Leading Digital Business Agility and Transformation, DevOps, Agile, and Cloud
Discussions related cloud usually takes a wrong route! Rather than starting from existing problems and think how to address them and consider cloud as one of the options, customers tent to think about pitfalls of the cloud! Realistically speaking, nothing is perfect, including the cloud! cloud is evergreen by nature; each day new services, enhancements … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: At least, it’s an improvement!
By choosing a multi-cloud strategy, you lose one of the main advantages of cloud adoption of being a “Single Control and Management Plane”. Ensure to include this in your Cloud Adoption Business Case and be fully aware of the trade-offs you’re making Below some examples: And the list goes on……
This is one of the best statement to summarize one of the challenges I consistently face while working with customers; “we’re different?”, “Agile won’t work in our environment”, “DevOps is not suitable for our challenges?”…… If you haven’t heard this, or anything similar yet, then you’re not experienced enough, you’d rather go and find your … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: We’re Different!
While working with customers on DevOps, one of the most repeated questions is: “How should we structure our teams to achieve the benefits of DevOps?”. The answer, for DevOps practitioner, is no-brainer! It should be Feature Teams or Squads. However, in enterprises the situation is usually more complex. While feature teams resemble the ideal setup … Continue reading DevOps: the right team structure!
Needless to say, the DevOps movement evolved to enhance collaboration between development and operation teams and to overcome the continuous destructive tension; development strives to push changes to production fast, while operations focuses on production stability. By focusing on creating value to the customer, remove any activity that adds no value to the customer (waste)1 … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: DevSecOps 101
One of the four items in Agile Manifesto is: value individuals and interactions over processes and tools And one of the twelve principles induced from the manifesto is: Build projects around motivated individuals, give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done Unfortunately, in practice, most of Scrum … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Importance of Sprint Retrospective
Very often, in training session and discussions, I am ask ed to share project management templates. Requesters believe by using templates project management will be easier and projects will succeed! My consistent response is: I won’t share any! Don’t judge me! I am not mean. I am just against anti-patterns1; relying on
Do you expect us to implement all of this? this needs years and years! How can we master all of this? this is huge!Where should we start? Typical questions I hear as an ITIL Trainer and consultant. Before tackling them, I admit that ITIL scope is huge. It covers the complete life-cycle of any IT … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: ITIL where to start
Projects failure is contextual! it differs from project to another depending on tolerances, limitations and conditions. a project is usually considered a failure if : It exceeded the allocated time, budget along with the tolerances. It failed to deliver the expected outputs. Hence outcomes are not achieved and expected benefits cannot be realized. This is … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Projects Failure – Countermeasure 1: Is it really a project!
How do you feel when you hear “No”? Most of us feel upset with “No”. We usually take “No” as a humiliation or at least feel bad for getting ourselves in such situations. However, successful people receive “No” differently,but how? Before getting more into this, you need to realize the fact that leads them to … Continue reading TIP: Live with rejection
As a project manager working in a customer/vendor environment, and if you’re experienced enough, I believe you faced a situation where the customer shifted the discussing of a change request into a concern about the final benefits of the project. You start hearing statements like “I don’t want to discuss a change here or there…”, … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: projects and benefits realisation trap
“I came to your shop 3 times asking about a spare part for my food processor. Every-time you tell me you’ll call me later, but you never did. What’s wrong with you people?”. I started the conversation at the electronics shop store. “Sir, please check the system log, we’ve called you 3 times, but you … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Just Listen, Always!
“Kanban and Scrum – Making the most of both” is a very nice lightweight reading – thanks InfoQ – that discusses how Kanban and Scrum are related to each other, how they are different and how to make the best out of both! Yes, The best out of both! Yes, they can be applied together! … Continue reading REPHRASE: Kanban and Scrum – making the most of both
Magento is cool! it’s getting a lot of traction and popularity. It is getting better with every release, and it’s definitely empowering thousands of on-line stores world-wide. No question about that! However, I believe there is something intrinsically wrong with Magento! Magento, from my experience, is most of the time is below customers and technologist … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Magento, the awesome slow eCommerce Platform!
If the first thing you hear when something goes wrong is “Who did that?”, then you should know there is something wrong! No I don’t mean what happened, but what is going to happen and how the situation will be handled. Good leaders know that things go wrong, some times for no reason. They know … Continue reading TIP: Who to blame?
I rarely meet a business or technology executive who is satisfied with the effectiveness and efficiency of IT processes and activities. Common complains are response time, things falling in the cracks, under estimating, incomplete solutions….etc. Complains usually come with complete despair! we tried multiple processes, best practices….etc but nothing works!
A question I get over and over, in different formats such as: “We trained our resources on PMP, ITIL, PRINCE2 , we bought the tools, and guess what nothings works! do they ever work?”. “How did you manage to get Agile implemented? we tried, never worked”. “Are you telling me that any of this can … Continue reading What to change? How to change? or, Why to change?
