Blog

May 25, 2021

Greg Thomas

What’s your Capacity?

In agile, there is a concept called “Capacity”, drilled down further to be in a per sprint cycle – “Sprint Capacity”. A sprint is a block of time in which you set out to accomplish a particular task, generally 2 – 3 weeks, capacity is the allocation you have to complete a certain amount of work in that time period. A typical developer, dedicated to one sprint (let’s say it is 2 weeks) might be 5 – 6 hours a day (giving leeway for some non-sprint meetings, bathroom breaks, and other things). From here you are looking at approximately 50

May 24, 2021

Greg Thomas

The Workplace WILL be Different

Many articles are starting to pop up now regarding how the workplace of 2022 and beyond will look different. More people will work remote with no more afterthoughts tied to that option. “Do you really think you can lead the team remotely?” “How much work will you get done?” “How will we check in with you?” “What if need to have a meeting and we’re not all in the same room?” These questions (and many more have melted away). What traditionally would have taken many years to try and to do via proof of concepts, small office trials, localized implementations,

May 23, 2021

Greg Thomas

Can you Stick the Landing?

Sticking the Landing is what gymnasts do when they perform a complicated trick and land perfectly (preferably without breaking an ankle). Everything up to that point is evaluated but what matters is ” Can they Stick the Landing?” Can they finish it with a flawless ending. And you know when the gymnast has stuck it because their smile lights up the stadium – it’s that good. If you want the higher score, if you want the success, you have to be able to stick the landing, that’s what sticks (sorry) in people’s minds. The question, as a developer, is do

May 22, 2021

Greg Thomas

That Pile of Work

Having a pile of work, coupled with a fully booked calendar is enough to make you start hyperventilating. After all, you have deliverables that need to be done, and discussions that need to be had. The two are not mutually exclusive, both need to get done. The tendency is push one of the two off. “I need to work, these meetings can wait a week” And then those meetings turn into more work, fires, and emergencies because we pushed them off. We can delegate the work to others which would help get it done. Maybe we’ll have to review their

May 21, 2021

Greg Thomas

There is Always Time for A Comeback

Queue up your favourite movie of the down and out hero/heroine who is trying to get it together and we’ll all cheer for their comeback story. We all love a comeback story because the perception is that the loser now wins (even though they were never a loser to begin with, but I digress). The only message to take from these movies, is that there is always time for a comeback. Yes, yours will not happen in the span of ninety minutes, and many not even two weeks. It might take months, possibly years. But you can have a comeback,