A few months ago, I decided to cancel my personal Internet subscription. And it feels so good.

What? Really?

I know it sounds weird. We are in the 21st century, everything goes by Internet, and we got all so dependent of Internet… And me even more than the average, everything in my life goes around Internet. I buy a lot online, i decide via email where to meet with my friends, i look for new movies to see on the page of my closest cinema, …

But it got me thinking. My rhythm of life too much based on Internet, my too frequent nights spent on Internet rather than out having a drink with some buddies… And it’s not that I was doing anything relevant on the web… nope, I’m talking here about checking Facebook profiles, jumping from one profile to the other….

I tried to cut it down somehow, but it never works. You know, after a hard of work, it is just so easy to come back home and not move your ass again, just stay and check stupid links on Internet, … we all do it, and some would say its natural and regular… but nope, I am not like this.

I realized that in 2010 i had so many objectives, and i didn’t reach any of them, and mainly because of my « addiction » to Internet…

The big decision

So I decided to take a big decision. I decided to cancel my Internet subscription. I know it sounds kind of harsh and stuff, but really… if you want something, well you just try everything in your power to get it, right? Well, I wanted to stop this addiction, and do something with my life… like going back climbing, going out more often, meet new people…

So thats it. 3 months now that I don’t have Internet at home. I started again climbing, I went a few times rollerblading, tomorrow I’m going to a language exchange meeting,… and this is just a beginning… I have big plans for 2011.

And living without Internet is kind of a relief. Ok, I have a Smartphone now, so I’m still connected to my friends, but it’s really different. You obviously don’t use Internet the same way on a smartphone than on a laptop… and lets face it, I only use my smartphone to read my emails and my facebook messages. End of the story. No more endless Facebook session, or jumping from one site to an other, or starting to look at some dumb videos on Youtube.

Life is all about how you handle your own time. We all have 24 hours in our day. I used to spend an unreasonable amount of this time on my computer, and realized thats really not what I want to see of me when I look back in time later… so thats it, I stopped Internet. I have more free time. I read more. I DO more.

Thats a great feeling, i feel more peaceful since a few months, seriously…

You should try it.

Nicolas.

What is Scrum?

In a few words, Scrum is an Agile metholodogy for project management. It applies mainly on software engineering projects but is also suitable for other kind of projects. The main idea behind Scrum is to have small iterations of works, delivering a shippable product at the end of each one. The client is really involved in the project (via the Product Owner) and can give his feedback over the product very often and very early in the process. Priorities are decided by him and on each iteration, the team focus on developing the most important stories first, based on the 80/20 rule (80 % of the users will use 20% of the features, so those 20% features should ideally be developped first). Its advantanges compared to more classical approaches (Waterfall) are numerous: flexilibity, frequent and early feedback, prioritization of the scope, …

Scrum methodology

Product Owner

Silvia is the project manager, but for the Scrum needs, she took the role of the Product Owner. Our business situation is a bit complex and it is impossible to get the client involved and working along with us. So Silvia had the dream role of trying to get the client to share his thoughts with us, and it was far from being easy. The day after the beginning of the Sprint, the client finally gave us screenshots of the sites we were supposed to redevelop, … The other main role of Silvia, obviously, was to decide about the priorities of the features. Although at the end we are supposed to develop everything, it is important to focus first on the most important, and thats what she helped us to do by bringing a more business-oriented vision to our daily meetings.

Scrum master

As a Scrum master, i am in charge of keeping the project moving on and making sure that all the team is following Scrum processes and artifacts. I lead the daily meetings and make sure that we are still in phase with business priorities, while also trying to remove impediments from the team. I am not actually doing any development nor have any decision-making role, but i try to help and encourage team’s communication and keeping track of everything that is done and try to foresee what is coming next to give Silvia some vision.

It is my first experience as a Scrum master and only my second experience overall in a Scrum team. One week ago we actually closed our first iteration, and made a demo to Silvia and some stakeholders (3 of my superiors including my head of division).

