Author Archives: Jeanne Boyarsky

remote agile game – beautiful meadow variant

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We had 15 minutes extra at the end of our retrospective today. I suggested we use it to play an agile game. My team has people in three locations on a video conference so it was time to look at my thoughts on virtual agile games. One of our newer team members had learned about online/shared virtual whiteboards this sprint so I picked Beautiful Meadow. I figured drawing on a virtual whiteboard would get us all more comfortable using one.

Not counting myself, there were six people attending today’s retro. I asked them to split into two teams of three with the only caveat being that the three NY people couldn’t be on the same team. (In other words to ensure there was remoteness involved on both teams.) After a bit of silence, one of the quieter team members stepped up and picked two teammates. I designated him along with a quieter team member on the other team to be “captains.” The captains were responsible for opening a Skype session with their teammates and myself.

Both captains were from cities other than New York. (What’s special about New York is that we have the most people on the team from NY and many of them have been on the team the longest. Also, I’m from New York and I was moderating the exercise.)

I then set the stage for the game:

  • Each team is going to draw a picture on the virtual whiteboard
  • You can only draw in the color I’ve designated for you. (I picked a person on each team to draw in red and another in blue. The third person was allowed to use any other colors.)
  • You can communicate over the Skype chat but not verbally. [with the in person version, you can communicate non verbally. That doesn’t scale to remoteness so I added chat. It’s hard to draw and chat at the same time so we still had minimal communication.]
  • I am going to paste a description of the task into each chat session. We will draw for 5-7 minutes. There will not be enough time to complete the task, so don’t worry.

Both teams produced nice diagrams. There was some laughter during the drawing which made it run. Then I showed the two problem statements. Everyone understood quickly why the team without the detailed spec produced a picture of a meadow.

What we learned

  • More about the virtual whiteboard
  • Practice self organizing (two of the people who often set up to suggest direction were out today)
  • The value of proper acceptance criteria.
  • How easy it is to miss the goal in a list of details.
  • We have a team member who is good at drawing electronic cows!

the “empty chair test”

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I’ve been using the term “empty chair test” for many years. I recently learned that it’s not a commonly used term. In fact, I googled it and this blog post is the only reference I can find. Oh well. I’m going to continue using the term. It’s clear to me and mostly self describing.

The idea is that when you hire an employee, consultant or contractor, he/she needs to quickly be providing more value to you than an empty chair.

Day 1

It’s rare for someone new to pass the empty chair test on day one. That’s because day one is centered around getting the new person a computer, setup, teaching him/her what you do, etc. It has happened though. We had a contractor search Google on his phone and find out how to do something that needed research. (while waiting for his computer to be setup.) While I was particularly impressed by this, I don’t have any expectations of someone passing the empty chair test on day one.

In fact, I’m surprised if I get 50% of my work done on day one because my focus is training. I do try tao pair as much as possible on day one. For example, I showed last summer’s intern how to write a Groovy script and then he did some. I could have gotten it done way faster myself. But he learned something. And then later in the summer when I needed that done, I didn’t need to be involved at all. So a good investment.

This is the key. You want to invest heavily in training new people. It pays off later! And if subtract that time from what the new person is accomplishing, it is unlikely you break even right away. No worries there!

A month in

By a month in, the new person should be getting things done. Either independently or pairing depending on your culture.  The new person probably isn’t as fast as people who have been there longer as it takes time to learn everything about a new system. That’s normal and ok. However, it is a red flag if you are still spending more time training the person than he/she is accomplishing. It’s also a red flag if there is lots of re-work required. Or the new person is still arguing with you about team practices. Bringing up a practice in a retrospective for improvement is fine. Refusing to do something is not.

By a month in, if your team (including the new person) would be accomplishing more with one less person, it’s time to revisit what to do. Aka if your team would literally be better off with an empty chair, if is time for a conversion with the person, a new strategy for acclimated them or to think about saying goodbye.

Notice how I didn’t account for the fact that you are paying the person yet. Whether so and so is worth X dollars a year is a test that is higher than the empty chair test. However, if the person can’t pass the empty chair test on a timely basis, there is n’t much hope of them passing the “earning their salary” test.

Longer

At this point, it is time to get rid of someone who isn’t passing the empty chair test. It’s time to start earning the money he/she gets paid rather than be compared to an empty chair!

M3d+ (Micro3D Plus)

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I bought a M3D printer earlier in the year. M3D offered an inexpensive trade in for the Micro Plus.

FedEx the original

They sent a FedEx label where FedEx lost the package. Seriously, here’s what happened:

  • Drop up from my neighborhood Fed Ex store over weekend (in September)
  • Picked up (the following Monday)
  • Arrived at FedEx location in Long Island City (that same Monday)
  • Left FedEx origin facility in Long Island City (that same Monday)
  • And then nothing. It disappeared in their possession.

I didn’t notice for a while because I assumed it would take a number of weeks for M3D to send the new one. They had a lot of trade ins to deal with after all. Then I had two trips and wasn’t home. When I got home and still no printer, I checked on the status and learned it was missing. I filed a FedEx claim and also emailed M3D asking what to do. After all, I’d be out the upgrade fee if I had to buy a new one with the FedEx claim. And be printer-less for even longer.

M3D was awesome. They sent me the upgraded model from the trade in without having received the original. So now I have my new printer and am still waiting to hear back from FedEx. They can send M3D a check when the finally get around to it!

Setup

There’s different software for the Micro+ so I reinstalled. It no longer says the software is beta.  They still don’t sign the software. I had to do “control open” on my Mac because it said the software was from an unidentified developer. After plugging it, I got prompted to update the firmware on the printer.

The printer verifies you removed the gantry clips and guides you through inserting the “ink.” Unlike the old model, I got prompted with two questions:

  1. Is the roll of filament micro and pro? I picked micro. (but it is really a third party larger roll)
  2. Is the roll new? I picked no. The printer said it didn’t remember the roll so would treat as new,

I’m a little worried that the printer remembering how much filament is left is going to be a problem since I am using third party filament. The printer will think the roll is done, but it won’t be. Since I don’t print more than a micro sized roll in one shot, I think I’ll just always pick new.

Like last time, it took three tries for the filament to come out. There was a bubble at first, but no white initial filament.

On my first job, the filament was printing only little thin stringy segments. I realized that instead of white initial filament, it was black factory filament as a default. Since I was testing with black/gray, I didn’t notice right away. After I removed/inserted a few times, it ran through that initial test filament and all was well.

My mistake in testing

I didn’t read the instructions because I’ve been using the old M3D and “knew” what to do. I forgot to do the initial calibration with the new printer. Oops. That explains why my first few tests failed. It took a calibration and two test borders before the output became normal.

Testing

The Micro Plus has some new features. You can clone the model to print more than one in a shot (presuming it is small.) You can set custom quality profiles. You can save print jobs with your configuration.

And it has untethered printing! It’s an option you can check off in a print job. Now the first step is that the software saves the job to the printer itself. Then it does the usual processing/calibrating/printing.

The untethered printing is listed a development feature rather than a full fledged feature. But it works. If you untether from your laptop, it continues printing. If you plug back in the USB, it gives you the status on percentage/time to completion.

One thing I noticed is that “reset” is where you’d expect an “ok” button to be and print is all the way on the left. That’ll take a few tries to get used to!

The results

I printed using M3D filament and third party filament. Both worked the same way as on my old printer after calibration. Except that I can use my computer without being near the printer while printing long jobs. And that is awesome!