Oct 29
ErinTop of my head, Work emo, life, musings, Work
Kahit may kurot, may pait na di ko mawari
Aalis ako na mayroong mga aral na maiiwanan
Mga kaalamang naibahagi, mga karanasan na pinagsamahan.
Lilisan akong may pagmamayabang
Dahil ang pangkat na sinimulan ay di na pwedeng daan-daanan.
Matatag na sila, kaya ng tumayo
Kaya ng mag-isip, kaya ng gumawa ng sariling desisyon.
Di na mga bata na animoy laging nakanganga
Naghihintay ng utos mula sa kanilang mga ate at kuya.
Alam ko na malayo pa para maging perpekto
Madadapa ulit, minsan dahil sa mismong kagagawan mo
Ngunit alam ko na di kayo papasupil, hindi susuko
Babangon sa pagkakalugmok na may napulot na bagong talino.
Tatlong buwan ipapamalagi na naging limang taon.
Di ko inakala o inasaahan ang bilis ng panahon.
Dinatnan, iniwan, naghubog at nagpakawala.
Parang inang lawin sa kanyang mga inakay na alaga.
Pero hindi, di yata bagay na ako ay ihambing
Sa isang nilalang na mapagkalinga at malambing
Mas maganda siguro na ikumpara sa isang sarhento
Hinahanda ang mga kadete sa mga hamon ng trabaho.
Sa tagisan ng talino, tibay ng loob at galing.
Ngunit may nakaabang na tapang na hindi pwedeng salingin.
Lilisan na ako dahil ito na ang tamang oras.
Bibitbitin ang aking mga gamit at sarili.
Panahon na para magsimula ulit maghanap ng mga bagong kasapi
Uulitin ang pagbuo ng isang grupong katangi-tangi.
Aalis na ako, pero hindi ako mamamaalam.
Dahill maliit lang ang mundong ating ginagalawan.
Nais ko na sa muling pagkurus ng ating mga daan.
Kwentuhan mo ako ng iyong mga natatanging karanasan.
Ipabatid mo sa akin na wala kang oras na sinayang
Gusto kong mamangha sa mga problemang nilampasan
Mga bagong kakayahan… O luma man pero iyong nilinang….
Mga hindi pinalampas na oportunidad at pagkakataon
Na sana kung iisipin, dahil ako ay yumao.
Salamat UPEM.
https://goo.gl/photos/zBZ1L6suECJU7hSY6
“Once UPEM, always UPEM”
– Pansol battlecry
May 26
ErinWork agile, musings, Work
I came across this simple definition of done in my inbox:
A good working definition of “Done”: Someone’s need was met.
– Mike Burrows (@asplake) , January 29, 2016
Someone in this context should be taken as everyone that has a stake on the feature/user story:
- The Product Owner’s Acceptance criteria are met.
- The Business need will be fulfilled by the developed feature.
- The Quality Champion’s criteria for well tested feature are met.
- The (future) Maintenance team would be able to handle any required fixes or maintenance on this code without any difficulties.
- The Build Integrator will not find any issues with the generated package.
- (insert your other stakeholder group here together with their concern)
The definition of done (DoD) need not be a list. What is needed is for the team members to understand that Done means the feature is useful for everyone who is interested in it, may it be directly or indirectly. If that is not possible then the team needs to make sure they arrive to that point as part of the Inspect & Adapt mandate of agile methodologies.
May 02
ErinGarbage, Work communication, Garbage, Leadership, life, people management, Work
Holding a ball in one hand in front of you illustrates the common fact that two or more sides of the truth can exist without negating other truths. This boils down to perception; and managing the perception of the other viewers.
My co-lead in the project was getting some reputation flak for his leadership style. When we talked about it he raised a good question: “I used the same tone and method you used a few days ago when you addressed the team. What makes my delivery different (and unacceptable)?”
It was good question because I agree that our leadership styles have a lot of similarities. How come one can get away with using that style while other people have a negative reaction? Is it the context/personality of the person using the style and the preconceived notion of the audience about the person that makes a difference? This makes me think of the social experiment wherein random people were made to taste cakes. In one experiment there was a tag price in front of the cake where the slice came from and one is expensive while the other is affordable. In one variation there are no price tags but one of the cakes were placed in a plain platter while one was in an ornately gilded tray. A lot of the people said they preferred the more expensive cake (or the one in the more expensive looking tray) better stating that it is finer and has a more chocolaty taste. The catch is that all cakes used in the social experiment were IDENTICAL.