To be honest, for all of us, this first Scrum experience was really made in a complicated context – most of the time not compatible with Scrum:

• even after beginning the first sprint, we kept adding tasks and changing the sprint, first because the requirements were not 100% complete yet, and second because everybody was discovering the platform so there was many unplanned elements to configure and/or implement,
• the development team is only made of 2 people, not cross-technical. They can’t really replace each other (one is more front-end oriented whereas the other one is more back-end oriented) and don’t work at the same hours and same places,
• we are literally spread all over the world. Jose is working with me in Madrid, Silvia is working from home near San Francisco and Pepe is based in Mexico,
• Internet connections were sometimes failing in Mexico.

But we made it and actually got a nice result, thanks to everybody’s work.

The main issues we had

We had a lot of issues during the Sprint. Some we could and should have anticipated more, some we seriously couldn’t do anything about:

• for both front and back-end, we were behind an internal framework for which there is little documentation and we barely received any training. Good thing Jose was here, cause he knew a lot, but Pepe obviously did struggle for some time on learning how to actually use the framework for the front-end part (being based in Mexico, he barely has any technical support since people using the framework are all in Madrid). He actually learned fast and improved some of the basic stuff that were made from Madrid!
• requirements and technical details of what was REALLY needed were sometimes coming or understood late,
• since we had only two developers, sometimes one for waiting for the other for some explanation or some piece of code logic to be available.

The BIG mistake

We actually started the Sprint without fixing an end date. Although it is one of the basic thing for a Sprint, we thought that just fixing the scope would be enough. BIG MISTAKE. After a while, we realized that we were not focusing anymore on having something deliverable and shippable to show at a given moment. Thats when we started worrying about priorities and really put apart some of the stories, although it was hard.

Despite this, we managed to bring fresh air to the logic and the front-end.

And we are now running the second sprint

The tools

When doing Scrum, the best situation is when all the team is in the same room, with a big wall or a big whiteboard. People can draw a complete sprint backlog and a complete product backlog on the whiteboard, and physically moved stories (post-its) from one state to the other. The simple act of actually moving a story is usually a real plus in the process.

Unfortunately, due to our particular situation (4 people spread over 3 countries), the physical whiteboard would have been too complicated.

So we went for an Excel sheet, that i improved along the Sprint, basically saying for each story the remaining estimated time; and also gathering also information like the actual velocity of the team, the planned time (supposing people were able to produce 0,7 man day by day), …

We tried also Pivotal Tracker, but found some problems with retroactively doing a Sprint backlog, and with remaining estimations.

About the team communication, well most of it was done through email. Scrum meeting were held at 5pm (CET time), in a meeting room, using Skype for the calls and Webex to share my desktop. I would usually share the Excel backlog and directly input the info on it, live; as well as share the PDF documents or Firefox to read an email together!

And i think thats it… Other sprints are on their way so i’ll let you know about any relevant new info about Scrum or our use of Scrum!

Nicolas.

Erasmus - (Ex)change your life!

[ES] 5 años. Hoy, el 7 de septiembre, es el quinto aniversario. Hace 5 años, llegué a Blackrock, en las afueras de Dublin, y asi empezaba mi Erasmus. Y asi empezaba mi vida internacional. El tiempo pasa tan rapido, me parece que fue ayer que llegue ahí. Tantas cosas han occurido en mi vida, que ni siquiera me podia imaginar aquel 7 de septiembre 2005. Fui a vivir a Belgíca por dos años, luego Salamanca, lo cual fue aún mejor que mi Erasmus y ahora Madrid. Madrid donde de verdad he llegado hace justo un año. Otro aniversario jaja! Qué mas decir… Es una sensación muy extraña pensar que todo empezaba hace ya 5 años… Me he trasladado varias veces, he empezado nuevas vidas desde cero… y sin embargo, no he cambiado tanto… Pienso que el mejor queda por venir. En 5 años, he entendido por lo menos una cosa: toda está entre mis manos. A ver donde estoy en 5 años!

