Scaling Software Agility Presentation by Dean Leffingwell

This is a followup to one of my previous book recommendations - Scaling Software Agility by Dean Leffingwell

You can access a summary basically of the major themes Dean focusses on for Scaling of Agile: Scaling Software Agility (pdf)

Thanking Your Teacher

"The best way of making an offering to your teacher is to practise what you have been taught"

- HH The Dalai Lama from "The Essential Dalai Lama"

The Ideal Student

Lama Tsong Khapa in one of his "Great Exposition" writings stated that the 3 principal qualifications of an ideal student are:

1. An objective and open mind
2. The intelligence to judge between right and wrong
3. The enthusiasm for and interest in the subject

Reveal to others

Dharmakirti said that there is no way that you can reveal to others that which is hidden to yourself...

Studying without the desire

"If you study without the desire to relate what you are learning to your own life through practice, you run the risk of becoming hardened or apathetic"

- HH The Dalai Lama - "The Essential Dalai Lama"

Not the Best View of London

Three weeks ago I enthused about my Best View of London as seen from an airplane at sunset. And I mentioned that I hoped to repeat the experience again soon.

Well, soon - 17 April 2009 - has now come and gone, and unfortunately my view was completely blocked by the some very low hanging cloud, and rainy weather. Lovely.

(so that was "the good"....)

Now for "the bad"...

I climbed into a nice shiny 7-seater mini-cab for my journey home and began (or tried) to unwind from quite a testy week on the client site in Switzerland. We drove along slowly, mindful of the wet weather, and the darkening conditions. There was quite a bit of traffic ... more than I am accustomed to of late. Perhaps the warming weather is bring more visitors to London for the weekend. Or not.

Turns out my driver has only been doing this job for 1 month. Which is approximately 48 months shorter than any other mini-cab driver I have had the pleasure or displeasure of sharing a small space and a journey with. Previously he worked for 5 years in a contact lens manufacturer but had lost his job - his only source of income - due to recessionary conditions and shrinking sales. So this mini cab business is pretty important to a nice guy, well studied, and well experienced.

Suddenly the fool 2-4 cars ahead of us in the left lane of the A4 once again fluffed around on the road ... brake lights lighted up for no apparent reason, we all started braking. Some of us harder than others. Some of us in smaller cars. Oops!! We were unfortunately too close this second time.

1x BANG!

2x BANG!!

3x BANG!!!

:(

(who says 3rd time lucky?)

Everyone is out of the vehicles, examining damage, standing in the road, beginning to point fingers, etc etc. Typical inexperienced accident stuff. I started checking that no one was (seriously) injured, asked people to step off the road, calmed them a little and started actioning photo and detail taking so we could all get out of there ASAP before more rain, more darkness, or worse ... causing another accident.

The driver behind us fled the scene whilst no one was specifically watching. Luckily for her, and her navy blue BMW 1-series, she seemed to have little/no damage. A slightly different story for the mini-cab's rear bumper. But, no real problem at this time - 1 less person and vehicle details to take.

I am watching the traffic coming towards us - 3 lanes full. And I am getting more and more nervous by the second ... so I walk up the road a couple of metres, whilst on the pavement. And I try to work out how to signal that drivers should be more cautious....? No torch, I am wearing dark clothing ... hmmm? It is getting darker and wetter ...

Now for "the ugly"

A ?maniac? comes hurtling past me in the left lane - our blocked up lane - and slams on his brakes to the point of stopping to avoid the 3 cars stopped there with their hazard lights flashing. He puts his indicator on to rejoin the middle lane. And waits. And waits.

A nice lady slows down in the middle lane and indicates he should rejoin ... she slows down, he sits and waits; she slows down more, he sits still and waits; she slows down even more, he sits and still waits.

4x BANG!!!!

5x BANG!!!!!

Now, the ?maniac? waits no longer and in a flash (of genius) he is gone.

And the other 3 vehicle drivers are getting out ... into all that darkness, into all that wetness, into all that huge amount of traffic! I am getting very very scared. Luckily 1 of them seems to know what to do, and rapidly after making sure no one is majorly injured they all get into the cars and pull over, behind us.

And then the London Metropolitan Police Service show up, take control and ensure safety. I relax. The cars are all moved into a side street, statements are taken, alcohol checks, medication checks and ownerships are verified. Details are copied for all.

1.5 hours later, we're all on our way again and things have gone as well as they possibly could under such circumstances. Really. I was very impressed with "The Met" and their handling of the situation. For want of a better expression - "good service"! Bravo!!

I do feel even more sad for my driver though - his single source of income is seriously not going to be earning him anything for the next 2 weeks or so.

What's Up With All The Cynicism in IT?

At SPA2009, I had a little session titled "What's Up With All The Cynicism in IT?". It was unfortunately quite time reduced from my original plan, but I did manage to impart a little knowledge of Edward De Bono's Six Thinking Hats method to a group of 8 varied participants, who did supply quite a bit of "food for thought".

I've published my presentation, and the outputs of the group work sessions on the SPA2009 wiki: What's Up With All The Cynicism In IT? Outputs