Doug Shimp - Agile Scrum Coach » community

Austin Agile Keynote

doug-shimp — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:56:48 +0000

VersionOne was kind enough to invite me as a presenter to a small conference event in Austin on December 7th 2009. The Austine keynote went well and I was lucky enough to be ranked as the best presenter at the event. There were 90+ people in attendance and 78 people filled in an evaluation.

Catch me in Austin, TX delivering a Keynote for the Agile Journal December 7th, http://www.accurev.com/seminar/austin20091208-4

Scrum User Groups And Other Scary Stuff

doug-shimp — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:07:13 +0000

Two posts caught my eye today. In sumamry these posts were about scrum user groups and how / if they benefit from Scrum Alliance marks to help the build credibility. My response is YES and here is why.

1.) http://friendfeed.com/dailyscrum/a57c3474/scrum-users-group-controversy-agile

2.) http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/04/scrum-alliance-user-group

Context

“As discussed here previously, the Scrum Alliance plays an important role in helping to preserve the Scrum framework through its certification process. Because it has standardized the experience required for various “certified” positions in Scrum, the terminology used to describe Scrum, and, of course, the framework itself, the Alliance has armed thousands of software professionals with the practical knowledge they need to advance in a career in Scrum. I’ve always considered their work to be obviously valuable for individuals seeking training, but also an important reason why Scrum has flourished in recent years.”

Why

Scrum user groups, Agile user groups, XP users groups many of these I have seen come and go. I have tried and been unsuccessful at sustaining these groups and have seen similar patterns from others. However, I have followed others who were experienced and they have taught me.

It is my experience that these groups are driven by people who are not use to some necessary deliberate (self included) structure. Deliberate structure includes officers, organizing boards, keeping it interesting, volunteering, stimulating vibrancy and “marks (like SCRUMUSERGROUP)” from International organizations that help with credibility. These structures help groups sustain their existence. SPIN Groups have years of history, PMI groups have years of history, APLN has better success (different make up of people on average)Agile groups often seem to pop and die like grapes on the vine.

The Scrum Alliance is offering help by holding these marks and building brand value. Structure / value so that the group adopts some deliberate structure to stay organized enough to sustain it’s existence. We (agile community) need to learn from other groups that have a history and stop being so scared when something looks restrictive.

Doug Shimp
http://www.3back.com

Playing With Wordle A Fun Tool

doug-shimp — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:43:11 +0000

So, I found a new tool to play with and it is pretty slick. The tool is free and allows you to make some interesting word art for little to no effort. Here is what you do.

Visit Wordle
Navigate to the create tab
Enter an Url ( For example, I used an atom feed from an upcoming Scrum Training Class)
- http://milwaukee-scrum-agile.eventbrite.com/
Submit and then modify to taste.

Here is the sample I produced in about 5 minutes.

You can adjust colors, fonts, remove words, increase words etc. The picture is a pleasing refresher when graphics are burning out your tastes. And it looks a lot better than classic tag clouds.

Please drop me a comment if you use it, like it and why.

On Demand Scrum Agile Coach

doug-shimp — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:38:04 +0000

Catch Me as a Certified On Demand Coach.

Remote coaching or distributed coaching can be done through numerous mechanisms. You can connect with me via phone, Various Online Meetings, Skype, ooVoo, or high definition video. You can connect with me directly on my Contact. Follow my micro blog on Daily Scrum on Twitter or ping me via Skype.

Make Organizations Smarter Than Individual People – Social Adaptation

doug-shimp — Sun, 03 May 2009 04:50:40 +0000

We are becoming increasingly adept at connecting our organizations together in ways that make them much smarter than they were 5, 10 or more years ago. The use technology for social networking continues to transform the work world of today into a new place. Connectivity tools, like IM, Blogs, eMail, Twitter, SMS Text Messaging, Cell Phones and the like are rapidly shrinking both distance and time. Connectivity tools allow us to stay connected and build complex thought far more rapidly than ever before. Although we are distributed through time, geography, culture, and language we are more connected now than ever. This new era of prolific connectivity is being commonly called social media and social networking. For the Internet geeks these tools have been around for over a decade. The difference now is that these tools are easy, cheap and readily available.

