This isn’t a blog post of all my 2020 achievements, like all of us, surviving was more than enough but here’s just a selection of the things I’m proud of achieving along with the rest of the Deeson team over the last twelve months and a few personal projects that have brought joy this year too.
Projects
My focus this year has been primarily spent on the following:
I’ve been working with the transformation team at Imperial War Museum on their new membership offering, this project has involved working very closely with three different partners and their in-house development team who have been building out the API. …
Resilience, noun
the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
A couple of months ago, I was really starting to feel the weight of remote working, along with a healthy dose of imposter syndrome and was, to be honest, taking work too seriously. In a perpetual cycle of stress, often caused entirely by my own reaction to things. A curt slack message, overthinking and analysing things which were not directed at me, taking things to heart and even some days catastrophising when things weren’t going to plan.
Small things which would normally have washed over me pretty quickly were sticking, I was spending the first-hour post-work off-loading to my partner about all the details of the day. …
On Monday, we hosted another delivery communities of practice meet across the Panoply.
One hour, twenty attendees and four great talks.
It was great to hear what other teams and individuals across the group are working on and get the opportunity to spend some time together.
First up was Joyce Wong, delivery manager at FutureGov sharing her recent experience with managing a futures project in infrastructure planning.
Future thinking was a new concept for me. If it is for you too, here’s a short definition
Futures Thinking is a method for informed reflection on the major changes that will occur in the next 10, 20 or more years in all areas of social life, including education. Futures Thinking uses a multidisciplinary approach to pierce the veil of received opinion and identify the dynamics that are creating the future. …
We have worked hard at Deeson to develop a robust DSDM agile framework for the delivery of our projects, which has held us in good stead for the type of work we regularly do. Typically these are four to six-month development projects, developed iteratively in two-week Timeboxes. However, when COVID-19 hit, we had one client wanted to respond rapidly to the crisis and we knew that our full process wasn’t quite fit for purpose.
We needed to be even more nimble and agile than we’d ever been before and focus everything around delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) within eight weeks from concept to launch. …
DSDM is our framework of choice at Deeson and this blog post explains why.
Firstly, what is it?
DSDM is “an Agile method that focuses on the full project lifecycle, DSDM was created in 1994 after project managers using RAD (Rapid Application Development) sought more governance and discipline to this new iterative way of working.”
There are pros and cons associated with any delivery approach or methodology and, in my opinion, there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’. However, it’s important for people to make an informed choice and when they say ‘agile’ they know what that actually entails.
So, why DSDM?
When we first embarked on the journey to deliver projects using agile methods, we started with ‘Scrum’. Scrum is a collaborative Agile development framework that breaks large processes down into small pieces in order to streamline efficiency. …
Inspired by John Cutler, a list of thoughts, idea’s and considerations that have surfaced during recent conversations with Mark Dalgarno, Jason Yip, Elaine Aitken, and Victoria Mitchell around the topic of internal agile coaching.
- Start by asking your team(s) what help they need “If you could get agile coaching for this Timebox what would it be?”
- Make coaching a regular ritual, build it into your current process, e.g. at the end of a retrospective you could get the team to decide which of the improvements/actions they’d like assistance from a coach
- Document and categorise retrospective actions into key themes so you can observe common issues across the…
The desire for social approval is a powerful motivator. It can be very useful to us in our work when it ensures that we stick to the promises that we make (or at least act to repair the damage done when we can’t stick to them), but it can also sometimes work against the interests of the wider group. Fear of making oneself look foolish or of causing annoyance to others can prevent us from speaking up on important matters, leaving teams and leaders ignorant of issues that need urgent attention. …
Last month I attended the inaugural Lean Agile Brighton conference born out of Brighton Lean Agile MeetUp Group.
The day started with me striking up a conversation with the keynote speaker, Caitlin Walker, a youth worker turned conflict coach. When she asked me what I was looking from the day. I said I like to be inspired but I’d also like to leave having learnt something new that I can apply in my role.
By the end of the day, I’d been introduced to new concepts, frameworks and even a new language so I can definitely it was a day well spent. …
After an inspiring couple of days at the Lead Developer conference last week, I wanted to share some of my learnings from a few of my favourite talks.
The Hardest Scaling Challenge of All — Yourself
Christian McCarrick
- As a leader, you need to prioritise where you spend your time. Obsess about the things that matter and acknowledge where “good enough” is okay.
- Not delegating is one of the biggest anti-patterns for not scaling. Ask yourself “how can this task/decision/goal get done?” not “how can I get this done?”
- Multi-tasking is a scaling anti-pattern. Focus, block time in your calendar for routine tasks e.g. …
Since January, my diet has changed drastically and weirdly, I’ve got my employer to thank.
At Deeson, we have an annual wellbeing budget which we’re encouraged to spend. The only rule is that it’s not intended to be spent on equipment or something you already do, as it exists to promote lasting change and to improve your current wellbeing.
I decided to use my budget to see a nutritionist. For the last couple of years, I’ve had periods of nausea, bloating and acid reflux but despite tests and prescriptions have never completely got it under control. The doctor encouraged me to change my diet, reduce stress, and increase exercise.
At the end of last year, I decided to be proactive and seek support, and booked a series of appointments which elapsed over a six month period. …
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