Author Archives: Ken Judy

About Ken Judy

I am an executive leader, software developer, father and husband trying to do more good than harm. I am an agile practitioner. I say this fully aware I say nothing. Sold as a tool to solve problems, agile is more a set of principles that encourage us to confront problems. Broad adoption of the jargon has not resulted in wide embrace of these principles. I strive to create material and human good by respecting co-workers, telling truth to employers, improving my skills, and caring for the people affected by the software I help build.

Update requires that you quit update

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Microsoft update requires that you quit Microsoft auto-update

I realize Microsoft AutoUpdate and any particular Microsoft Office update are two different executables but since the first launches the second, this dialog box strikes me as a plea for assisted suicide.

The fact that it always comes up makes me think Microsoft could have spent time on a more elegant solution.

That fact that the naming and iconography is so confusing that I’ve accidentally killed the update instead of the auto-updater requiring me to start all over again is infuriating.

I’m speaking at Agile NYC on May 12th

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I have a week to prepare for this month’s APLN-NY which now goes by the zazzy name “Agile New York City”.

Last month, I was the last minute replacement for the planned speaker until the planned venue fell through. So this month, I am the scheduled speaker. This lends an air of improvisation to the event.

Right now, I am a year and a half into my current job and locked in the kind of agile adoption I’ve only presented with hindsight. Right now, I am about the day to day: acknowledging incremental progress, working through setbacks and full of my own limitations. I don’t know the ending. What I feel is an urgency to do better and be better.

So, I worked out the topic over some e-mail exchanges with Jochen Krebs. In the absence of a story to tell, it’s time to do a little a personal retrospection.

Instilling Agile Values for Creativity, Self-Improvement and Organizational Change – A Manager’s Perspective

The scale and speed of an agile adoption are external measures that don’t speak to the founding values of the practice. Collective ownership, continuous improvement and high trust are hard won, take time and discipline but lead to craftsmanship and joy. They are enabling conditions for innovation and beneficial change.

I will retrospect on my contributions both positive and negative towards cultivating these values in two teams. The first was a practice that matured over four years, led to a new mission for the team and direct collaboration with the founder and CEO. The second, is a new team finding its way at the end of its first year.

What will I do more off? What will I do less of? What impediments got in the way?