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Busy, busy, soooo busy

A lot has been going on lately!  Most of my time is spent working.  That is both good and bad.  Its good because I have been enjoying my work.  Its bad because no one should work that much.  I've helped drive some really needed change in my IT organization to a more agile development approach and made some significant stride forward.  I am currently working on a brand new project as the product producer.  The title is certainly not official but I have been given budget, hiring capability, leadership and technical decision making authority and a very, very short deadline.  I had three projects in the works that I was providing architectural support for as well as the general messes that required my attention.  At one point a couple weeks ago I was informally offered the dev manager position but last week I was formally declined.  Long story.  Its all for the better.  I need to focus on my current project. 

The good things I've accomplished

New Brains

First, I brought some really incredible talent in through the door.  Paul Lockwood and Marcie Robillard have joined our team.  Paul has already been thrown in the fray.  I hope we fdon't scare him off too quickly!  There is so much going on right now its difficult to see what is actually going on!  Marcie starts shortly.

New Tools

I've successfully integrated NAnt and MSBuild with cruiseControl.net to build our dot net 1.1 and 2.0 projects across the entire enterprise.  There are some non-current projects not on the server but I've mastered the process such that it isn't much effort to bring a new (or old) project online.  I've got 27 individual projects under continuous integration executing a nice introductory sample of NUnit tests.

It took some time to get people to value the cctray and the little green icon.  Eventually, the tables turned and people began to really engage the tool and verify their checkins.  No more, "hey buddy, you broke my project!" 

I then brought the small spattering of NUnit tests into the fold and they broke the build.  Hmm, you'd think that would be bad, right?  No Way!  When I showed the new development manager, he was elated!  So was I and a few other key developers.  We all immediately saw how that smallish effort will pay off really big. 

New Way

A few months ago, I was effecting a bit of a coup.  I was, quite frankly, fed up with the heavy, restrictive, disabling process that surrounded our development endeavors. 

I revolted and began working in a psuedo-agile way.  I failed to meet some of the core facets of Agile development and had a struggle during that first project when I abandoned the accepted waterfall process.  The first project was a significant success.  We made our deadline, the project sponsor was happy and we had fewer defects then usual.  I came in after the project was underway with a horrible function req doc (that wasn't ), a rediculous tradeshow deadline and I had to improvise.  The unexpected result was a company-wide realization that process-for-process-sake is generally bad.

The other project on my trial run is still under way.  It is in danger of cancellation since the newly appointed lead has just been re-appointed and he may not be physically capable of delivering both products in the two month window alotted.  However, a great deal was learned about how to develop software without documenting your anscetral lineage prior to the colonization of America. 

The point is, after the first project, everyone cheered, "yeah!  we're agile."  Yet we weren't.  Still, the whole organization looked around confused that something that looked to them like a crap shoot was actually very controlled and delivered something better then origianlly conceived of.  My coup ended and the IT management led the charge to convert our team from waterfall to agile.  They aren't really sure what that means but every one of us is reading verosiously.  We brought in the Menlo Institute to school us.  I breathed a breath of fresh air and moved on to my next mountain.

New Project

My successes leading recent projects have landed me a very exciting opportunity to truly lead the development of a new product from conception to delivery.  I am very overwhelmed with work but I feel electrified to be so empowered.  I've had my kickoff meeting with business executives and it went splendidly (to quote Thomas).  I am now scoping the feature set and ready to start rockin in the free world!  The initial realease will be tiny.  The impact, in my little world and its market, will be like the introduction of the railroad into industry.  That's my plan, anyhow.

that's enough mindless blogging for now.  I live in an eternal state of intensely opposite forces.  All the things mentioned above are the good things going on.  The disappointing things don't deserve face time.  I've learned to focus on what I want and lead with purpose rather then to focus on what I don't want and run from...  well, you get the point. 

Perhaps when this is through, I'll look back and laugh at how naive I was.  Or, perhaps I'll say, "that was when everything started to happen for me," professionally anyhow