I've been asked to share the slides from our "Tools Tips and Techniques: Project Management Using Hybrid Agile Development". So, here they are! Give them a bit to display - this is a LARGE file.

Im sorry but WP is much better and user friendly

Great post. thanks for all the hard work. I've been attending since San Francisco, and I can honestly say Denver was the best yet!

There is often more truth in fiction than in fact. In Matthew's case nothing need be made up.

The day baby Matthew came home from the hospital, his Mum put him down on the window seat and Caliban, our big, old farm dog came over to check him out. He started at his feet and sniffed upwards to his head, gave him a lick with a tongue which spanned most of his face, and plunked himself down beside him. He had taken on a job! He did it faithfully until one Sunday night, when we came home from church we found him dead on the mat beside Matthew's bed. However dreadful life seemed to be to Matthew, Caliban was always there for him.

It wasn't a one way street tho'. When Matthew was around five years old, there was a time when the family was at table discussing 'friends' and he was asked, 'Who is your best friend, Matthew'? 'Caliban', came the instant reply; he didn't have to think. And years later when the old dog was sick with cancer and nearing his end, it was Matthew who cared and worried about him most.

Matthew's brothers and his Dad sang in their church choir and he always assumed that he would join it also. When the day came for auditions, he entered but was rejected, and told to try again when he could read. The assumption was that he would come back in a year and try again. After that Matthew sat around the house with an old psalter giving the psalms far more attention than is normal for one so young. At just the right moment, close to Christmas, when the choir master was visiting our house, he demanded another audition, He could now read, he said. It was not possible to refuse him and anyway it was impossible, he could have learned to read in only a few weeks. When asked by the choir master what he would read, he produced the old psalter and was duly assigned a passage. Everyone was surprised when he appeared to read it quite well, so he was given another and did just as well. No-one knows how he did it, but he could read -- psalms anyway!

Every year the boys in the choir went away to camp for a couple of weeks. They had a great time and learned some music for the next church year. In Matthew's first year a TV crew came and made a news programme. As is the nature of journalists they wanted the unusual, the humorous and found in Matthew the subject they needed. There he was in practice, on TV making it clear to the whole country that he did not know which was the top or bottom of the music. His grand father whom he adored and who adored him, was hugely amused.

Every year, there was a grand service at church which was specially prepared at camp. I forgot to mention that a distinguished choir master was hired to work with the boys at camp and he was conductor of the music for this special service. Most of these fellows were Brits but in one the years when Matthew was a senior chorister an American, a black chap, a southerner was hired. If I remember rightly his name was Hatto. We sang some music, he had composed and the anthem he chose was a negro spiritual with a treble solo sung over the rest of the choir. He asked for volunteers and asked Matthew to try out. I was horrified. Matthew was a good chorister, but he was not up to this. Well in practice her certainly had no trouble and when Mr Hatto asked in his southern way, 'Boy, can you control it like that in performance'? and Matthew nonchalantly answered in the affirmative, I was scared for him. In service, he sang it very well.

I have already written far too much but I have only scratched the surface. Matthew is special. He has had poor health and always won through; He was not meant to be able to read and write but he earned two university degrees and a professional certificate, he was not accepted in choir but became a capable chorister, he has a super wife and delightful daughter. He is now a successful person in his field in the US.

He has so far overcome all obstacles and confounded those who have written him off. No-one need write fiction about Matthew to make him look good.

Oh and I must mention, he nearly always has three dogs and at least one of them is one no other family wants.

Why is this post in the drupal planet again?!?

I wanted to use MacBook Pro for editing software for my pictures. I heard a lot of features that is nice and is good for editing.

The problem for me (a knowledgeable freelancer and heavily-involved Drupal project contributor) is that the "this is beneficial for my business" part of the equation doesn't work out. I have not found the sessions or training to be useful to me at the past several DrupalCons, and Drupal Means Business is not really aimed at freelancers as far as I can tell. I don't tend to make business-useful contacts at DrupalCon, either. (I am not saying this holds true for all freelancers, just that this has been my experience at the last few DrupalCons.)

So the only reason for me to go would be for community/contributing... But that is problematic too. First, it's really expensive (in time away from work and the cost of flight, lodging, and conference), so it's hard to justify that as a business expense if it's just to donate to the community. Then, I find that the other contributors I would want to meet/work with have their attention pretty fragmented (staffing company booths, presenting, attending sessions, etc.). So I think that there are much better ways to get together with folks for contributing (such as smaller regional events), which are also much less expensive (in time and money), and also offer better business reasons for me to attend (like meeting people in my region, who are actually useful business contacts).

Erratum: "to lear development"

Great article. Is it possible to allow other users access to this local wiki also. I'd like to setup a wiki only accessible by others on the LAN.

Cheers,

-John

The next post will occur Friday as we shift from code sprint to QA in our timebox.

It would be very cool to have a post on how you prepare and discuss user stories. Often what a stakeholder asks for isn't what they need. How do you manage that?

Thanks for posting. These have been cool windows into what you do.

The surprise was secondary to the message of the post - the camps are great and you should attend them! And thanks! It was a good time.