Weeknotes 09/09/18 – Week 1

There has been a resurgence in weeknotes amongst a group of people I follow on the web, probably due to Matt’s excellent post on the subject and the creeping dread that is Twitter and social addiction and nostalgia. Going to give it a whirl to see if I can stick with it as a habit. Chances are I will manage it for a few weeks then abandon it like so many of my other half formed habits. Maybe writing these things will help with my positive mental outlook on life too.

This week was back to school week for my two boys. Year 1 and 4. A sickness bug meant the youngest missed his first day and that mum and dad were also ill later into week.

Went out for lovrly drinks in Kelham island with an ex-colleague from HSBC who was leaving after 18(?) or so years. Visited a new bar (well more restaurant) called PiƱa. It was ok but we were there a little late and it was starting to close for the evening. The Riverside and The Old Workshop also got a visit and were as excellent as usual, the latter especially had some cracking beers on. Kelham Island is a great part of Sheffield as it continues its transformation from engineering heartland of old into craft ale/gentrification hotspot of new.

I played football Saturday. A group of friends play football once a year on FA Cup Final day as we have four friends with birthdays around that time. We have decided to try and do it more often and the international weekend gave us the first opportunity. Only 7-aside but still far too much exercise for my great lumbering and creaking frame. I hurt my back in the first ten mins and hobbled around while skinnier fitter friends ran past me frequently. We lost 9-7. I can also blame sickness from earlier in the week for my poor showing. I also had to bail on after match drinks (and the England game) due to feeling unwell again. All round loser.

On Sunday we finished Ozark series two which as most people have said is even better than the first. Laura Kinney is exceptional and I suspect she will be winning lots and lots of awards at the turn of the year.

At work we are moving to Scrum from Kanban and it is starting to bear fruit. Looked like we would fail our most recent sprint but some good teamwork and pairing means we should be back on track next week which felt good. A couple of sprints in and the first squad are working really well. Planning to move up to five squads over the next month or so.

Really keen to get a couple of product delivery teams one for mobile and one for web (with some crossover at the backend). The key for me is getting into a tick-tock rhythm of getting things into customers hands on a far more regular basis than we do today. Of equal importance is the sense of ownership from the team, this is ‘our thing’ to build and improve and make work for customers. I know more of the theory of agile than the practise so I am looking forward to getting stuck in and learning more.

Sunday evening will be my week note writing time I think (did not manage to post it until Monday evening mind you). This did not feel too hard but it did not feel too easy either. Habits can be habitch.

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