Chaos Tamer
I’ve long admired the wit and wisdom of Dr. Feynman. This quote took me a bit, though, to fully embrace. For so much of my life, being “wrong” was embarrassing, something to be avoided at all costs. Generally by avoiding speaking out, by avoiding risk. I’m pleased to have passed through that, worked to embrace humility, and to risk being wrong in order to learn. That is what’s most critical.!
I came across this video today, which I think is a great, high-level, introduction to Web 3.0, and how it relates to Web 2.0.
As I just finished a degree in Web Development which focused on the Web 2.0 stack, I see the importance to expand into Web 3. It is the future, after all. Still going to be a bit for the key details to shake out, but I want to be ahead of the curve. And have every intention on making that happen.
In the great debate about which is more important, form or function, I prioritize function. Ultimately, I don’t think “important” is the right word. Form, style, design must support and enhance functionality. Then the overall experience is better.
The user experience is what’s most important. “Form” takes functionality higher, makes it better. When done right, it turns users into fans. Neither is more important. Form and function are both critical to creating quality. And that should be the goal.
Ah, web dev! The path of the future! Well, that’s been my thought for the past few years. I believe that web interfaces are a key part of most every software system we’ll be dealing with over the next few years (not sure what I mean by few…but, you know).
With that focus on the future, I want to consider what the future of the web looks like. I’ve explored web 3.0 a little bit, but there’s quite a bit more to wrap my head around. The key parts seem straightforward: immersive experiences and dispersed architecture. How much of that is the “metaverse”? What’s the role that blockchain will play? That is quite hard to glean right now.
As with any frontier, there’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of risk. And, let’s be fair, a lot of fraud/snake-oil/charlatans. But there’s also great opportunity. Discerning between the two is the challenge. And those that get that figured out the earliest will reap the greatest rewards.
In my current role, I’m preparing to cover for our communications coordinator while he’s out on paternity leave. This will last through November, and my contract is up at the endo of December.
I covered for him 2 years ago on his last leave, so I know quite a bit about the work (check out samples of that work here). Last round, though, we were at the beginning of the pandemic, so my main focus was on creating and editing video for our services. This round, our video production needs are minimal (we’re fully back in person and streaming. Not much video editing at all). Though we’re launching a stewardship campaign, which will have a video component, we’re outsourcing that. Most of this round’s work will be newsletter maintenance and bulletin creation. I’ll also be doing social media work, some graphic design, and some writing. It’ll be fun.
This gives me pause. I’m good at communications work. The main reason I chose to study web development grew out of comms. I get consulting work for my comms and marketing knowledge. Yet, I also love more general tech. I really enjoyed my Cisco networking classes, the hardware classes, and my current Enterprise Architecture class. Of course, more traditional IT work seems to pay better. And there is a lot of competition for communicator roles, especially with all the changes in journalism careers.
So, I’m not sure what will come of all this. Will I try to leverage my experience in this contract role into a FTE comms role somewhere? Or do I want to be straight tech? Or is there something else I haven’t seen yet? Oh, the mystery of life!
Over the course of my studies, I’ve heard about Scrum, but we never really went into it. Well, as part of a project a little bit ago, my team dove into Scrum. My part of this was to write up how Scrum is implemented. So, I thought I’d share that with you.
In order to understand how SCRUM is implemented, we need to understand Scrum’s basic roles. There’s the:
The Product Owner is the customer or the customer’s representative. They have the authority to allocate resources, as well as make decisions about product scope and scale.
Team members are the people tasked with completing the work required to finish the project.
Lastly, there’s the ScrumMaster. Their role is to advocate for the team’s needs, hold them accountable to timelines and goals, and remove any roadblocks the team comes up against.
The Scrum process creates three key documents or elements, which are called artifacts. Those artifacts are the:
The Product Backlog is the list of features and requirements that define a successful product. This includes all the functionality the Product Owner needs. The backlog is arranged by priority, enabling the entire team to be aware of what remains outstanding and the importance of each of those items.
