2012 A New Lean & Agile Year

Every new year I sort of take stock what happened last year, what were the achievements and what I could have done better. Overall, we see a trending towards a leaner and more efficient way of doing things. Agile concepts and Scrum methodology flourished. A few years back, we were looking for that perfect foundation or framework to be the overarching framework of how things to be done, sort of like a unified theory of the perfect testing framework. Only for the recent trend of Agile tells us that, the only best way to get something done is to do it in small repeatable yet emphasize on transparency and openness. This is the way to go...

I personally have seen the successes in Scrum and Agile methodology in organizations. To this I would like to add, how is the software testing world adapting or taking part in Scrum or Agile. Some Scrum still leaves testing out of the sprint, some adopt testing into the sprint but seems isolated in the way testing work is done and most have no ideas. A have seen a book or 2 on how agile testing is supposed to be but to bluntly put it, it is still not very commonly practiced, at least, not in Asia Pacific.

The ever changing software industry required us to move with the pace, and I believe that software testers have to keep up with the methodology and concept and learn how to work with the agile developers now. This is the best way I know of how to provide good value to our organizations.

I wish all of you a great New Year and happy 2012: the New Lean And Agile Year.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Board of Computing Professionals Malaysia Bill 2011

I cannot fully comprehend, why the IT industry that is thriving so well, need a body to regulate them. So here is my point on why the bill is not necessary, in fact, redundant.
1. Why do we need to be registered to have something to do with IT? Does users of IT system need to go through the registration as well?
2. What if we get an expert from overseas to come to Malaysia to solve some critical IT issues? Is it illegal for them to touch the keyboard since they are not registered? Can he check in his code or fixes, OR, he will be locked up by the police?
3. What if the registration board finds someone they don't like and fail to register the person? Would it be that this person would better start to look for a job that has nothing to do with IT?
4. So, there would be Certified Professional Software Developer, who has all the certificates or connections to get him or her registered, but he or she does not know how to code at all. AND, there is this young genius student who is still studying and has no cert. So the poor student would have to give or sell all the codes/solution to this registered person? Starts to sound like accounting industry.
5. And how about fees? Would I be subjected to pay like I am a professional accountant or something?

All this crazy scenarios sounds so crazy. And I guess it definitely turn people off, not that they are not already turned off right now. I think the group of people pushing for this bill is trying to make themselves more useful, unfortunately, they got the opposite effect. I'd say, if you stop thinking about how to make money out of it and really do more in educating the wider Malaysia (especially the rural) on IT, it would have been much more practical. I don't buy this crap, really...

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Book Sales like Never Before

I heard about the crazy book sales, but I have not seen it until the other day, I went and people don't carry plastic bags, but they carry boxes and luggage bags.
I was totally unprepared, I felt ashamed, haha.

Check out the photos....

Look... the kid is carrying a BOX!!

They bring books by pallet via a forklift I think

Not to be outdone by the kid, I have a box (hehe) and 4 shopping bags :)

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

ISO 26000 Corporate Social Responsibility

Recently I went for a course organized by Asian Productivity Organization (APO) that is, e-learning, on ISO 26000 Corporate Social Responsibility.

It is interesting to understand that increasingly people are looking at how a company conduct itself rather than only on the quality of the goods produced exclusively. Organizations now aware of the needs to look into their social responsibility image to the public. As well the points in SR also ensure sustainable development.

So company have to look into areas like to have a balance healthy ecosystems, social equity and good organizational governance. At the end of the day, the organization have to exist in a healthy ecosystems and organizational governance is important because there are various stakeholders that will surely scrutinize every discrepancies and gaps that the organization has.

It also takes into consideration a wide area in terms of societal, environmental, legal, cultural, political and organization diversity (small to conglomerate), as well as differences in economic conditions and keeping in tab consistency with international norms.

This of course is not for certification and only meant to be guideline. The area coverage would be too big as well as different industry has different governing rules. So, it is not meant to be all coverage, but it is overarching of corporate social responsibility. It is something important and not that difficult, but we definitely have to spend some time to look into it and start implementing within our organization.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Of Video Cam and Camera

I was in a dilemma a couple of days back on which video cam I should go for.

Canon Vixis HF M300
HF M31
Panasonic HDC-H560
JVC GZ HD620
Canon FS200/21/22
JVC GZ HD670
Canon Legria HF R16 RM1499
Sony PJ10E RM2299

The below was some of those considered. Guess which one I went for :)

Wanted to go for a small camera, with limited functionality. Quick and small for family use... Shortlisted 2
A2200IS - seems suitable for mom
IXUS 115 - good for YL

Any comments?

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Ethan - Walking Freely

Ethan grows by the day and everyday, he seems to give me and my wife a surprise. Just until 3 days ago, he was walking but was terribly unstable. He could fall front, which he could soften by slamming his hand on the floor first, and then he could also tilt and fall sideways, which he could fall on his buttock first (like sitting down), and sometimes after sitting down still not stable and knock his head on the floor. Not too hard, but I do feel his pain...

Now, just barely 3 days later, he is walking around so relaxed, as if he has been walking all this time and steady at that. Boy, is he growing up quickly. I better spend more time with him and keep on snapping away with my camera. I think I would also need a new hard disk to store those photos. One Terra-byte? Two? hmmm...

And my wife and I caught on to a new interesting book about teaching baby how to read. We are all set for the little project and already bought the stationary. Glenn Doman, I recommend his books to you too.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Purpose of my Life

It is the point in time every year that I take a step back and see what is happening in my life. Every year I make a little bit of adjustment here and there, like less of sinful food, more of exercise, strategy to reduce my body fats, strategy to contact some long lost friends and etc. This year though, I take a more profound approach by asking the question, what is the purpose of my life here? Well it has been 2 weeks since I asked that question and really it is not one that I readily have any answers to, even though I have 2 weeks to think about it.

I do know that everyone has a different purpose. Not everyone look at it objectively, and build a plan to achieve it, most people drift by it or get into the thick of action without giving too much of a thought about it. When they do give a thought about it, it is too complex, takes too much time, so, revert to something easier or forget about it.

So after 2 weeks, here is what I have, the most important thing for me is to trust and walk with Jesus and to build that relationship, next is to be the best that I can be with all the given talents and physical health, to give my best to my family and friends and to do my best in every initiative that I embark on.

I suppose time management, wealth, happiness need not be mentioned here because if I am able to do the above and prioritize accordingly, the rest will be added on into my life. Am I missing anything? Well, my friends, do say something if you have anything constructive :p

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Ethan - 1 year old

Ethan just had his 1 year old birthday party earlier this month. He is a happy boy, giving a wide big smile whenever he is happy and cheeky. Most important of all, he gives me a wide big smile every time I come back from work.

He makes a lot of noise when we put him down in the play pant. He will shout and cry like we have bullied him. Well he definitely knows the tips and tricks to get out of the play pant. When he is not in the play pant, he'll try to walk around (totally unstable) and he will circle around the table and throw about toys and whatever he could grab on. Occasionally, he will grab hold of any two things in his hand and not let go, even when he is climbing and crawling.

He is growing up and definitely growing smarter. He is a handful but I have a very merry great time spending time with him. This Easter weekend reminds me again how important he is in my life and the life of my family.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.