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Talking Agile to an Agile Guru

almost 2 years ago | Yashashree Barve: Life is Beautiful !!

Last to last week I got a chance to talk to an Executive General Manager from an Insurance Firm about what Agile means to us. This firm trains people in Agile, through Agile Academy.

I was amazed at how well I could connect with this senior fellow through the Agile Thread. We spoke about the team behavior, the team events, the workshops in our Agile journey. I could see a twinkle in his eyes when I showed him the comparison between Agile with Twenty-Twenty cricket made by one of our teams.

He shared his views on pair programing, skeptics, blurring line between specialized roles of developers and testers. So many common things. Agile helps them not only in software development, but in complex business strategies. This was indeed interesting to know.

We also talked about our experiences of teaching agile to freshers vs experienced. I commented that freshers connect easily with Agile principles, as their minds are not polluted with waterfall, and they bring in more energy. This organization also believes in the power of fresh thoughts. Incidenly they have special programs where they recruit fresh graduates, and get wonderful results out of their work.

It was really a pleasure to know that someone could see our passion towards Agile, and appreciate. I really think its a great start to this year! I look forward to more such interactions, and sharing the same with the world.

So...what tester are you?

almost 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

This is a very intuitive read that I found while rambling on Internet.

The Tester Types is a fun read, its actually an e-book that describes various types of testers...

Just give it a shot!! Now that everyone has become a tester, I am sure each one of us can identify with a type.. and whats more!! it has got great material for leg-pulling ;-)

so if you are waiting for your chance to get a go at that one person in your team, read Tester Types and you can tease them in all possible ways you want!!!

Who do I identify with? Its Explorer ;)



http://thesocialtester.posterous.com/tag/testertypes

Kaizen vs Kaikaku

almost 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

Ok, I think I tabooed myself by saying that I read that particular book because ever since I said that, i have not been able to read a single page of it..I am not a superstitious person but in a funny way..well yes, may be ;)

BTW, I came across this very useful piece while indulging into results of my Google search about something that I don't remember..as one site led to another and I kept reading everything until i lost track of where i started from and what I was looking for!!!
Anyway, enough beating around the bush..here it goes(with special comments from my side ;))

In lean terms, there are two kinds of improvement.
1.Kaizen refers to steady but incremental improvement
2.Kaikaku means revolution, or radical improvement.

Without Kaizen you are building Kaikaku on sandy foundations. And vice versa.
The below 10 Kaikaku commandments are all good basic principles to start any improvement journey. It is top down initiative to activate a bottom up empowerment for change.
10 Kaikaku Commandments
By: Hiroyuki Hirano

1.Throw out the traditional concept of manufacturing methods.
2.Think about how the new method will work, not how it won't work. (Thats a cool piece of advice)
3.Don't accept excuses; totally deny the status quo.
4.Don't seek perfection; a 50% implementation rate is fine as long as it's done on the spot.
5.Correct mistakes the moment they are found.
6.Don't spend money on Kaikaku.
7.Problems give you a chance to use your brains.
8.Ask "Why" five times. (I suggest you don't try it on anyone else except you ;-))
9.Ten person's ideas are better than one person's knowledge.
10.Kaikaku knows no limits.

The Pure Desire

almost 2 years ago | Riju Kansal: Riju's Thoughts Captured...

I wish the writer in me is able to express my thoughts like the one below. Never mind, till there are people doing it for me. Thanks to T.O.I. writer who has written the beautiful article below, that truly intercepts my feeling...


...
There are four types of people. Most belong to the fourth category. Caught in the net of maya, delusion, they are oblivious of dangers. There are some who have awakened to a higher dimension and are aware of life’s pitfalls. They make sincere attempts to free themselves. They are the yogis. A few, the sanyasis, are able to free themselves. Rare is the person who, even while living in the world, remains out of it - ever free, the nitya mukta, the jnani.
...
A jnani is a dynamic actor but maintains his objectivity right through. He thinks “I do nothing at all” while actions are going on.
...
Renunciation is not life denying, it is life enabling.
...
A sportsperson, for instance, who turns his back on the trophy gets the trophy and enjoys the celebration.
...
Renunciation is not keeping away and living a life of seclusion. It is learning to live a life of inclusion by weeding out that which comes in the way of a fulfilled life. Ultimately, renunciation opens the doors to realisation.
...