Before we talk about the next artifact, the Sprint Backlog, we need to define what a “Sprint” is. Sprints are distinct periods of focused work. A Sprint is anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. During the sprint, the team only works on a subset of features and requirements. And the Sprint Backlog is the list of those project elements worked on during that specific Sprint.
The last artifact is the Product Increment. Simply put, it is the product that is being worked on. For example, a web application or database. It is what will be presented to the Product Owner and shipped at the end of the Sprint.
With all that in mind, a SCRUM cycle starts with a Sprint Planning Session. These review the Product Backlog and ascertain which priorities will be focused on during the upcoming sprint. All team roles are present: product owner, team members, and ScrumMaster. Those items that are selected for this sprint are added to the sprint backlog. What is NOT selected will remain on the Product Backlog. It’s important to note that many items will remain in the product backlog, waiting for future sprints.
During a sprint, there is a daily meeting, called the daily scrum or a “stand-up”. These are short meetings, around 10-15 minutes. During this, the team and ScrumMaster will review what was accomplished the day before, what will be focused on today, and what roadblocks or other concerns have come up. After the daily scrum, work is performed on the product increment.
At the end of the sprint, a sprint review is performed. This is when the product increment is shared and evaluated with stakeholders, teammates, and the product owner.
After the sprint review, there will be a sprint retrospective, where opportunities for improvement are identified and implemented. The whole project cycles from sprint review to sprint planning and then back to sprint review until the entire product backlog has been cleared.
I’ve long been familiar with Marcus Aurelius, though have never taken the deep dive into his work. However, this statement captures a deep truth for me.
This quote reminds me of a Steven Covey concept: Focusing on your Area of Influence. When we focus our efforts and energy on what we can impact, we become effective. Add that to “…you have power over your mind…”, and I see the power of focusing on our thoughts. Controlling our attitudes, I guess.
My blogger friend, Pooja, wrote this post today: “BLOGGING ADVICE YOU SHOULD IGNORE“. If your blog is important to you, check out her advice.
Here is one I want to highlight:
Anyway, it’s a good post and worth reading.
So, a lot has happened since my last post in May (so much for posting more often!). Last month, I completed the last of my coursework for a Web Application and Cloud Developer Associate in Technical Arts degree at Edmonds College. This is in addition to completing the coursework for these certificates:
Currently, I’m taking a class in Enterprise Architecture (first day is today). Upon completing that class, I will that have earned these additional certificates:
So, I’m rather pleased with the results of the past two years of study. I feel well suited for my goal of moving into an IT career.
Another thing that happened: in April I accepted a role at Trinity Lutheran Church, where I’ve been involved for years. I also have worked there covering for the communications coordinator’s paternity leave a couple of years ago. This role is as the Pastoral Administrative Assistant. As it’s part-time, it gives/gave me room to continue studying while earning some income (my unemployment benefits have expired). It is also a contract position (until December of 2022), which will work nicely for me. I plan to find a new, full-time position this fall. Once I’m in my new role, I plan to continue with my technological education. More about that soon.
That’s the status and plan for the next few months. Do you have any advice or guidance? Or, even better, lines on IT roles in the greater Snohomish County/Seattle area? Let me know!
This morning I received an email where the content was predominantly jpegs. Nothing inherently wrong with this, I guess. However, putting blue-text “links” in the jpeg is almost useless. Sure, I can retype that 30-character URL, but most people are unlikely to do that. Lots of folks won’t even know to do that. This one was peculiar since the content is mostly text. Why a jpeg? Anyway, it pretty much ensures no click-through. Not to mention is not optimized for mobile, or for accessibility tools.
Personally, I retype these (if I only have an image to work with), though there are plenty of OCR tools to convert them to text. Often, the originator can provide the Word document that this was created in. One other option, which works reasonably well, is within Google docs.