December 31, 2019

Year in Review: 2019

Although it takes effort and discipline to capture the content for these yearly reviews, I continue to be amazed by how much I accomplish personally and professionally each year. The areas I focused on (in no particular order) include community service, leadership, group fitness, company process and projects, professional development, pleasure reading, hobbies, and personal accomplishments.

Some highs:

  • Landing an amazing job (Director of Agile Coaches at Lirio) that allows me to focus full-time on developing, sustaining, and improving ways that people work. I couldn’t have achieved this without help from people in the community being my advocates.
  • I underestimate how much I read. I’ve completed 21 books this year — some for pleasure, some for career. On a related note, I’m proud to be a member (I don’t recall which of us started the group) of a regular book club with friends and colleagues.
  • Participated in my first conference session review. It helped me appreciate what makes a good abstract, understand what people in my industry are excited to talk about, and validate that Agile coaching is a viable career path.
  • Observed several of my friends advance in their careers, and at least one person start a new career.

Some lows:

  • Being in a holding pattern about my job and career at DPRA, and having little agency to improve within that environment.
  • Supervising other developers where I had little opportunity to help them improve their skills or compensation.
  • A former colleague and close friend is moving to another state. Sure, we’re only a call/Skype away, but I’ll miss our frequent face-to-face lunches.
  • Despite having ticked many of the boxes to make it easier to land my next job, it was surprising how many things fell flat for positions I applied to and how long it took me to secure a better job.

What I’m grateful for in 2019 (in no particular order):

  • Having a new job and a new career. This is my first role that doesn’t involve any software development. (Related: I’m grateful for starting the new job when I did, as about two weeks later I found out there would be layoffs because of financial troubles for the former company’s contract.)
  • Fostering deeper connections with friends. Gillie and I are having more regular get-togethers with people that help us feel wonderful and who we are proud to know.
  • My wife is an amazing partner, friend, and person. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have her in my life. We work through things, regularly make each other laugh, share new experiences, listen to each other, and challenge one another to grow.
  • Working with people that are energized to do amazing things and adopt healthy behaviors and practices because they want to and not because they have to.
  • For my hobby… I’m thankful there are hundreds of videos on YouTube that explain how to build scale models.

Things I want to focus on in 2020:

  • Getting a better sense of what it means to have this new career — connections to make, conferences to attend, books to read.
  • Building scale models on a more consistent basis to improve my skills and let me focus on something not related to my job.
  • Re-evaluating some roles and relationships I have kept out of habit or obligation.

Details

Community service

  • Was a guest on the Developer on Fire podcast (episode 439)
  • Gave feedback to three new conference speakers on their presentations
  • Spoke at Scenic City Summit
  • Reviewed over 600 session submissions for CodeStock 2020
  • Served as clerk on a Board of Trustees
  • Played piano and accompanied a choir for dozens of worship services, a memorial service, and a Christmas Eve service
  • Picked up litter around my apartment complex on a (mostly) weekly basis; did the same for the 0.8-mile road near my former office Monday through Friday

Company process (DPRA)

  • Co-managed (with the VP of Solutions) the process of getting our company successfully ISO 9001:2015 certified
  • Co-created a company-wide training campaign for ISO 9001:2015
  • Participated in a successful ISO 9001:2015 Stage 2 certification audit
  • Served as chairman of the Management Review Team
  • Worked with the VP of Solutions to negotiate with our CMMI consultancy to save over $24K in unnecessary training and process
  • Participated in a CMMI-DEV v2 evaluation appraisal (formerly called SCAMPI-C) to help the company identify process gaps and plan the work to fill those gaps
  • Helped develop a means of centralized tracking of non-conformities and corrective actions; this helps monitor trends and ensure changes are working, with minimal disruption to existing processes
  • Suggested revisions to our company bonus distribution policy to make it more fair and transparent
  • Participated in groups to improve code-related metrics (code review response rate, Product Backlog Item completion rate)

Leadership (DPRA)

  • Helped a developer transition back to work after a lengthy deployment with the Army National Guard
  • Served as hiring manager — screened, interviewed, and onboarded candidates for developer positions
  • Wrote company newsletter articles on how to make meetings more effective
  • Shared articles with top management to keep them informed of Agile trends, ways to attract and retain talented staff
  • Mentored a direct report on how to screen résumés and conduct both phone and on-site interviews
  • Wrote a letter of recommendation to graduate school for one of my direct reports

Group fitness

  • Taught approximately 100 classes throughout the year
  • Launched four RPM releases (81-84) at Knoxville area Gold’s Gyms
  • Copy-edited four RPM releases (83-86) of choreography and instructor materials for Les Mills International
  • Actively participated in staff meetings at two gyms
  • Renewed my Heartsaver CPR/AED certification
  • Completed 18 (15 is the minimum) continuing education units for my AFAA Program Group Exercise certification
    • CPR/AED certification (2 units)
    • The Sports Surfaces Debate (2 units)
    • Prehab vs. Rehab (7 units)
    • Sustaining Mobility & Movement: Human Movement Science (7 units)

Pleasure reading (14)

  • I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
  • Treason by Orson Scott Card
  • Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood by Edward Hallowell, M.D. and John Ratey, M.D.
  • The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
  • The Book of Life (book 3 in the All Souls trilogy) by Deborah Harkness
  • Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean
  • The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion – Surprising Observations of a Hidden World by Peter Wohlleben
  • Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
  • Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Series by Larry Correia
  • The Swarm by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
  • Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari
  • The Hive by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
  • The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
  • Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Hobbies

Professional development

I wrote 52 weekly summary posts of articles relevant to my career; although I didn’t sum them up, my estimate is that I’ve shared over 700 articles, books, or videos.

Understanding DevOps Pluralsight skills path

Communication for Technologists Pluralsight skills path

HBR Guide to Coaching Employees

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

Atomic Habits

Security+ (SY0-501) Refresher; completed re-certification (through January 2023)

Web development

The Phoenix Project

Remote: Office Not Required

Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work and Flow

The Manager’s Path

Project work (DPRA)

  • Served as the information hub for my team by attending meetings, distilling information, and ensuring it was distributed to the right people at the right time; visibility ranged from developers to top company and project management
  • Acted as ScrumMaster for one of the JFAST teams; created a technical roadmap for large features, facilitated task planning, prioritized work, managed and communicated risks, tracked and removed impediments, facilitated reviews and retrospectives
  • Developed the structure for a new project wiki; this will be used as a template for future DPRA projects
  • Investigated currently installed and new tools for automating code quality (e.g., ReSharper, ESLint, FxCop, StyleCop)
  • Performed code reviews of my team’s work

Blog posts

Personal accomplishments

  • Paid off three student loan accounts
  • Worked with my wife to upgrade both our vehicles
  • Received a clean bill of health for my yearly physical exam
  • After seven years of monitoring, I am no longer a glaucoma suspect
  • Visited the Outer Banks (North Carolina) with five friends
  • Visited family for a long weekend around Indigenous People’s Day
  • Gillie and I made a more concerted effort to connect more regularly with friends by alternating hosting dinners and fun activities