Can't Grok, Won't Grok

Recently, Paul Stack asked me a leading question in preparation for his post: " Is it really agile? ". The question was: "do you think organisations are turning their back on agile?" My answer to this question was "no", and here are my thoughts. Who are we talking about here? Firstly, we need to establish that there are two kinds of organisation. Those that are actually living, breathing, functioning agile teams that have no problems adopting all the processes, ship regularly and deliver things of high value to their customers. These guys are not who we are going to be looking at here. We are interested in the remainder, the guys that may or may not be "trying" agile, but for one or more reasons, cannot be considered "agile" (more on this to follow in a later post). This is to keep it simple so we can just focus on the current "problem". The three wannabe agile-eers Let's look a bit more closely at these agile wannabes. I...

I am on a journey, and I am walking pretty fast - it feels great, it's invigorating . As I progress, I find myself entering a new environment, one that I have yearned for but is still somewhat alien to me. I am entering a strange new land and I need to acclimatise. My Journey Thus Far I am working my way toward my dream. I have freed myself of the corporate shackles and now working on my own project in the background while contracting. Once I have enough cash in the bank, I intend to quit work altogether and go full time on said project to bring it to fruition (or fail and move on). But as I progress towards this strange new world, I feel one key emotion - sheer excitement. Yes, there is a little fear in there too, but this is the indicator of doing something worth doing. Risk often means greater reward. Rewards are exciting. Yay. My Best Allergic Reaction Yet But, I have found myself suffering with something... I have discovered that the only thing really holding me back from do...

As I am sure you are aware, there have been several bouts of "rioting" here in London recently. I say this in the loosest sense, because it's not really been in protest of anything, it's actually just been mindless violence and looting. And this is what worried me the most. Peoples homes were getting set on fire, for nothing. Like a lot of other Londoners, I live above shops in a big old building. Fire safety? Didn't exist when these were built! So in short, the plan was to get out. FAST. So, when word on the street was that the mobs were coming to my area, I got a little concerned. I thought it would be sensible to just have a quick scoot around the flat to go over an exit strategy in case I/we needed to get out of dodge in a hurry. Luck favours the prepared . So I decided to sleep clothed, and pack a bag with everything I would need to get by: 2x underpants. 2x socks. Pair of jeans. 2x TShirts Passport Cash/Cards I also packed my Macbook Pro ...

Hey Guys! Long time no speak right! I said in my previous post that I had been busy, so I thought I would share with you what I have been up to, and what's on the plan for the rest of 2011. Here's where I stand on my 2011 goals : Financial Goals Supplement Income by 25% - The plan here was to get more creative about how I earn my cash. Rather than floating from paycheck to paycheck, I wanted to get more money from more sources. I am pleased to say I have formed my own company, have my first contracting gig signed and am starting to flesh out my first product idea, which I want a working prototype well before the year is out. By the end of the year, my turnover would be yielding an increase of about 23-25% extra on last years income . WIN . Reduce Fixed Outgoings by 25% - As well as trying to make more, I want to spend less - I want to funnel cash into doing stuff rather than spending it on mindless crap. I am super-pleased to say that I have reduced by fixed outgoings ...

Hey Guys! Remember me? Yes, it has been a while, and yes - I have been busy! I'll get another post up soon explaining what has been chewing up my time, but for now I wanted to get some buzz around two great-looking events coming up soon. What's best is that these hacks are just about hacking, they are about hacking with the intent of helping the third sector. Why Bother with a Hack Camp? As you may remember, last year I attended CharityHack, which was great fun and amazing to see what people are capable of producing in such a short space of time (lots of caffeine and pizza help). For me, I think I would say that I go to these events to: Learn from many smart people with a variety of skill sets. Network with lots of like-minded people. Build software for problems I may have never encountered before (very easy to get stuck in a business and only deal with their problems). I like to shake it up a bit. Just hack - get away from it all and focus on building something awesom...

At this point, we are totally rocking and rolling with our makeover. We have got the fundamental tools in place (like the budget and emergency fund I ), we are continually reviewing and cutting unnecessary expenses and we have cleared our debt . So what’s the next step? Well, we need to get a safety net, a big safety net to offer us increased security and peace of mind. The Emergency Fund II. What is the “Emergency Fund II”? Like the emergency fund I, this is money in the bank “just in case”, but rather than act a a buffer against unexpected “casual” expenses, this exists to help shield us against something potentially far worse, unexpected job loss . Unfortunately (especially in recent times) this can happen, and when it does, it can hit hard and have a disastrous “rippling effect”. In a nutshell, the fund: .. is 1 years salary ( gross ). .. is allocated meaning we do not touch it unless we absolutely have to . So, take your salary (not your take-home). That’s what we are a...

At this point, we should have created our budget , allocating savings and have our emergency fund 1 to prevent surprises and naturally cutting expenses where we can . So, what’s the next step? Well, we really need to own our responsibilities and clear our debt . What is the "Debt Snowball”? Put simply, it is a list of all of the debt that we have. Loans, credit cards, money owed to friends/family, overdrafts whatever. The only debt it doesn’t include is the mortgage. The aim of the snowball (at a high level) is to simply provide some visibility and focus on the money that we owe to other people . As you can see, a central theme to our makeover is removing surprises and setting expectations of our money . As people in command of our cash, we should always clear debt before having our own fun with our cash (and we never borrow again once we have cleared it). Why have a “Debt Snowball”? For me, I love the idea of the snowball for the following reasons: It’s sim...