Presentation and context may be the critical factor in play here.
Oct 30
ErinGarbage, Work Leadership, opinions, policies, Work
At any given point we are either a follower or a leader. In some rare scenario we fulfill both roles.
I am getting a reputation at work for a troublemaker when in fact I am only clarifying glaring holes in policies that are too specific or useless. These are the same policies that, to paraphrase one of my recent statuses, people wield like a paper shield that wont even muster against the slightest reason. Pitiful that the instigators of these policies are the same people that I should be relying on to look after my welfare as a follower.
In these cases I take up the mantle of being Captain Obvious. It may come across as troublesome but being a leader means you need to take the road that is not going to be comfortable. If nobody complains then it is the same as being complicit to something that you do not believe in.
Follow or lead? Do you take a chance in participating in a battle that can be the turning point of the war; or sit quietly in the corner reminiscing the “what if” of an opportunity that has long gone by? Choose your own poison.
ciao!
Nov 17
ErinGarbage, Work Garbage, interview, recruitment, Work
It is common to see in the IT industry people trumpet how many years of experience they have for certain technology or skills. The practice is one of the cheapest form of self-advertisement. The problem is that experience doesn’t always equate to expertise.
More
Jul 18
ErinLiterature, Work haiku, Work
Rustling in my bed
Issues floating in my mind
Nightmares while awake.
Sep 14
ErinWork humor, Work
Copyright still retained by Scott Adams and original image can be found here
One more inevitable thing that cannot be helped. My joining the brood doesnt help elevate my previous position. 😐
May 07
ErinFLOSS, Work floss, scripting, Work
It was the first time to generate and send the report. It deals with downloading a lot of access logs, combining them based on certain scenarios, filtering out the cruft, slicing and dicing per service accessed and then tallying the responses to see if they meet the SLA.
The first manual extraction took around 4 hours to create the report for the most critical service. After that, I sat down and created the bash+awk script to do the slicing, dicing and tallying part. It took me 3 hours to create and test the script but after that I can generate the reports for 6 services in 30 minutes, where the bulk of the time was spent in downloading the latest logs (~10minutes) and pasting the data in Excel to create the “bayoootiful” graphs.
I figured if I can automate the rest then the reports can be generated under 15minutes, and I can hook it up on a continuous service so it will send it automatically every night. After that I can work on getting rid of the need to go through Excel if I can find some API to generate it and publish them as PDFs. JFree perhaps but my Java skills are already rusty. I also need something native if possible as I cannot install stuff on the office machines. The zLinux servers are pretty much off limits though I think there is a python interpreter installed.
One thing I can say is that automation and f/loss rocks. The script is too specific and covered by IPR so I cannot post it here but it is something that most scripters should be able to do.
ciao!
Oct 01
ErinGarbage, Work agile, rant, Work
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today so I need to vent out and nitpick… 🙂
I want to reiterate the advocacy of minimizing the use of the word “resources” when referring to members of your team.
A resource is a finite, inanimate stock or tool. A hammer is a tool therefore it is a resource. My time and skills are resources but I don’t want to suffer the indignity of being categorized as a tool. I am neither a tool nor a resource; and I would appreciate not being abstracted to the same level as a computer. Computers are dumb, they can only follow instructions.
Use FTE to refer to the workload unit, but use team member, colleague, personnel or employee when referring to the human being. Respect the person doing the work. The IT industry may be being overhauled and optimized with automation, but this remains a creative industry and not a place for human automatons. Each member is unique and brings something special to the table.
ciao!
Aug 08
ErinGarbage, Work Work
During this lifetime I have heard people say a few times that their work is too stressful that they want to vomit. I didn’t realize that this morning it would be a literal thing for me. 🙁
I went to sleep at around midnight after a healthy dose of boring reading material (aka project work package aka contract) for some big shot discussions this week. At around 2AM I suddenly awoke with a jerk with the words UAT[1] in my mouth and the feeling of having a lot of bile in my throat. Thankfully the trash bin was on my side of the bed so I swiped the cover open and started dry-heaving on it. The icky and rough feeling on my throat was not going away so I ended up drinking a lot of water and munching on fried and salted corn kernels to get the taste of bile away.
Now I can, with credibility, say that I can relate next time I hear somebody say they are sick and tired of their work that they want to vomit. 🙂
[1] User Acceptance Test
ciao!
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