Tag: work
Project post-mortem
It’s a (partially) correct answer in more cases that you’d think, or want to believe.
Every damn time GLOBE pushes an update…
The road to health is still bumpy
I’m in Barcelona for work. Work-wise, it’s been going very well, with many details sorted out and progress visibly happening. We’re in a really nice meeting room at the University of Barcelona and the mood is generally positive.
Food wise, I found that lunch is generally the easiest meal of the day. Monday I had some grilled iberico pork and potatoes and today I had swordfish and potatoes. Both went down very well. Dinner tends to be more problematic. On Sunday, I was only able to eat about a third of my ramen before feeling over-full. Last night, I had yakitori and rice, and that was ok-ish but one small (but really appealing) tuna maki put me solidly into blockage territory and I had to get back to the hotel toot-suite to be sick. Felt better afterwards, but still not ideal.
I still think the trip was a success, food-wise, because it does show me that I can function (mostly) OK when I’m not home, but I still need to be careful.
Digital Nutrition & Health, 2018
Cheeky sneaky team Christmas lunch. Clockwise from top left: Fabio, Suttipong Daniela, Florent, me, Damian, Ivan, Frédéric, Roko, Dominik, Vera.
Sleep is good for productivity
Scrum redux
Scrum: way of working to maximize value
Scrum Master: maximize efficiency – remove impediments (manage & delegate)
Product Owner: maximize effectiveness – customer value (stakeholder relations)
Story points: time estimate x impediments –> these don’t show up if only measuring time
Vertical slice: always define the stories with the user in mind. Will the PBI be demoable?
Always work according to priority –> not, “does everyone have something do to?”
You can have it good, fast & cheap if you change what IT is. There are 4 variables in that sentence, not 3.
Project brief: identify value, don’t define “it”. Describe scope in terms of how to give value, but not exactly on how you plan to do it.
Be more agile
I recently attended Web Summit, and one of the key messages I took home from that conference was the need for large corporations to become more reactive to change, and interact more with the start-up community. This comic hits way too close to home at times.
I’ll have some of that, and some of that, and one of those…
When the self-service office supply room has a shopping cart, you’re in for an adventure. Seriously, this place is your one-shop biochemistry lab starter kit (if you’re into that sort of thing). Burners, glassware, scaffolding? We got you covered. You need a rotary evaporator? Have two.
But you need to ask the counter clerk for a ballpoint pen because people were taking too many of those and they were always running out.
View from the meeting room
I did something I’d never done, today. I flew in and out of Amsterdam for a 4h meeting. We’re part of a European research grant, with collaborators in Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and the kick off meeting was held at a conference center just off of the airport arrivals. Yay, carbon footprint!
