Comments for TC's blog

Comment on Jira vs Google Doc importXML by Kenny

Kenny — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 23:19:22 +0000

Did you save the filter before you exported to .xml?

Comment on Jira vs Google Doc importXML by A different Jason

A different Jason — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 21:23:51 +0000

I have the same problem, but I’m wondering if it’s related to Google not really having access to view the XML. Even though you are including the user/pass in the URL, I haven’t seen that actually work. Since I cannot access my JIRA instance outside of the network or VPN, GoogleDocs is not able to access it to import. I think it may be as simple as that.

Comment on Jira vs Google Doc importXML by Jason

Jason — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 20:22:30 +0000

I’m also trying to do exactly this but it isn’t working for me. The formula says the value is wrong and to check the URL. In JIRA I set up my filter, then view XML, I copy the URL that it displays and paste it into the formula (along with the credentials for logging in) then the Xpath. No matter what I do it doesn’t pull anything in. I can get importXML to work with other sites or XML files, just not with JIRA. Would love any further direction.

Comment on A Better Retrospective by TC

TC — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 05:28:31 +0000

Hi Henrik,

Thanks. Well, some people would build a huge checklist of things to remember “the next time”, but the thing is that every project is special and the rough parts are always something new. I don’t really believe in this. I take it as a collective learning experience. I do know that the next time, something similar comes up, I’, going to take the drag factors a lot more serious, we have a few technical adjustments and we are currently working on getting a lot more behaviour driven…

Comment on A Better Retrospective by Henrik Korsgaard (@heenrik)

Henrik Korsgaard (@heenrik) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 15:50:21 +0000

Hi Thomas, nice reading. I have a question and two comments. First the question. I often find it hard to generalise anything but the obvious when doing a project evaluation, and even more in teams, because it often comes down to roles and individual learnings. So, when you sum it up in your wiki or talk about what is outside your control, how do involve these experiences in the next project? Do you use cases as reference or do you all revisit the wiki together (as part of meetings)?

Now my comments:

I often find that it does require to change the method, as a new approach, game or meeting-form, When you do something new it tends to get people more involved, and subsequently activate the reflection on the project. This ‘shaking things up’ is maybe more a meta-method, but it tend to work if the meetings become to stale and repetitive. The downside is to be able to ‘compare’ learnings across methods (can team-members understand the different screenshots in the wiki etc.).

From my work studying creative process and trying to interview people on creative leaps, I have found methods similar to Moodgraph a good conversation starter. I conducted individual interviews with team members (groups of students), where they first drew a timeline over the project, plotted in the significant events (insights, sprints, design changes etc.) and then drew the fever-curve (Moodgraph) on top of it. I did not find anything surprising, but later the students have told, that the interviews was a valuable tool for individual reflection… But I still haven’t found a good way to make the insights explicit and carried over into projects (besides the obvious e.g. keeping deadline) – and I can see from the students work, that they too struggle with carrying the previous experiences into new projects. That always seem to be the hard part, especially in teams. Any suggestions?

Comment on Yahoo stock to RSS converter by TC

TC — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:46:58 +0000

Len, it doesn’t do anything any more. It’s not longer running. Use google finance..

Comment on Yahoo stock to RSS converter by Len

Len — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:26:29 +0000

Can the sript get stock option quotes also?

Comment on Native boot by Søren

Søren — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:52:08 +0000

How can you live with a machine that takes 170 seconds to boot? :S
I can’t time how fast my mac boots right now, because it is in the middle of uploading some data, but I quess it takes around 30 seconds. From sleep(with I ofcourse always use) around 2 seconds.

It is rather slow in virtualbox aswell, just did a test on this machine:
Boot windows 7 to login: 21 seconds
Boot Debian(With X) to login: 19 seconds

Comment on Stop saying that: Everybody is a sales guy by Kasper Retvig

Kasper Retvig — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:16:13 +0000

I totally agree with your analysis TC and I believe that everybody that says “everybody is a sales guy” has no idea what it means to be in sales. On top of that they are abusing their other (non sales) staff by asking them to be something that they are not, have no interest in being and never will be.
I don’t think anybody has ever said “everybody is a developer” even it is not really more stupid than the other statement. And being in sales I can guarantee you that it would be stupid to ask me to be a developer.
In my opinion the only thing you can ask of your non-sales staff is to listen for possible sales opportunities with your existing customers and maybe with companies that are not yet customers and then communicate this to a sales person that can explorer the opportunity. The developer then can go back to what he is good at and actually want to do – develop great product that the customer wants/needs.
And another thing; the statement “we need to focus on closing” is also BS. People think that selling is closing. It is not. Selling is opening. Starting the conversation with the potential customer right (your business case idea is crucial) and qualifying the opportunity. If you open right the rest is following the right process and closing is a natural progressing of that process.
The idea that you can open an opportunity poorly and then later go out and close it is nonsense – it will not work!

Comment on Stop saying that: Everybody is a sales guy by Jesper Vingborg Andersen

Jesper Vingborg Andersen — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:26:52 +0000

Boy, you are hitting the nail hard. I can only agree on your overall analysis, especially with regards to the situation when the “we are all sales guys” card is played: a woeful pile of manure!

Another aspect of the same problem is, that this card is only played by managers that lacks a deep understanding of how the product is actually made. Not technical understanding, mind you, but an intuitive recognition that different actors play different roles in the overall process: All developers/salespeople/consultants are not equal.

By the way, have you ever heard management bang its fist hard down in the table and demand, that we ALL become better engineers?