Strange Adventures

02 August 2017

Lets get Big and Visible!

So, various forces conspired to keep me on the bench for most of the month of July. Being as I am, I wanted to be sure that I provide and share as much value as possible during that time, so… here’s my summary / demo!

Rob Murdock’s July Output:

  1. Substantial upgrades to the Pillar Squad Model, including:

    • Branding “standing teams at Pillar” as the “Pillar Squad Model”
    • Ran many conceptual tests of the Pillar Squad Model, based on historical scenarios
    • Built out an initial map of how the GLR region “could” be managed within the “Pillar Squad Model”
    • Developed a usable Elasticity metric so teams can self-assess how much change they can tolerate. Read it Here!
    • Developed the Roles that would need to be fulfilled in order to make the Pillar Squad Model function, and a simple model by which the Roles interact. Read it Here!
    • Wrote eight persona-based perspectives about how the Pillar Squad Model will be beneficial. Read it Here!
    • Created and illustrated two different ways Squads can be composed to help clarify the direction of the Pillar Squad Model. Read it Here!
    • Determined a few things that a region needs to be given in order to apply the squad model today.
    • That sums to about 58 hours of work.
  2. Wrote a “Metrics for Continuous Integration” white paper, to help coach teams struggling with this process. This included:
    • Interviewing existing teams about what challenges they run into
    • Discussing common team dysfunctions in the GLR
    • Drafting the metrics themselves
    • Drafting content for understanding values of the metrics and suggestions for how to address pain
    • Polishing the draft based on feedback. Read it Here!
    • That sums to about 40 hours of work.
  3. Prepared content for a templated, repeatable Pillar Academy. That work included:
    • maintaining the Academy Template trello board. Link for people who have access!
    • Working with Greg to use existing content and redigest it for the Academy template
    • Finding resources for use by the Academy
    • Creating and writing resources for the Academy, available on Google Drive
    • Setting up the trip to Iowa
    • Running the academy itself
    • Handing the template off to the next pair to run Academy
    • Sums to about 52 hours of work.
  4. Growth Conversations and Proposals.
    • Worked on a discovery session and proposal for Merit
    • Worked on a tour/discovery with Tom Kelly from Automation Alley
    • Consulted on the Carma proposal
    • Sums to about 12 hours of work.
  5. Assorted Tasks
    • Coupling upgrades and research: 16 hours
    • Revisiting Go; created a small project to brush up technical skills in anticipation of an Iowa client: 12 hours
    • Discussing Postman integration testing strategies; bringing the lessons Aziz and I developed at RouteOne to a larger audience. 8 hours
    • Assisted Steve with some Docker + Javascript technical research: 4 hours

So that’s that! The big takeaways for me have been:

  • It takes about a week for me to produce a 9 page document about processes with which I am extremely familiar.
  • If enough value is provided by that document, I have plans to write more. Let me know if you like!
  • Figuring out how to make the Pillar Squad Model real enough to be applicable has taken a lot of elbow grease, and a notable amount of time to extract that information from my brain.
  • That said, I think the PSM is very close to being usable now, thanks to all the effort by all the people I’ve partnered with to move it this far.
  • Education and illustration is very rewarding; both as a writer/instructor and to new Pillar hires.
  • I’m very excited about the new kinds of growth opportunities we’ve been finding lately.

Thanks for reading, all who made it this far! Happy to answer any questions about any of these projects.

Rob Murdock