[EN] 5 years. Today, 5th of September, is the fifth anniversary. 5 years ago i was arriving to Blackrock; in Dublin’s suburbs. It was just the beginning of my Erasmus, and of my international life. It never stopped actually. It seems it was yesterday. So many things happened since then, that i could never have imagined on that 7th of September. I moved to Belgium, where i lived 2 years, and then Salamanca, which was even better than my Erasmus, and now Madrid. Finally living the dream. Madrid where i arrived exactly one year ago. Another anniversary to celebrate it seems! What else… Its a really strange feeling to think that its already 5 years that it all started. I moved several times, started three times a new life from scratch… and yet, i havent changed that much, im still the same… I actually think the best is still ahead of me. In 5 years, theres at least one thing i learnt: that its all up to me. Well… we’ll see where i am in 5 years!

Why changing it?

Well first, let’s set the context. Since the end of June 2009, i am working for a French consultancy, also based in Spain. My mission is for a big french Insurace group. My work basically consists in corrective and evolutive maintenance of Web applications. Before i had never done any maintenance work, i kind of knew i wouldn’t like it, but who never tries never knows…

Looking back on it, i never really liked my job. Technically speaking, i almost haven’t learned anything (i am working with old applications and technologies – Java 1.4, JSP, Servlets). I am more attracted to recent and reusable technologies, those that will add some value on my resume and that i will enjoy working with.

Most of my work is technical: analyse a bug, find the piece of code to change, do some copy and paste (the framework is unfuckable), try to add some value… And that’s all. No time for refactoring, either in the code or in the class structure and inheritance. So it is the most frustrating thing ever, cause i was completely stuck

Sometimes i get to do some task planning, JIRA issues scheduling, and it gets interesting… After 8 months, i kind of understand what i’m doing and all the input and output of my applications/batches, so the analysis part becomes more interesting (cause less frustrating)…

However…

I never enjoyed my work. Well, i know, many people don’t enjoy their work. But after 2 years in Belgium with amazing projects and interesting things to learn, i’m somehow trying to find this situation again. I have been remembering this for the past months… those belgian mornings when i used to wake up with enthusiasm, knowing i was about to create something with my own two hands. So, obviously, here, i was suffering.

And there are more reasons than that, among which, the limited perspective of evolutions inside my company, the physical environment (10 people closed openspace), the Internet limitation, the hierarchy, the financial condition, ….

Anyway, it was time to change.

My new job

To say the truth, already back in September i was thinking about changing, but i never found the guts to start looking for a new challenge until very lately.

After coming back from Sweden, i finally decided to start searching for real. After updating my Web page, my resume and applying on dozens of offers on InfoJobs, i finally had my shot on several interviews… most of them for consultancies, but obviously i was trying to find a final client, not a consultancy (i’ll let you know why in a future article)…

And…

Well, i finally found something. I decided to join a final client (in other words, i don’t have any intermediary). I won’t name my new company, as well as i haven’t named my current company. I won’t enter into details now, the truth i haven’t yet caught all the inputs and outputs of this company and of its activity. Let me just tell you its an italian multinational (more than 1000 people over 5 continents), that started ten years ago with emailing and newsletter and that is now dedicated to users captation via Web and WAP. On a Web page, when you see a shiny blinking Flash ad banner , kind of « Enter your first name and the one of the person you like, and we’ll tell you if you are made for each other ». You are supposed to click on that link, a Flash page opens, asking several stuff and ending on asking your mobile phone number. Well, maybe that’s my company who offers that service and that ad. They are working in several areas:  B2C (Business to Customer – they directly offer the ad banners on the web), B2B2C (Business to Business to Customer – they offer their platform to tierce company, that use it to put ad banners on the web) and B2TV (when you are asked to vote on 84215 for Micheal in Big Brother).

The main idea of their business is to convince people to enter their phone number (using games, free ringtones, …) and then frequently send to that person text message or MMS with new gifts, links,… Obviously the user will pay these messages. I have to admit i don’t really like this marketing system (and don’t understand that people are actually interested in receiving every now and them non-free stuff on their mobile); but it seems to be working very well.

What i’ll be doing

What i’ll be doing? Well, Web developer, obviously! What else?

