April 2008 - Posts

• Twitter is Just a Fad... Seriously!

  Yes - I tried telling my friends at the MVP Summit that Twitter is "just a fad" (disclaimer: I was only half-serious - my real complaint is how much of a time waster it is) - the ensuing laughter and ribbing from everyone was pretty good. So I gave up and finally created a Twitter account: www.twitter.com/sswienton  Here's hoping I stick to my guns and never get a Mac Book Pro :) Posted Apr 16 2008, 03:47 PM by sswienton with no comments Filed under: General, twitter

• Certified ScrumMaster

  As many of my close friends and family already know, I have been wanting to transition out of the full-time software developer position.  Although I still love working with all of the new Microsoft Developer Technologies, the reality is that it is really hard to keep up with everything - especially when having to juggle new learning with a healthy family life.  Thankfully, my employer approached me in helping them transition to the Agile process framework called Scrum.  Although it has been a challenge to fully implement - it has been a refreshing change and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Along the way I have become an official Certified ScrumMaster (http://www.scrumalliance.org/profiles/25767-stephen-swienton) and have been "pushing" the Scrum concept to friends and colleagues.  The guys (Jason and Scott) at the North Dallas .NET User Group even invited me to present on Scrum for their April meeting.  I presented an "Intro to Scrum" and managed to talk for a good 2 hours plus.  Attendance was good @ ~90 people (especially for a big "draw" like myself - heh) and lots of good questions and interactions with the audience.  There were only about 5 people in the audience that were actively using Scrum - so the level of my presentation (101) was appropriate for the crowd. You can find my slide deck here: http://swienton.com/files/folders/presentations/entry229.aspx. I've posted some of the links to resources of interest from the presentation for quick reference: Websites: www.agilemanifesto.org www.scrumalliance.org www.implementingscrum.com (I love the cartoons here!!!!) www.agilealliance.com www.apln.org www.planningpoker.com Tools: ScrumWorks - www.scrumworks.com TargetProcess - www.targetprocess.com Books: Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional) Agile Software Development with SCRUM Agile Estimating and Planning The Enterprise and Scrum Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development Posted Apr 15 2008, 04:47 PM by sswienton with 1 comment(s) Filed under: .NET, Technical Community, Agile, ScrumMaster, Scrum