One way to motivate action, then, is to make people feel as thought they’re already closer to finish line than they might have thought from Switch
This is not my first reading for Seth Godin. I have before read Linchpin and planning to read The Purple Cow. The book is about being an initiator, it’s about doing something, not giving up early, getting feedback and keep trying. It’s about starting things very often, with dedication and perseverance. The book highlights very inspiring thoughts … Continue reading REVIEW: Poke the Box
One of the best books I’ve ever read or listened to. Just Listen is really amazing and inspiring. If you’re a manager you definitely should read this piece of art. I liked Just Listen much for the following reasons: 1. Very simple and straight to the point language
Finally I got my ITIL V3 expert accreditation after 2.5 years of study, practice and training. The journey started on December 2009 when I sat for the foundation exam. Since then, I have delivered ITIL foundation training , studying, practicing and passing the intermediate exams. Why it took me all that time? because I did … Continue reading ANNOUNCEMENT: ITIL Expert Certification
If you’re a technician or technical manager working on a large-scale web site reading this book is not an option. This is a must-read book. However,if you don’t work in such environment, don’t bother reading the book! It will be very hard to related and understand. The book is composed of 17 chapters collected … Continue reading REVIEW: Web Operations – Keep Data on Time
The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate how to calculate IT costs in a scientific way and not guessing. IT financial management is one of the most complicated subjects to address. From a business perspective IT financial transparency is usually a pain. The start of the presentation was a bit boring and I was … Continue reading Review: Enabling IT FInancial Transparency
I’ve tried to add Facebook Login button to my CodeIgniter application. Since I’m new to both CodeIgniter and Facebook Connect, at least from development aspect, I have looked for existing tutorials. After research I found that Danny Herrarn tutorial is the best one. However, I faced a couple of issues, to which, I found no … Continue reading GUIDE: Facebook Login with CodeIgniter
Just finished listening to the audio version of “How the Mighty Fall”. Another interesting study by Jim Collins. The main idea behind the book is that decline can be avoided, detected and reversed. In this book Jim Collins illustrates how big companies fall; which happens through 5 stages of decline: Stage 1: Hubris Born of … Continue reading REVIEWS: How the Mighty Fall
Occasionally, I find people surprised of my interest in ITIL, knowing that the industry I work in is Internet. With curiosity: “How do you apply ITIL on website and internet!” people ask. In other occasions I found people surprised that I am implementing this gradually without having this as part of a formal and official … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Dispelling some Myths about ITIL
In a region where PMP certification is assumed all-what-you-need for project management, occasionally, I have to answer the question “Why PRINCE2, you’re already a PMP?”. PRINCE2 stands for PRojects In Controlled Environment. PRINCE2 is a project management methodology,that is mainly concerned with establishing, maintaining and controlling the project environment.
Usually, when one make a mistake at work, the first thing s/he thinks about is how s/he can hide this from his/her manager. right? From my humble experience, I usually think about it differently: How can I tell my manager about this. Strange? Not really, telling your manager about your mistakes is the best thing … Continue reading TIP: Market your mistakes!
In ITIL, Portfolio management is part of the service strategy, which reflects the importance of the process. Portfolio Management is very important to have a centralized place where all services starting from conceptualization till retirement are listed. Most importantly, through the service pipeline, we study the services business cases, decide on what services to offer, and charter … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Portfolio Management, Resource Allocation and Morale
A very interesting, vivid and beneficial presentation! The purpose of the presentation is to illustrate “how” to scale lean and Agile across multisite. It presents practices and tips related to adoption of offshore, multisite development and coordination within large scrum teams. I liked that fact that was presented at the beginning: “big projects” can be … Continue reading REVIEW: Scaling Lean and Agile Development
Why does a client reach you or choose you to provide him with an IT solution or service? Definitely because of the value he believes you’ll be delivering to him. In return of value, he pays you money and, supposedly, enjoys the value you’ve delivered to him. The value is delivered to the client, by deploying your assets (capabilities and resources) … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Protect your Strategic Assets
Most of the time, we compare the work we perform with our salary, and we limit our effort, dedication to excellence and learning to salary, assuming that doing more or better is really a waste of time, effort and resources. After all you do not want your employer to get advantage of you. Is this … Continue reading TIP: Capture The Real Value
3000 new companies a day are signing up world wide. More than 10 million active users in more than 500,000 companies are currently using it. For only $50/individual/annum, it gives you the ability to handle e-mail, Web hosting, calendars, instant messaging, and standard business applications like word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. It is Google apps. … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Why SaaS?
It is clear; the largest economy in the world is in the ICU. The American government has been trying everything possible to revive the economy. Nevertheless, more banks have bankrupted and more jobs are lost every day. Dubai as well, has been severely and negatively affected. Real estate prices have dropped at least by 40%, … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Jordan and the World Economic Crisis
I agree it is always hard to start with anything new. That is natural, whenever you start with anything that is out of your comfort zone. It is even harder because of having a limited time to finish. In software development, we have new starts, almost every day. Every ticket, task or assignment is usually … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Another Hard Start
How many times you tried to hammer a nail with a scissor? screwdriver? or maybe a shoe!! I have done this a lot, ironically, sometimes it works! I might have faced some difficulties; the nail got bent, I harmed my self, or it took longer than expected. If it was one of my “Unlucky Days”, … Continue reading PERSPECTIVE: Hammering with a scissor!
Yeah, seems that’s it! blogging seems very old fashioned in the age of Social media, posts and tweets! I’ll stop blogging and will share my thoughts on Linkedin and Twitter
As a continuation of my partnership with Global Knowledge, I delivered PMP course. As COVID-19 restrictions were removed, the course was delivered in Class Room.
As a continuation of my partnership with Global Knowledge, I delivered ITIL V4 Foundation Course. As COVID-19 restrictions were removed, the course was delivered in Class Room.
As a continuation of my partnership with Global Knowledge, I delivered Exin Scrum Master course. As COVID-19 restrictions were removed, the course was delivered in Class Room.
As a continuation of my partnership with Global Knowledge, I delivered ITIL Foundation V4 course. Due to Covid-19 situation, the course was delivered online.
As a continuation of my partnership with Global Knowledge, I delivered Introduction to Project Management Course. Due to COVID-19 situation, the training was conducted online
As a continuation of my partnership with Global Knowledge, I delivered Exin Scrum Master course. Due to COVID-19 situation, the training was conducted online
Ala' Yasin Abuhijleh 