So, Are Organizations Really Benefiting Social Networking

Often the answer is “NO“.

Web Of Technical and Social Patterns

Why?

We commonly find organizations adopting technologies and building processes with needless structures at a rate that is chewing away at the benefit social networking technology brings. For example, we continue to see rampant signs of multitasking, despite a large amount of evidence that shows people do not multi task well, especially on demanding deep thought. Of course we can always walk and chew gum but, how many people can read a novel, play a game a of chess and carry a conversation all the same time? multitasking is an opiate of the lazy minded who want a quick fix for productivity. Too often, we become forced into bad behaviors and frenetically driven pattens that force us to make the wrong decisions. These bad decisions chew away any gains we make.

We are dealing with the need to nurture and grow complex systems. This transcends traditional ways of thinking and requires a respectful shift and appreciation for how to work with complexity. Devloping a complex system requires a the development of an smart adaptive approach to planning and dealing with new information.

Smarter Social Organizations Are Possible Now

Enabling these smarter organizations is a matter of freeing up the intellectual capacity you already have. The tools and technology available now can bring about a vastly smarter organizations to emerge than we have previously seen. With a smarter organization, patterns of practices will emerge that defy one mind’s limited capacity to understand and digest. However, a team who’s focus is to help the organization become better can see these things and tune the environment. Collaboration tools and outcomes need to be applied and adapted by the people using them. A collaborative tools and outcomes enabler team needs to support and nurture a base level of knowledge for that to occur.

Work From A Know Center

A team who’s job it is to nurture smarter social organizations needs to focus on a simple rules based applied practice. Simple rules are clearly being shown to be the key lever to emerging complex adaptive patterns of behavior. The team will need to continuously adjust and tune the organizations social structure and it’s interaction.

Transforming organization to work smarter needs to be adopted and done in an empirical way. A team that is dedicated to stimulating the environment so that adaptive patterns of practice emerge is necessary. The team that stimulates the environment should be comprised of people who have skin in the game and should be driven by an evidence based decision making process. These experts should have a passion for becoming adept to leveraging social media as a source of vibrant rapid feedback. Expertise should be developed locally and nurtured through applied collaborative practice.

Great leadership of tomorrow will be recognized by it’s ability to bring people together through the use of technology and do not suppress their identity.

Great leaders must allow for individual recognition inside/outside the corporate walls and reward success through collaborative effort. For individuals this means pursuing professional development through collaborative exchange. This is the promise of social media and the benefit it can bring to organizations both large and small.

6 Easy Steps to Embrace Social Media and Networking

doug-shimp — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:21:09 +0000

This guides suggests 6 easy steps to help you get started with building your online social reputation and image. This guide will help you avoid common mistake in how people manage their online reputation.

Why

Our society is shifting rapidly to an internet / online network because managing your online reputation is becoming imperative for companies and professionals. Those with an online presence, who utilize social media and networking are discovering ways to flourish that have not been seen / thought of before. Companies are online more than ever before looking through social networking sites to identify candidates for prospective employment. How you cast your image matters!

Purpose

Using these 6 easy steps will help you build a foundational understanding of social media and social networking . An understanding will lead you to mastery over how to manage your online reputation so that you build your professional career. While these tools are easy casting a sophisticated professional image that demonstrate domain specific savvy and understanding takes time and patience.

Terms

Social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content.
Social Networking service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.
Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the practice of consistent research and analysis of one’s personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online media. It is also sometimes referred to as Online Reputation Monitoring, maintaining the same acronym.

The steps for this guide are broken down into 3 groups to help you get started

Tools (Why, I don’t Want to, Where it leads)
Use (Your 1st start, How to make a habit, Training for Professionals)
Growth (Explosion of ideas, like minded folks, )

Steps

1. Setup Your WordPress Presence

Today’s blogging tools are easy and approachable. WordPress has become one of the mainstays for easy website publication. A good tool, like WordPress, will take less time to master than common desktop tools like Word or Office. Your identity and reputation are out there on the web right now. How are you managing it? You can take one of our courses to help move down this path.

