job interview - how to get that job.

Currently we are looking for a web designer. Here are some tips for the interviewee.

1. Be creative -


2. Be on time - You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

3. Be honest - There is really no point lying about your background and/or skills. And no point keep in secret your love & relationship with one of the current employees.

4. Be prepared - Look at the employers' website and learn something about the company before you attend your interview.

5. Be enthusiastic and positive - Don't criticize previous employers.

Five Ways that Team Members Build Trust with Each Other

In the previous post we found out about "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team"
And this post will tell us how to deal with the basic dysfunction: Absence of Trust. Esther Derby (Management coach, consultant and author), in her article, shows us the ways to Build Trust in a team.


1. Address issues directly - give feedback to the guilty person, not to his friend.

2. Share Relevant Information - if you don't support an idea or approach, say so.

3. Follow Through on Commitments or Give Early Notice When You Can't - if something went wrong, and you can't deliver on time, update the person immediately, otherwise it will break trust.

4. Say No When You Mean No - say No When You Mean No :)

5. Show What You Know and What You Don't Know - admit when you don't know the answers; there's nothing worse than a know-it-all who is wrong. Ask for help. That helps other see you as a real person, and people generally like to be helpful.

SUMMARY:
What we need in the workplace is professional trust. Professional trust says, I trust that you are competent to do the work, that you'll share relevant information, and that you have good intentions towards the team. Taken broadly, that's trust about communication, commitment, and competence.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Last weekend I've been on a seminar "Situational Leadership and Team Motivation", by Tim Yevgrashyn. It was mainly about "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team".

You may read review about these Dysfunctions below, or in a book by Patrick Lencioni.


1. The Absence of Trust - Teams with an absence of trust don’t know each other well and they’re unwilling to ask for help or say I don’t know.

2. Fear of Conflict – Effective teams disagree with each other. You have to be comfortable enough with each other to say, “I disagree, here’s why.” If you can’t disagree, debate, and pound out solutions, you’re unable to come to the type of decision that reflects the core values that influence the direction of your company (or group).

3. Lack of Commitment – Committing to goals takes the ambiguity out of a scenario. It creates a culture where it isn’t okay to fail. It’s not okay to let down the team. If all the people on the team are committed to common goals, they’re more likely to succeed.

4. Avoidance of Accountability – team members don't call their peers on actions/behaviours which hurt the team.

5. Inattention to results – team members put their individual needs before those of the team.

SUMMARY:
I found this seminar really interesting, and now I know how to handle different situation in my team.

A mind map

for solving problems,
for finding ideas,
for making decisions:

free, open source tool: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

the World Café

brain storm over the cup of tea: http://www.theworldcafe.com/

The Pomodoro Technique (The Pomodoro)

I am going to try this technique.
25 minutes for work, and 5 mins to have a rest.
http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/resources/cirillo/ThePomodoroTechnique_v1-3.pdf

Scrum Tools | XPlanner-Plus | Review + Development Plan

XPlanner-Plus implements core functionality for agile project management.

XPlanner-Plus views a project according to iterations, user stories, and tasks. As prescribed by the Agile paradigm, any XPlanner-Plus-managed project is planned and tracked according to a successive series of iterations. Each iteration consists of a start date, an end date, and a collection of user stories with tasks inside.

Development plan:
Features development.

- Develop Customizable Dashboard;
- Installation for Windows;
- Create additional fields: "Story Points", "Business Value", "Versions/Release planning";
- customizable list of values (statuses for stories, tasks);
- drag and drop stories;
- Product Backlog;
- Advanced search with Filters;
- set of properties, which allow to configure the behavior of XPlanner+;
- button "Redraw charts" for admin, as now charts are updating only once a day. (developed)

Technical development.

- remove Struts Spring plugin (done)
- improve build script to support several configurations
- upgrade dependencies (in progress)
- upgrade to use Hibernate annotations and migration to Hibernate 3.



To be continued...

