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Announcing my retirement, figuring out the future.

I quit looking for paying work four or so years ago. With COVID raging, it was hard to make the person to person connections that had fueled my consulting in recent years. I came home from two conferences infected with COVID, despite my precautions. One of those times I transmitted it to my wife. I certainly didn’t want to do THAT again.

On top of that, I knew so many excellent people who were also struggling to find work. Many of those needed the income more than I did, as I had reached an age where I could tap into my retirement reserves. This aspect has gotten even worse with the massive layoffs I see going on, many based on optimistic hopes that LLMs can replace employees.

I quit competing with those people who were struggling to survive.

A few weeks ago, I took the step of dissolving my consulting company, iDIA Computing, LLC, with the State of Maryland. I dreaded taking such an irreversible step, but now, after doing so, I feel like a great weight has been lifted off of me.

What’s in my future? I don’t know. I’ll figure that out as I go along. I’m still interested in helping people succeed, even though I’m not looking to be hired. If you could use someone to talk with about a problem you’re facing, reach out. I’m merely retired, not dead! 😆

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5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success

Most of my recent writing has not yet been published. That, and work on the upcoming AgileDC Conference and Agile India beyond that, have meant relatively little output on my blog. I apologize for that.

I’d like to share with you an interview conducted by Bill Fox for his 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success project. My interview, “Measure Progress in a Way that’s Visible and Reliable,” is found on page 69 of the PDF.  You’ll also find interesting interviews with Karen Base, Kevin Schaaff, Hillel Glazer, Scott Ambler, Neil Potter, Bob Payne, Mike Bonamassa, Mario Hyland, Jeff Dalton, Paul E. McMahon, Karl Wiegers, Mary Lynn Penn, Ally Gill, Alan Shalloway, and Tom Cagley. And there are more to come in the future.

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Proficiency and Fluency in Self-Organization

Ever since I experienced the “Where Are Your Keys” language fluency game with Willem Larsen, I’ve been thinking about how to apply the concepts to learning other than languages.  One of the fascinating concepts I gleaned from this game is the separate dimensions of proficiency and fluency.  The proficiency scale that Willem uses is based on the ACTFL guidelines of Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, & Superior.  Willem gave a memorable colloquial description of these guidelines in relation to a party: Read More

Looking back at Agile 2009

Another conference has come and gone.  I’m home.  I’m exhausted.  I’m glad to have good internet connectivity again, and time to sit alone with my thoughts.

I had a fabulous time.  Through conferences such as this one, I now have dozens of friends from around the world that I rarely get to see.  I really enjoy getting together face to face.  Missa vitussa se poro on. (I hope I’ve spelled that correctly.)  And I spent time with friends that I previously only knew from Twitter and email.  And I met new friends that I’d not known before.  All of that was thrilling.  (I also didn’t get a chance to talk with some friends whom I know attended. Life is like that.)

I attended some great sessions.  Read More

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Simple Design and Testing Conference

It’s only a week away from the Simple Design and Testing Conference. This will be the third such conference organized by Naresh Jain, and the first that I’ve missed. I’m disappointed that I won’t be there, but I’ve been on the road almost continuously for almost five months….

Frankly, it puzzles me that these conferences aren’t more highly attended. Despite my suggestions to Naresh, he insists that there be no admission charge. The only cost is a weekend of your time and your travel expenses. Oh… and a desire to learn and share.

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