Monthly Archives: August 2011

What Worked (surprisingly) Well – Sprint Tracker in Source Control 1

 in Tech  tagged agile / development / methodology / scrum / SDLC / software / sourcecontrol / sprint / standup by

This past sprint retrospective the team proposed that we change up the way our scrum team reports on task progress.  The team proposed that we keep our Sprint Tracker excel document in source control.   Then prior to the daily standup meeting each team member would check out the document, update the time remaining on their tasks, and check it back in.

I am surprised at how well this worked!  I was expecting that nobody would participate or somebody would forget to checkin and then go on vacation or any number of possibilities.  But I’m proud to report our standups are more effective and efficient because we spend more time to discussing what was done, what to do and what things are standing in the way.

Let me try and explain in more detail. (more…)

Job hunting and trying something new

 in Tech  tagged coverletter / jobhunt / projectmanager by

Fueled by insomnia and inspired by late night tv, I’ve decided to try something new on my job hunting technique. Recently found a number of perfect fit job postings on boards like Indeed.com or Dice.com. I would submit my resume and write a formal cover letter and never hear anything. Weeks go by and crickets. So it’s time to switch it up a bit.

Since project manager job hunting is all about selling yourself. I decided against the typical formal resume & cover letter in favor of a proven, tried-and-true selling technique: “The Infomercial”.  (more…)