Right now they are industralizing their marketing tools (among others, one tool that helps them to create splashs, those Flash screens that ad banners links to, and that at the end ask you for your mobile phone). They recently acquired several companies and in one of the company, have to install a brand new version of that tool and develop new modules and new portlets : for a start, i’ll be working with Mexico and Brazil, as a Java/J2EE developer, with technologies such as Liferay, Ibatis, Maven, Velocity, portlets, … I’ll have a special schedule, working from 11 to 20 from Mondays to Thursdays and from 9 to 16 on Fridays during at least the first two months of this project.

That will be such a change. They do have their own framework, which scares me a little, but based on that framework i’ll get to create new portlets from scratch, and deploy them. I’ll be working with new technologies, on a new business model, so i’ll get to learn a lot. The offices are big giant open-spaces; and atmosphere seems young and dynamic. Everything seems possible on my workstation (no more restriction to email or Youtube, and i’m sorry, but when you work 8 hours a day, its nice to be able to have proper distraction).

My economical situation has significantly improve and career plan opportunities seems more interesting: this company is located everywhere around the world, and my evolution inside the group relies a lot on my own work and my own implication. On my proactivity….

So, yes im happy. I’m scared also. Changing is never easy, but it can’t get possibly worse anyway. And after looking for some time for a job, i am now aware that perfect jobs and perfect projects simply don’t exist. I had this amazing chance for 2 years, back in Belgium, where i got to learn so much. So let’s be happy and not hope for this again cause it won’t happen.

I’ll try here to get the best out of my new work and try to learn as much as i can and quickly prove my (added) value to my new company. I will be in a motivating environment, with very little hierarchy, dynamic, and technically interesting; so i guess i’ll cound find back the necessary motivation i used to have every morning back in Belgium…

The start is planned on 3rd of May….

A bientôt!

[EN] Since the day i’ve accepted the contract and resigned, i really thought i’d be able to find spare time for this blog; in particular to talk to you about my new job, about consulting/ICT world and about what i think about IT in the profesionnal world (beliefs vs real life). But the truth is, i still have a lot to do : i have to prepare and train the person that i will soon replace me at my current position, which involves a transfer planning, writing some important documents… It’s quite exhausting and it implies my working hours are a bit larger than usually (from 8am til 8pm). On the other side, i already had a few trainings with my new company, they told me about new concepts and technologies (Liferay, Ibatis, portlets, WML, Velocity, …) that i have to check before actually starting in my new company (start of May). So clearly, April will not be an easy month, but i’ll try to find time for this blog…

See you soon.

Vasa museum is one of the most interesting museum i’ve visited in my life. It is all about a huge 17th century Swedish warship, restored 95% similar as the original.

Vasa warship

Here is the text you can find on the leaflet (translated from the leaflet in french):

On August 10th, 1628, the Vasa entered the sea for its first journey ever and sank in Stockholm harbour. The wreck was rised in 1961 after spending 333 years at the bottom of the sea. This warship was restored similar 95% to the original, is wonferdully decorated with hundreds of sculptures.

Vasa is now one of  the biggest touristic attractions in the world and offers a unique journey through Sweden during the 17th century.

This museum really amazed me. Besides the opportunity to see and visit an original warship, a real one; the Vasa museum offers multiple stands and little exhibitions explaining various things, such as:

• navigation of such a big warship,
• daily life on board this ship
• naval battles at this time
• the rescue of the wreck
• the different theories about the shipwreck
• a sight of the life in Sweden in 1628
• the conservation of the ship nowadays
• the story of some people that died during the shipwreck (some skeletons were pieced together)
• the construction site of the ship
• …

Model

The ship is now very old (more than 350 years) and ways need to be found to keep it preserved as long as possible. Therefore, for obvious reasons, it is not possible to actually go on the boat itself. However, with his 5 opened floors, many angles and many views of the ship remain possible. From the left, from the right, from the top, from the bottom, almost everything can be seen.

A model at a real scale of one of the upper deck even got reconstitured; where you can see many kids.

If this ship is so important, it is because the shipwreck made a lot of noise at this time (a bit like that of Titanic in 1912). Many years of constructions, hundreds of workers, square kilometers of construction sites, hundreds of cut trees… for only 1500 tiny meters in the sea.

