MiramarMike - Blog

"Agile", a 5 letter word that can bring up thoughts, emotions, and even reactions. Of course it does, it's a loaded word that can mean as many things to as many people hearing it. It's a word that has been bandied around inside organisations for a number of years, it's been unfairly hooked to many other words, and it's still one that can cause confusion. Over the years I've worked with teams in all corners of organisations incorporating those that want to, "Do it, do it now!", through, "Up for it, but please help us", to, "Whah? Nah mate". Everyone, no matter where you are, has questions, and these are the top 5 I've heard but almost definitely not the top 5 out there, the comment box is right there at the bottom of this post for you. Right, onto the 5 questions heard from around the traps ... 1: What is the point of changing to agile? It's just more meetings I don't have time to change to Agile I'm too busy I&

Let's dive in and say it out loud, a backlog is merely a list of user stories BUT it is not a list of tasks . It's items within items within items. On a typical backlog you will have, Initiatives with Epics holding User Stories containing Tasks and even Sub-tasks. Initiatives and Epics we all mostly get correct, they are the big items spanning big(ish) timescales, say no less than 3 months. Tasks and sub-tasks, we get those as well. We're all used to writing lists of things to do, "Get the bins in", "Get a haircut", "Write the weekly report". Things we need TO DO. And there's User Stories, a weird in between thing that's not massive but, so you're telling me Mike, not a task. Why can't my Backlog be full of things to do, that's what lists are for, no? Taking this straight from, User Stories - the best we can create , a doc of hints and tips from me at ... well, somewhere ;) What is a User Story? Summary: A user story is an

Of course there are a LOT of nuances that this video hints at but doesn't go into ... and to be fair no 3-day course can prepare you for those either, it comes with experience. As an ex-colleague of mine once said, "[this is] The Best Video on YouTube. Ever.*", and he's not wrong. * about Agile

This is a great analogy of how  generative AIs  operate on top of  Large Language Models (LLM), they are definitely not intelligent, artificial or not. You're stuck in a room with a letterbox in one wall. Opposite is another letterbox with two lights, red and green, both unlit. After a while two pieces of paper come through the first letterbox, each with a Mandarin character on them. You stare at the papers, but don't speak Mandarin. After a while you think, "I'll post one through the other postbox, why not". You do so, and the green light comes on and goes back off. Cool you think. Another set of two pieces come through the first letterbox. You post the same Mandarin character through, green light. Nice. The next time with the next two pieces of paper your chosen post receives a red light. Ok, won't do that character again. Over time the pieces of paper come through in threes, fours, and then many. You also notice patterns, eg one character after another alw

It’s just two letters, and yet saying no can feel really hard - even complicated. For many of us, saying no doesn’t just feel awkward. It feels wrong. No-body likes to hear a straight out, "No." without context or reasoning. That doesn't mean we can't use the word, but we have to be much more empathetic when we say it. “Saying no is one of the best forms of self-care we can engage in,” Dr. Nicole Washington says, noting that saying "no" supports us in: creating space in our schedules to rest and recharge engaging in activities that actually align with our current goals setting boundaries with loved ones and colleagues Here's a few ways of saying, "No ..." that can help you negotiate your workloads and ensure we make people awesome whilst keeping safety a prerequisite. "No, not yet" This leads on to a discussion and hopefully and agreement of both realistic and understandable timings leading to an, "OK, yes starting on Tuesday&

Intellectual curiosity is the driving force behind scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, and innovative new technologies. Without it, our world would not progress and evolve as it has been. source: Your Guide to Intellectual Curiosity Sounds like curiosity is the driving force behind a few organisations I have been speaking with recently. In other organisations it may be safety, and in others perhaps it's security, or even entertainment. Bill Gates famously said, “‘I don’t know’ has become ‘I don’t know yet’” and admits that much of what has propelled his career is a sense of wonder and curiosity. One way of showing curiosity is when you are personally challenged by a team member. With so many diverse, interesting, and dynamic people it's small wonder we meet people that can, initially, rub us up the wrong way (I am absolutely one of those people that can cause a little friction). This is the perfect time to be curious, both about the person themselves and their motiva

