Another great read: "I Know This Much Is True"

I've just finished reading the book "I Know This Much Is True". The book is big, you need to take your time to go all the way through it. I wonder how long it took its author Wally Lamb to actually write such a lengthy story!

"I Know This Much Is True'' is a moving story. Dominick Birdsay's and Dominick's family's existence has not been easy, not at all. There are plenty of hardships and frustrations plaguing Dominick's mind and robbing him his sleep: a twin brother with schizophrenia, an abusive stepfather, a dead child, a broken marriage, to name just a few. And he is a bitter man

There is a lot of emotional conflict in this book, but although the specific situations seem sometimes a bit exaggerated they are all illustrative of our human soul’s biggest questions and needs.

Throughout the book Dominick learns a few things that would be good for all of us to learn: we can be wronged in many ways, but it is ultimately our decision how to live our lives. Put the blame on the others and hold grudges is certainly an option, one that will hardly lead to happiness. Take responsibility for one’s actions and decisions and forgive those who do us harm is another. You choose.

Getting Agile with Scrum. Understanding Scrum

In traditional IT development projects it is typical to write a big spec up-front and then we resist changes and put people through a change control committee to keep them to the essential minimum. Change however is a certain thing in life. When software development projects have a significant amount of complexity, functional and technical, change is inevitable.  Agile development principles are particularly handy in these highly uncertain scenarios: project scope/functionality is not fixed; instead the timescale is. During that time requirements emerge and evolve as the product is developed. Of course for this to work, it’s imperative to have actively involved stakeholders who understand this concept and make the necessary trade-off decisions, trading existing scope for new scope.

There's a ton of materials out there about Agile development methodologies. One of the most utilized is Scrum.

If you are not yet familiar with the basic Scrum principles I highly recommend you check out Mike Cohn's  video channel in Youtube. Mike's communication style is very direct and easy to follow.

Here's one of his videos: Agile and the Seven Deadly Sins of Project Management, enjoy!