Managing Your Online Reputation and Identity, this course comes loaded with everything you need to get started. It covers training, adaptive planning, site hosting and experience pathway validation.

Read naming conventions on Starting a Blog

2. Setup Your Twitter

Have a quick thought? post it. The main problem people are having with twitter is what to use it for.

Join Twitter.com and connect.

Twiiter is a fast way to get a feel for social networks and see how people are changing the way they think. It is a first easy dive into the deep pool of social networking without having to jump into the deep end of the pool.

3. Tweet One Short Thought Every 1-2 Days and Follow Someone Once or More a Week

Common emotional/rational barriers to Twittering

“I feel I need to be selective in what I get sucked into. … If I don’t think my involvement will move the needle, I probably won’t try…”

“I’m scared of the invasion of technology into my personal life. This will somehow take away my freedom or suppress who I am…”

Use Twitter for thoughts and ideas that are relevant to your Professional pursuits.

Avoid posts about the sandwich you are eating for lunch. Although , these are popular with younger crowds who are accustomed to texting about everything that pops in their heads. However, these are conversations that most adults have grown tired of and busy professionals simple don’t have time for them.
Twitter about questions you have or thoughts you have related to your professional experiences. You will find many useful responses and receive a personal benefit of accelerating your thought process.
Recruiters, Relations and Companies are turning towards social media to find highly qualified applicants for positions. How you appear in these communities matters. If you appear matters. Appear smart. Appear focused. Appear with the professional image you are trying to cultivate.

Getting use from twitter is all making sense on how to leverage the tool for a smarter purpose. A great little article on useful twittering can help you think about how to post. Try a post. It is not permanent and can always be deleted from you Twitter home page.

4. Post One Blog Every 1-2 weeks or even 1-2 months (Slow Long Rhythms are Ok)

Start writing. This one is simple and there are countless ways to do it.

We are all being forced to write emails. A post or a blog does not have to be long and it does not have to be exhaustive.

Two types of posts

i) Post a short “musing” email that had something you were passionate about. Avoid specifics, don’t call out a company or person by name. Instead speak in a generic way and speak to the ethics or content of the thought. Do not bash a company or individual. Unless that is how you build your reputation (infamy is a living for some). Musing is a way to say something I am thinking about but, don’t necessarily feel committed to writing.

ii) Experience Reports are for individuals and Case Studies are for Companies. That’s how I separate the two. Write-up your experiences. Keep it generic if you have to. Then you can begin to build your timeless track record of work that can always be validated.

5. Find Friends To Follow On Twitter

Read some other tweets. Find someone of like mind or something that interests you to follow. See how they are thinking and using twitter. This will stretch your head and give you ideas on how to use Twitter to build your social reputation and influence thought.

Try following a fellow Twitter’er

6. Find Others To Collaborate With

The least obvious and most powerful is the final step. This will accelerate your career, thinking and ability to reach boldly into the world.

Summary

Social media has brought forth a revolution in the rate at which an thought evolves and ideas spread. We are seeing an explosion in its use and a growth wave that is still growing exponentially with no signs of a plateau. What is unfolding is a ubiquitous de-localization of expertise and the ability to acquire that expertise on demand. What each of us does is special, but in no way a monopoly and the number of people that can move rapidly into any given thought pattern is exploding. Social Media and Networking (Twitter, Mashable, SMS Text, Web Video, HD Video Conferencing, Skype, Google Search, eMail, Lists etc.) is ushering in a whole new way to consider, evolve and sustain socially responsible systems that lead to more altruistic patterns of behavior. These altruistic patterns connect people together more deeply and richly thereby benefiting the connector with accelerated learning and vast influence.

To take full advantage of the social wave and not be relegated, each person must t learn to cast their identity and influence their reputation.

ProfessionalRecognition.com

Facebook Is Now On My List of Social Networks

doug-shimp — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:16:14 +0000

Well now I have added Facebook. What does this mean? How will it be beneficial?

It will take a lot of time to explore and deepen my use of this tool. Facebook is the most populare of the publish, share and network social media sites on the planet.