Posts

Original is here: https://github.com/christofdamian/manager-readme#manager-readme Update December 2020: I decided to make the repository private for now. I have some doubt if a manager README makes sense and mine was also not up to date. I might pick this up again in the future. Manager README? A few people (not only managers) now share information in a README or how-to style document on the web. The first one I came across was How to Rands. I thought it is a good idea for new team members, but also for people in the company who don’t have constant contact with me. ...

Originally posted on the Devex Tech Blog. At Devex we try to optimise every aspect of our work and at times try radical new things. In this post I describe one of these journeys, that led us from Scrum, to Six Week Cycles, to Frankenscrumcyle and a possible future. Scrum In the product team at Devex we used a pretty standard Scrum process for about four years. In the beginning with one team in Manila and one in Barcelona and later with one or two teams just in Barcelona. As it is the case for most companies this wasn’t a 100% out of the book Scrum, but slightly adapted to our needs. ...

Steven from Drive To Improve interviewed me and Fernando Palomo about balancing technical and business needs of a company. Steven did a very good job and made it did feel much shorter than it was. Good to see Fernando again too, working with him at Splendia was brilliant. Excuse my English and hair.

12 “Manager READMEs” from Silicon Valley’s Top Tech Companies https://hackernoon.com/12-manager-readmes-from-silicon-valleys-top-tech-companies-26588a660afe Make your peers your first team. https://lethain.com/first-team/ Aurora Serverless MySQL Generally Available https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aurora-serverless-ga/ Churn Prediction: First Contact https://overflow.buffer.com/2018/08/13/predicting-churn/ Workplace Wellness Programs Don’t Work Well. Why Some Studies Show Otherwise. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/upshot/employer-wellness-programs-randomized-trials.html 5 reasons to check out the World Bank’s new data catalog https://medium.com/world-of-opportunity/5-reasons-to-check-out-the-world-bank-new-data-catalog-e342f3889cc2 Google Public DNS turns 8.8.8.8 years old https://security.googleblog.com/2018/08/google-public-dns-turns-8888-years-old.html TravelTime Platform https://app.traveltimeplatform.com/ Running an All-hands https://medium.com/@gokulrajaram/all-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-all-hands-but-were-afraid-to-ask-b13f7b97f2d9 AppSignal Ruby gem 2.7: Improvements and bug fixes https://blog.appsignal.com/2018/08/13/ruby-gem-2-7.html Experiences with running PostgreSQL on Kubernetes https://gravitational.com/blog/running-postgresql-on-kubernetes/ ...

I should start a list of books I wish I read earlier. This one would definitely be on that list. Thankfully it is fairly recent, so I don’t have myself to blame. Most people that I know in some kind of lead or management role stumbled into them. This was certainly the case for me. One day you are the lone developer in a small shop or start-up and without your fault it does start to grow. All is well until you have a handful of people in the team, suddenly there is a need for some structure and dare I say the word “management”. A lot of developers, including myself, are introverts and also prefer the technology side of a company. Taking on the role of a lead or manager will force you to talk to more people and reduces your time on the keyboard. I never wanted to manage people, but working at my start-up (guideguide, war stories another time) I realised that someone had to do it and if I cared for the company it probably had to be me. ...