, is to have a guest speaker as an icebreaker, then have some time for groups to form to discuss issues relating to agile development. We could also thrash out future directions for the group, adapting the format in an…agile…manner. Some possible areas of discussion:
We’re looking to start some time in October November probably at the East Oxford offices of my employer, White October. I would be very keen to hear from anyone interested in this idea, so GET IN TOUCH!. You are also welcome to comment, as per the usual weblog etiquette. The photo at the top of the post is from The Library of Congress on the Flickr Commons. Here’s a couple of pics from an Xmas excursion to the London Eye.
Posted via email from Project’s Little Helper Just wanted to do a quick post to say that, although there hasn’t been a whole heap of visible activity on here. That’s not to say that I haven’t been working on some things behind the scenes. I’ve been working on some ideas for posts whihc are coming along, albeit a bit slowly. A lot of my time recently, has been taken up with helping a new Scrum team get started. This is providing me with many ideas for content for Project’s Little Helper, but not leaving me with that much time to write it up. Another thing in the pipeline is that I’m starting to get involved in the organisation of the London Scrum Gathering. This is borne out of the London Scrum User Group (LSUG) and is planned for February 2010. More on that soon. So enough with the excuses. A wise man once told me “Effort = Results”, so I will be putting some effort in soon to get things going on this site. In my first installment, I promised to explain what I’m planning to write about on this site in the days to come. So here it is. I’ve been working with projects for some time, mainly in the development of digital content and platforms to deliver that content. Up until the latter part of 2006, the process for completing these projects relied heavily on what can loosely be called “traditional” project management approaches. Some keywords: PRINCE2, PMP, waterfall, prescribed, linear, plan driven. I then started a project where I had the benefit of being able to try an approach which was new to me. Keywords: agile, iterative, lean, Scrum, story driven, adaptive. I was able to take this experience and look back on projects to see that some things that worked really well but that fell outside of traditional approaches were things that were being given a framework by agile project management approaches. This was incredibly exciting to me and something that I’ve realised is a field that I might be able help others with by relating some experiences, war stories and other thoughts about agile project management, collaborative teams and innovation. That’s why I registered projectslittlehelper.com On the About page, I mention some sources of inspiration but what does that actually mean I’m going to post on this site? Some things that I envisage publishing on this site include:
That’s about it for now but there will be more to come! |
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