LeslieJ.net

Last night there was boxing on Showtime. My husband likes watching it. I, on the other hand, am pretty good at sleeping through it. My slumber last night must not have been too deep though because I have a vague memory of talking to him during the match and this morning he certainly assured me that I did.

The conversation I am about to recap for you is a likely sign I am thinking a little too much about work.

Some History
The IT team I work with converted from Waterfall to Agile in January of this year. We are in the process of wrapping up operational enhancements that we call “Agile v2″ in the hope that we can address some of the gaps in the processes we rolled out at the beginning of the year. This has meant countless working sessions, process flows, and debates on the good - bad – and ugly of the way the teams have been doing theirwork. It has also meant receiving Agile-Purist advice from our Agile Coaches as well in order to help us keep true to the methodology we are committing to.

Last Night’s Conversation
As my husband tells me, in the middle of the match I started trying to explain to him that boxing was like agile software development. It probably went something like this…

Me: (picking my head off of pillow) “Hey, ya know, agile is sort of like boxing.”
Him: “What?”
Me: (sleeping)
Him: “Honey, did you say something?”
Me: “Huh? Yeah…Agile. It’s sort of like boxing.”
Him: “What are you talking about? Just go back to sleep.”
Me: (somewhat incoherently) “No, it’s true. Agile is like boxing because…[something nonsensical]”
Him: “Sweetie, you’re half asleep. You’re not making any sense.”
Me:(somewhat belligerently) “I am not sleeping, they really are similar because… [something nonsensical]“

There were probably some pretty significant pauses between my rebuttals and it probably continued on for several more rounds. This morning we got a good laugh about it, and he was convinced I was completely out of my mind. But of course I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and once I drew a parallel in my head I had to try and convince him that Agile and boxing really are similar. My rationale was that like agile…

• Boxing has rounds (similar to sprints)
• During the breaks between each round they talk about how it went (a retrospective)
• Before starting the next round they talk about what they should do (sprint planning)

Very simplistic, but at least amusing – and very likely I’m in need of a break from the office.

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This year I am making more of a point to be consistent about blogging, writing posts in advance and even setting reminders in my Google Apps calendar on the dates they are scheduled to publish. I’m better managing who I follow on twitter ensuring that as I follow someone I immediately add them to a list (this is helping me find the sort of content I’m craving). I’m also more diligent about my delicious bookmarking and revisiting blogs of interest.

Strangely, none of those have anything to do with unplugging, but simultaneously I’ve been pretty consistent on several goals I set back on January 1 that were inspired by reading all sort of other resolutions and what not. I don’t consider these resolutions, and if you remember It’s Leslie J Dot Net, then you’ll recall I am striving for “a year of simplistic joy and absorption for every moment.”

What are the unplugging activities I’m paying attention to?

• Getting good sleep. If you know me well, then you know good and well I am a terrific sleeping. The “clapper lady” in fact. As soon as my head hits the pillow I am out and I can sleep for ages. But I think I realized that it wasn’t necessarily good sleep. So I’ve been striving toward a more routine habit around sleeping. Targeting arrival in bed around 10:30 and reading for a little while (not geeky books and not the sort of reading I do on the iPad) before attempting sleep a little after 11:00. It doesn’t always work, but that downtime before bed seems to be better preparing me for rest and there are plenty of articles out there about how good sleep is essential for mental rejuvenation and productivity insurance.
• Electronics Free Time. This was inspired by “@HuffingtonPost: The absolute best resolutions from twitter http://huff.to/e9olse #happynewyears” One of the goals included: Have an electronics-free hour every day. Turn off and unplug all electronics when not in use. I am more conscious about ensuring the lights are off and general electronics are at least turned off (I’m not so good at unplugging them), but what was more important to me was the notion of electronics free time. My non-iPad reading before bed is part of this, and I am also trying to do it more at work. The environment there is inherently crammed with meetings and folks tend to just work on their laptops during meetings, so in order to be more engaged in the topic at hand, and to cut down on my gadget-dependency I am carrying around my trusty notebook and doing things the old fashion way at at least one meeting a day. It’s nice to have that time away from e-mail. I’m amazed how my brain feels better afterward.
• Move in the morning. Just as I am trying to be more tranquil when it comes time for bed, I am moving in the morning. 20 or so jumping jacks, crunches, jump rope, etc. Anything to move me around for about 10 minutes before I do some stretching. It just feels good, and helps me work off some of those lbs that happened to find me in 2010.