JUST DO IT

Being motivated is a wonderful state of your being. In that state your body leverages huge amounts of energy. Your emotional field is totally balanced, physically you’re able to climb the Everest and mentally you understand the whole Universe in a split of a second. I know you know the feeling. The good news is that you can re-create this state pretty much whenever you want. Here are 33 tips to help you get and stay motivated.

feedback that made my whole day

this feedback I read in a usuall feature request from Tortureduck:

I am working on a daily base with Xplanner+ and have to say it is at this point more stable than Xplanner ever was, and it is much more stylish, a real eyecatcher.

Thank you Manfred (Tortureduck)!!!
PS: here it it: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2883120&group_id=272681&atid=1159185

regenerate burn down charts in XPlanner Plus

XPlanner had burn down charts generated once a day. Now, they can be generated as often as you like. Link "Regenerate burn down charts" is added. You may check how it works on Xplanner+ DEMO.

Remember: you are evaluated.....

Most people can spot a disorganized person very quickly indeed. Just a couple of e-mails unanswered, calls not returned, deadlines missed, details unchecked, appointments delayed, and the person is marked down as unreliable.

Would you want to work with someone who is constantly letting you down? Would you want to do business with them? It’s a lightning judgment, and it can be very hard to reverse.

Remember: YOU are being judged just as quickly. Every time you leave an e-mail unanswered, don’t return a call, miss a deadline, don’t check details, or are late for an appointment, you are being marked down as unreliable. You are losing business, losing trust, even losing friends.

XPlanner Plus Documentation for beginners

it's the first documentation for beginners for XPlanner Plus:
http://xplanner-plus.sourceforge.net/documentation/

But the interface is so intuitive, so I don't think you will need it.

It will be constantly updated, so you may check it for new features from time to time.

here is an installation how to guide.
Thank you Manfred for writing it!

and here is XPlanner plus development blog.
Thank you Max for tech info about XPlanner+

What is the best, open source Scrum tool available today?

If you are looking for a good Open Source Scrum tool, have a look at XPlanner Plus. May be it's currently not the best one, because it lacks some modern features:

• releases or roadmap.
• task board/dashboard view.
• story points.
• ajax based usability features.

still it's good enough. XPlanner+ is web based and has fancy design. XPlanner’s UI is straightforward and intuitive. Xplanner has built-in reports and charts.

As now, XPlanner+ is in the process of intensive development, I know XPlanner's weaknesses will be fixed.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Steve Jobs : “…
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle…”

articles about XPlanner. (XPlanner+)

I will provide here, some articles, characterizing XPlanner as a cool tool for Scrum.

http://borisgloger.com/2008/08/06/scrum-tools-xplanner-review/

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-08-2005/jw-0815-xplanner.html?page=1

http://www.scribd.com/doc/16042039/Xplanner-a-Tool-for-Agile

As you know, XPlanner-Plus is based on XPlanner. That's why these articles are also about us!

xplanner+. the story begins...

the beginning...

being a team leader, I was given a task, to find an appropriate project management tool for our team. (team of web designers and web developers, with an ad-hoc development and very tight deadlines.)

I investigated a lot of project planning and tracking tools, and came across XPlanner. It's open sourse and completely free. I fell in love with XPlanner. It was so easy to use and easy to understand, but still there was one big problem: design of interface was not attractive and not user friendly.

I found like-minded person, and since that time, the development of XPlanner-plus was started.

If you are interested, just take a look on DEMO.

If you have no idea about how to use XPlanner+, you may read an available documentation for bedinners: http://xplanner-plus.sourceforge.net/documentation/

Now I can't live a day without XPlanner+ development. It's my new hobby, where I am a jack-of-all-trades, of course after my senior Java developer. I am so proud, we finished redesign and fixed some bugs.

And today I came across this article about XPlanner plus:
http://www.fairtec.at/de/it-blog-mainmenu-16/143-xplanner-plus, it flattered me. It's so nice to understand, your work is valued.