I’m writing this on the eve of one of the most major milestones in my career. Tomorrow is my last day working for the company I’ve spent 13 years learning my trade.

Over the past year, AOL has transitioned from a subscription revenue model to an advertising driven source. Unfortunately, it hasn’t proceeded as planned. In an effort to reduce cost to compensate, approximately 2000 positions were eliminated. This included me and the majority of my team. We extended ad support into our video applications, built a stable, easily maintainable and extensible system. In a time of cost cutting, it was a logical business decision based on the state of the product and the direction of the company.

That’s my official exit statement and I’m sticking with it. (more…)

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Early this year, my organization went through custom training from Rally on agile development (specifically, scrum). I grew up doing waterfalls in traditional SDLC methodologies. I can’t say I was resistant to the timeboxed approach, but I was skeptical. More often than not, the waterfalls I worked on followed this type of planning lifecycle:

1. business defines ask
2. dev/qa/ops define cost/timeframe
3. business redefines ask
4. dev/qa/ops redefines cost/timeframe
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6. dev/qa/ops redefines ask based on cost/timeframe to meet topdown date

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Every project I’ve worked on starts the same… we define the ask, determine the cost and establish the timebox. No matter the process we follow, there is always a timebox, either the process dictates it (scrum) or the customer does when they don’t like our estimates. Regardless, many people I’ve encountered plan for success. They determine what steps, or tasks, need to be completed, dependencies and plot out a date the facts tell them is achievable. They often fail and are shocked. Their success plan never takes into account the unknown, inevitable issues and unaccounted risks. (more…)

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Before I became a manager, I was really annoyed with 1:1’s. They were just another status meeting where my manager would give me more detailed “feedback” on how to do my job, manage my projects, interact with people… Sometimes, I would receive good advice, but it was really rare. Mostly, it was just an opportunity for my manager to criticize my performance where it differed from how they would do my job. Now, some people do need more hand’s managing, but I was a top performer. (more…)

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