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Quick announcement… Royal Plasticware is now on Facebook. Check them out!

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Sometimes I just can’t help it. I type fast and I like long sentences with lots of pretty words, but the IIBA Newsletter from this week provided a friendly reminder that sometimes all those words get in the way.

Real Words that Work, is a great reminder for BAs (and everyone else for that matter). Just because we are capable of fierce verbosity, doesn’t mean we have to use it.

I am likely most guilty of TLA (three-letter-acronym) jargon. There isn’t a project that goes by where I miss an opportunity to coin a new one, my colleagues are equally as guilty and I must use a prime example from today.

The Scenario: E-mail exchange between two business analysts discussing the correct way to identify users that have provided their ZIP code while browsing on a Web site.

E-mail 1:

Hey Sally

I know we call anonymous users ANON, and ones that have entered their ZIP code but not logged in ANZ for anonymous-zipped. Aren’t you working on an enhancement that makes them confirm the store they are shopping? Are you calling it ANZC for anonymous-zipped confirmed?

Let me know when you can.

– Bob

E-mail 2:

Hey Bob – we have been calling it ‘Anonymous Store Selected’

Regards,
Sally

E-mail 3:

And what should that acronym be?

– Bob

There is also the consistent overuse of business buzz-words. I was recently informed a group of developers play “Business Jargon Bingo” during meetings and that there are challenges where people place bets on the use of the phrase “from a ___ perspective.” Apparently bonus points are available if it is a “from a holistic perspective.”

Lastly I fully admit that business/IT speak frequently spills into my home life. So much in fact, I was recently asked to go write use cases for a home improvement project recently. Needless to say, I was not pleased. So perhaps this all dovetails quite nicely in my simplicity goal for the year. Let me add simple vocabulary to the list as well. A great guiding principle for BAs, bloggers, or anyone at all.

Remember you can follow the IIBA on twitter @babok (What’s BABOK? Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. Learn more on the IIBA Web site.)

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Welcome 2011. Welcome LeslieJ.net.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on the transition and I think its all done, save the Browser title of the site itself. Most everything is Leslie J. So find me thru e-mail – leslie @ lesliej.net – that works for gTalk as well. Find me on twitter – @lesliejdotnet. Please pardon any interruptions or inconveniences as the transition progresses.

It is a new year, a new decade in fact. I rang it in pretty low-key this year, and sadly there were no heart felt speeches with tears. There was hula-hooping though – which is harder than I remember. It makes me have a lot more appreciation for the SaFire girl that hula-hoops to Paramore.

Resolutions? Well, I tend to agree with those out there that say, “What makes January 1 so special that we have to change?” But I would like to finish dropping the lbs that I put on during my ‘jolly’ days and actually blog regularly. I also like the way @kym_m stated it on Fruit. Nut. Cheese. She is  “planning to be fully present every day.” That’s a really good attitude to have. One of my fav’s fav quotes, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans,” (courtesy John Lennon) is also very appropriate.

So here’s to a year of simplistic joy and absorption for every moment. May each of you enjoy the truly scrumptious splendor of each and every drop.

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It might have been months in the making (OK, maybe years in the making), but I’ve finally had a face lift. For awhile I was nicknamed ‘Two Point Oh’ by my friends and co-workers. Now at least my Web presence is a little more ’2.0′. Goodbye Blogger, Hello WordPress.  An unmentionable number of Thank Yous to Matt and Jesse for design and technical expertise. I could not have done it without them.

I’m loving the clean slate and fresh ideas I have. While I may reach back and re-purpose a few old posts – specifically in the areas of creative writing – there is lots floating around in my head and lots going on that I’m wanting to talk about.

So instead of ending the first post with a valediction, I shall say…

Hello!

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