leadership
I went to the eye doctor recently, after my eye was bothering me. I had slept in my contact lenses for several nights (which I'm prone to do), and my eye started bothering me. In the past, when this happens, I take my contact lenses out, throw them
lessons-learned
I'm no expert, but here's some baby advice for anyone about to have a child: 1. Read the book "Baby Bargains" -- it will pay for itself many times over with saving you money on what to register for and what to buy (it
strategy
I recently had the idea to create a list of audiobooks that would provide a comprehensive business education for those who wanted some MBA-level information without investing in a MBA degree. But in Googling around, I realize that many people have already done this -- the best I've
technology
Random product backlog idea: It'd be awesome if companies that offer online, video-based training (e.g. Lynda (now LinkedIn Learning), PluralSight, O'Reilly Safari, Udemy, etc.) offered: 1. An audio only mode for their mobile apps (so I could enjoy their content while driving and wouldn'
miscellaneous
I thought I'd share some cool things I'm a fan of, in case anyone on the internet is interested: Thing Notes Price It's go great to get a 5 minute news updates, and we listen to so much more music now thanks to the
miscellaneous
I recently enjoyed a podcast interview with Tom Cagley from the Software Process and Measurement Cast (SPaMCAST), talking about agile, process improvement, CMMI, and some of my (mis)adventures in scaling organizations. Check it out at https://tcagley.wordpress.com/2017/08/13/spamcast-455-michael-king-agile-and-discipline-in-action/
agile
I recently chatted with Tom Cagley on the Software Process and Measurement Podcast (SPaMCAST) about some of my experience helping scale operations at Halfaker using best practices from various business books (e.g. Good to Great), frameworks (e.g. CMMI), techniques (e.g. Agile Scrum), and tools (e.g. JIRA)
agile
Here's a list of books, podcasts, conferences, frameworks, methodologies, models, and other resources related to designing and building great organizations that I think are worth checking out. If you have any recommended additions, please email or send me a tweet. Books, Frameworks, and Standards Resource Key Takeaways Additional
agile
Early in my career, I was a leadership development conference (through Lockheed's great Engineering Leadership Development Program), where we played a game called Gold of the Desert Kings -- it was a group game, in a big event space ballroom packed with engineers from all over the country.
miscellaneous
If you're trying to figure out how to pick what type of job to do next, whether you're starting your career or making an change during your career, Richard Bolles' "What Color is Your Parachute?" book are a great resource. They've
CIO
Microsoft recently posted 3 ways to outsmart shadow IT, which talks some technology ways that CIOs can fight against Shadow IT (when employees use technologies not provided/controlled by the company to do their work, such as Dropbox or Gmail). While security of company information is incredibly important, and Shadow
agile
Organizations must intentionally determine how opinionated their collaboration tools (business systems) should be, to align with their culture and business model. Opinionated tools align well with top-down organizational cultures, while non-opinionated tools align well with decentralized, self-organizing cultures. Organizations struggle at each extreme: 1. Top-down organizations struggle to scale effectively,