Complete extract at below link:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/spirituality/speaking-tree/Clear-all-the-clutter-and-enjoy-space/articleshow/5583709.cms

The question I have after reading this and anyone may have, is how do I get there? I think only a pure desire is enough to take us there. Desire to reach the level of Jnani and feel the joy of this beautiful world created by HIM.

Bidding for Agile SCRUM projects

almost 2 years ago | Riju Kansal: Riju's Thoughts Captured...

I received a call from one of my friend asking if I had any idea about how to decide the cost of a project if it needs to be used for bidding for an Agile SCRUM kind of a project. I was puzzled at the thought at that very moment. I directed him to one of my friend who is an expert in SCRUM.

But, later I searched about this on internet and found few good posts pointing to some solutions and thoughts regarding the same, as following --

....the price for the project was fixed, but the features themselves were negotiable according to rules agreed to in the contract. The features were broken down, and time was tracked on each feature. Whenever the development team took longer than anticipated, the client removed scope. Conversely, when the development team finished a feature early, scope was added. In order to add incentive, effort added or removed was discounted by 50%. For example, if the development team finished 2 days early, only 1 day of extra scope was added. On the other hand, if the team finished 2 days late, the client only removed 1 day of scope. The contract actually specified the rules by which scope was added or removed.....

More detail at -- http://www.codesqueeze.com/how-to-sell-agile-to-fixed-bid-contract-clients/

Additionally, TDD, test coverage reports bundled with CI are key to achieve the required quality and agility during the project execution.

Science for Life

almost 2 years ago | Doel Sengupta: Doel

Great Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen, may have died due to brittle bones caused by malaria.Read an interesting news regarding the death mystery of the young pharaoh Tutenkhamen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8516425.stm

Learnings for Life

almost 2 years ago | Doel Sengupta: Doel

Some of the best learnings which I learned in this year.
The first two are learnt from the awesome one-act play by the great Indian artist Anupam Kher, named "Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hein" screened on 3rd January 2010, in NCPA, Nariman Point, Mumbai.
1) Don't go over your worry twice! once by thinking of it, and once by going through it!
This has been told to Anupam Kher by his grandfather.
2) If you take risk you may get failure, if you don't then you ensure it!

Though the word "best" attributes to a single thing but still it can be pointed out that learning whenever and wherever they are , they are always the "best".

3)The cumulative effect of all the organisms that we touch upon in our lives makes us what we are (as stated by Mr. Sudhakar, Tata Chemicals), in one of the seminars I attended lately.
4) Leaders have the capability to treat others with equality and humanity. Such an impeccable flavour of leadership without the heavy hearted words giving us the feeling of domination, perfectionism, authoritarian is rarely to be found in anybodies definition of leadership.

Start Query Studio in Preview Mode

almost 2 years ago | Abhishek Dharga: Learning and sharing

You can configure Query Studio to start in preview mode. Users can then create or modify reports without retrieving actual data from the database. Instead, simulated data is shown.

If you later upgrade IBM Cognos 8, you must reapply this configuration.
Steps

1. Using IBM Cognos Configuration, stop IBM Cognos 8.
2. Rename the c8_location\templates\ps\async\system.xml.sample file to
system.xml.
Tip: To restore the regular mode, rename the
c8_location\templates\ps\async\system.xml file to system.xml.sample.

3. Using IBM Cognos Configuration, start IBM Cognos 8.

Unsupported IBM Cognos 8 Formatting

almost 2 years ago | Abhishek Dharga: Learning and sharing

About 30% of the formatting functions available in IBM Cognos 8 are not supported in Microsoft Excel. In particular, Excel does not allow changing locale-dependent formatting attributes, such as the following:

Decimal Separator

Exponential Symbol

Group Separator

Monetary Decimal Separator

AM String

Day Name

Day Short Name

Decimal Delimiter Symbol

Month Name

Month Short Name

PM String

In addition, Excel does not support the following:

Format Width

International Currency Symbol

List Separator

Percent Symbol (Excel does not support percent symbols for charts)

Multiplier

Overline Text Format

PerMill Symbol

Plus Sign

Scale (Excel has a different scaling formula than IBM Cognos 8)

Calendar (Excel does not allow changing the calendar)

Era Name

First Day Of Week

Show Era

Google goes BUZZing !!

almost 2 years ago | Amit Kumar: RubyizednRailified

Google steps into the world of micro-blogging ....
Rest of the micro-blogging players hide out...

