There is no doubt that Kanban is great for software projects. With Kanban you can increase throughput by limiting work in progress, delivering value constantly this increasing trust in the team. But Kanban does not only apply to projects. Some people use also Portfolio Kanban to manage projects. And there is another potential use for Kanban that I think can be very useful and solve multiple problems if applied properly, i.e. in a services company: Resource Kanban. Let’s start by outlining the problem: In most companies, but especially sevices oriented companies, resourcing is always an issue. Projects usually start when customers want to or when legal decides they should Also current projects might end up unexpectedly, ahead of time (yeah right!) or contracts are extended, sometimes longer terms but also little by little Predicting when each project ends and others begin in such a way that resources can be allocated then becomes a really tricky proposition. On one hand if you don’t have a resource available to start another project then you might upset a customer and potentially lose little (or lots of) money. On the other hand, if there is a lot of time between one project’s end and […]
In my Pluralsight training, Getting Started with Enterprise Search using Apache Solr, one of the things that I make quite a bit of emphasis is on how important search is, yet it is one of the most misunderstood functions of IT and development in general. In this post I will show you an example of how a potentially good app is a pretty bad app mainly because of its search capabilities. It is so much the case that in Twitter Pluralsight selected this phrase to tweet about the release of my course as you can see here: But now let’s get to the sample. Here’s the scenario: Problem: Life is busy. No time to go to the supermarket Solution: use your grocery store’s web site to purchase your food and it gets delivered home the next day. Charming idea, did not work with Webvan, but it seems to be doing quite well for Amazon and in my home town one of the major supermarkets is doing it in a more controlled way with a good delivery service, all for $10. Not too scalable, but for a MVP it is ok. (Read Lean Startup if you don’t know what MVP is) […]
Today is a happy day for me. My course Getting Started with Enterprise Search using Apache Solr was released today. Look at it to get started on search! And also my article as a guest writer in Pluralsight’s blog, These 5 things are destroying your meetings, was released today! Take a look at it if you suffer from extreme meeting disorder! This looks so nice in Twitter!
Enterprise search used to be not for the faint of heart or with a thin wallet. However, since the introduction of Apache Solr the name of the game has changed. Solr brings high quality enterprise search to the masses. Don’t leave home without it! And let me help you get started! My intention is to create a series of posts where I can help you get started with Solr. This process can be easy if tackled with the appropriate resources, but it can be daunting if you chose the wrong ones. I will start by describing what each module of my training covers, click on the bullet to be taken directly to the post. Why Solr & Enterprise Search? Architecture of an Enterprise Search Application Solr Configuration Content: Schemas, Documents and Indexing Searching & Relevance Making it all Work: Put a UI on It! Final Words My course is available in Pluralsight: Getting Started with Enterprise Search using Apache Sol. You can watch it here: http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=enterprise-search-using-apache-solr
Happy is a good way of describing it. However it goes beyond that. I am grateful that I have been chosen as a speaker in Atlassian’s 2014 Summit! If you are reading this before the conference you can find me here: Atlassian Summit 2014 Take a quick look: All these years working hard with Agile and Jira pay off! Silicon Valley, here I go!