It's so easy to let work suck you back in with a ping here, a notification there - my advice is to TURN IT ALL OFF!  But before we get into steps and how to's - HAVE AN AMAZING HOLIDAY, I hope it's full of love, laughter, and friends! Contents and HOW TO TURN IT ALL OFF: Phones Work Profiles Syncing Notifications Laptops and the like Web notifications ChromeOS Out of Office Phones For either Android (Samsung, Pixel etc etc) or iOS, if you have a separate work phone - TURN IT OFF and PUT IT INTO A DRAWER . Work Profiles If you have an Android phone with a Work Profile - TURN IT OFF .  If work profiles is news to you check out my post  Using Your Phone for Work AND Personal . Note: some of the following steps might not be the same on every device - it's about choice! To pause or turn on your work profile from the Work profile tab: Swipe up from the bottom of your screen to the top. Tap the "Work" tab. At the bottom of your screen, toggle the Work apps switch.

I've been a quiet member of the "Twitter replacement" Mastodon universe for a while. My particular corner of it is using Cloud Island and I am @miramarmike@cloudisland.nz As always the best way to keep up with what I’m doing is the RSS feed from this website, but I realise that’s not for everyone. However you follow along, thank you and please spread the word!

I don't know about you but it feels like we're on the edge of something quite momentous. With all the talk of "what's coming" re Omicron and the numbers being bandied around, certainly the types of figures we here in AoNZ haven't experienced as we've watched other countries go through it a number of times. I s'pose that's one shining light, we know that countries do come out the other side. Of course there is much pain and loss and that's the worry, for me at least. I have no pithy phrases to give, no hints & tips, no, "have you tried this", I think I just needed to let it out, and let others know that you're not alone, I'm scared too.

This post starts with a lot of explanations and then I get to the, THIS IS WHY!! A lot of people I know have two phones. Two actual physical phones, one a work phone and one a work one. I find this weird as I can't imagine ever wanting to carry a redundant piece of equipment. "Why do you have two phones?", I ask, "Coz I don't want my work stuff on my own phone". That is a totally wonderful reason ... let me tell you how I do that with one phone.  Of course people have multiple Google Accounts, be that work & personal ones, or multiple personal ones, or personal ones and club ones ... we've all got a few accounts.   On Chrome / Chromium you can have multiple profiles managing each of your accounts. Yes you can have many accounts in the one browser profile BUT trust me it's a LOT easier to have separate profiles, keeps everything separate and synced appropriately, and a theme helps remind you which one you're in. And those Chrome profiles autom

When Aotearoa New Zealand went into Level 4 lockdown for the first time ( March 25th 2020 to April 27th 2020 ) they were "unprecedented times", now, it doesn't feel like that eh. The nation was locking down just as many parts of the world took a similar drastic approach, AoNZ wasn't alone as the world rushed to survive. As people it was so unusual and novel that we had no reference frame helping us 'how to be', so we did as we were told and knuckled down to a life inside. We invented things to keep us going deep inside our newly invented bubble concepts, we learnt new information in engaging ways, we 'fell in love' with those that were guiding us, and it was an adventure. Like all new adventures it was easier for some than others. There were deaths, hardships, and long term issues I suspect we won't recognise let alone deal with for a number of years. But most of all, it was all so so different from anything we had ever encountered. And, it work

I hosted an inter-agency event a few years ago and to kick it off I asked the 50 or so attendees to just go wild with ideas, pop down every dream they've ever had about working inside government no matter how small, how big, how "crazy", how "mundane". Yeah, I know, a bit like telling people to get creative!! "Und now, you vill be creative!!" The intention was to get it out, know that you're not alone in your thinking, everyone has something they dream about. And to dream is to hope is to plan is to focus is to do. Here's just a hint at what some people deep inside government, the boring bureaucrats, the upright civil servants, the people like you and me dream about. I like a few of these dreams from government workers, I especially like, "Avoid the safe pair of hands", and "Try more stuff?". I also think free WiFi at police stations should happen!