Wanna try -> here

See the video to help yourself...

Multipart form data post through ruby script

almost 2 years ago | Amit Kumar: RubyizednRailified

Well its been long I blogged but better late than never... :)))
Been busy with projects, visit to India etc etc ... I can come up with a long list of excuses but none of them will be procrastinating ... hehehe

I forced my self out of hibernation to blog about a recent (strange ??) problem I faced.
In one of my projects, I came across a fairly common requirement to upload a file (multipart form-data post) through a ruby script. Pretty simple huhhh!

Unfortunately I was stumped to find that net/http library does not support it (still dont believe it!!). The documentation is very poor and it took me sometime to figure out net/http treats them all as string. CRAP !!!.

Some nice libraries eg: rest_client, httpclient, curb etc.. do a decent job in terms of posting the file, but they all mess with either creating incorrect boundaries for multi-part form or mess with content_length header of form-post

My requirement was to make http post call (multipart form data post) to Domino server. The domino app was very particular about content_length header, which is where I faced the biggest hurdle in using them.

Left with no choice, rolled up my sweet multipart form post.

Sharing with you all ruby-multipart-post.

How to use ==> here

Any feedback, most welcome ...

Enjoy !!!

Expect the Unexpected - Project Natal

about 2 years ago | Rohan Daxini: void TechFuels()

Watch these videos to experience amazing stuff created by Microsoft. A whole new gaming experience. I am awaiting now to have it available soon :-)




smoke testing

about 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

Just got to know that the term Smoke Testing got its use in IT when a piece of hardware was continuously plugged into electricity and it passed if the circuit did not burn and no smoke was produced!! Interesting, isn't it?
Few more notes from the Agile Testing book:
1) Developing a project dialect or team jargon is one of the key things tester should do. What it means is developing a common ground for communication or rather developing and facilitating a common language in which customer and team can communicate with and understand each other.

2) Agile teams are very high on expectations form return on their investments. It makes sense. Agile works in short iterations, a thing like a tool or a concept or technology, if after implementation does not return results quickly, it is left and team moves on. This is can not be considered negative when you are delivering a production ready software within two weeks.

3) Many of the agile development practices are synergistic, means they wont work as well in isolation. If they are implemented in isolation, they might not provide the benefit teams are looking for.diverse viewpoints help but its necessary for everyone to head in the same direction.

4) Another good sentence, "You need courage to allow others to make mistakes because that is the only way to learn the lesson."

BTW, ever since I reported on my blog about this book, I haven't read a single chapter!! So it might be some time before this free flow supply of cool agile advice resumes back ;)

My first post in 2010

about 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

Fine, i know i am a little late. It took me some time to get my new laptop and a new internet connection and so instead of 1Jan2010, my first blogpost for this year is on 1Feb2010. Does it matter? I dont think so..I am probably going to blabber the same things anyway ;-)
Mike Cohn, yes The Mike Cohn, personally recommended this book to me "Agile Testing" by Lisa Crispon and Janet Gregory. I have been reading it from past few days and here is a list of couple of notes I had made for myself from the book:

1) Agile testing means using each team member's skill to improve quality. When Agile says quality is a whole team's responsibility, it doesn't mean that testers are not necessary, but the approach here is to make testing everyone's responsibility. It should never be considered as a means to lessen the team size by avoiding to have a specialist tester.

2) Agile is not all about speed, but its all about quality. A team that delivers on time but not delivers on quality, is not an agile team at all..

3) Being an agile tester is not at all easy. It requires one to know something of everything an agile team might use. So an agile tester should know how to translate business needs into application requirements, should participate with developers to achieve maximum amount of unit test coverage, should be able to automate the regression tests, and should be a good if not excellent at exploratory testing. The most important trait is the willingness to learn.

4) Testers tend to be customer focused. This is a very minute thing to be balanced within an agile team as though testers work with other members, they always or most of the time represent customer's point of view. This is a delicate position to be in and if not handled properly, can be a little annoying for the team and may effect the coherence of the team.

5) A very nice sentence that I came to read in the book goes, "Successful projects are a result of good people allowed to do good work"
will keep sharing more as I read on ;)