There are multiple theories to explain that shipwreck; among them:

• Crew members was not prepared enough: more than sailors, they were villagers looking for a nice amount of money,
• the ship was way too light: at the departure, the tons of food were not yet on board; therefore the ship was really light and more sensitive to the wind,
• the ship was built and finished very quickly; probably too quickly. The king pressured the construction so that the ship would be finished quickly; for political and image reasons,
• …

Ok i hope you liked this presentation. I’m not a sailor, neither do i have a particular passion for ships or 17th century history; but i think it is not possible to remain insensitive to that amazing and huge ship.

From an other angle

I strongly suggest you to go.

Nicolas.

Some links:

• Wikipedia page
• Vasa museum website
• Other pictures of the warship on Flickr
• This post in French

[FR] La vieille ville

La vieille ville, ou Gamla Stan pour les suédois, est située sur l’île du même nom. Très typique et très bien conservée, on peut s’y balader dans des rues pavées et parfois étroites, longeant ainsi des maisons aux façades de multiples couleurs. A côté des traditionnelles boutiques de souvenir, on peut croiser quelques cafés accueillants où vous pourrez partager une fika avec vos amis (équivalent du goûter, mais par fika les suédois évoquent également l’acte de se retrouver ensemble, et non pas uniquement le fait de manger quelquechose de sucré).

Sur la vieille ville, vous trouverez le Palais Royal (Kungliga Slottet), et sa place semi-circulaire où vous pourrez assister à la relève des gardes. Le Palais Royal mérite également une visite, même si ce n’est pas celle que j’ai préféré. Vous aurez notamment accès aux chambres royales, très bien conservées mais un peu trop dorées à mon goût, ainsi qu’aux joyaux de la couronne (plusieurs couronnes de roi et reine, des sceptres, …). Pensez à prendre un billet multiple, qui vous permet d’aller à la fois au Palais Royal, aux joyaux de la couronne et à l’Hôtel de Ville.

Vieille ville / Old Town

[EN] Old Town

The old Stockholm town, or Gamla Stan for Swedish people, is located on the homonyme island. Very typical and in a very good state, this part of the city offers the opportunity to have nice walks on cobble-stoned and sometimes narrow streets, along multiple-coloured houses. Next to the usual gift shops, you will find very welcoming and warm cafe where you’ll be able to share a fika with some of your friends (equivalent to goûter or tea time, but fika also means the act of gathering along with some friends, not only the fact of eating something sweet).

Inside this old town, you will find the Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet), and its semi-circular square where you’ll have the chance to attend the guards change ceremony. The Royal Palace also deserves a visit, even though its not the one i prefered. You’ll be able to visit royal chambers, very well conservated but a bit too full of gold in my opinion. The crown jewels can also be seen (king and queen’s crowns, sceptras, …). Don’t forget to take a multiple ticket, which will give you access to the Royal Palace, the Crown Jewels and the City Hall, all this for a reduced price.

Wandering in the streets / Errant dans les rues

During my trip to Sweden, i spent 4 days in Stockholm, a city that i appreciated so much that i actually fell in love with it.

There would be many things to say about Stockholm, whether it is about its history, its culture or its geography. But let me skip this part, because i’m sure specialized web site will teach you much more than me about these subjects.

On a more touristic point of view, Stockholm is a city that deserves to be seen… at least twice. Let me explain.

I went there a few days ago, which means in full winter. Currently the city (well, the country) is covered with snow. I had the impression to be in a Christmas tale. Lakes are frozen as far as you can see, people wear many layers of clothes, families are enjoying some good time while ice skating, ice sculputres can be found in some places. All those Christmassy aspects give Stockholm an incredible charm.

Stockholm sous la neige

But obviously, most people that go visit Stockholm come in summer. Weather is better and warmer (25°C), days are larger (well, nights are shorter, which is something to see), bright colours, ships and boats everywhere you can possibly look at on the different lakes surrounding Stockholm, a list of activities almost infinite…

Stockholm durant l'été (Crédits photo Claudio.Ar @ FlickR)

So there are  two Stockholm to visit, two different atmospheres and two ways of enjoy life.

Let me warn you: at this time of the year, its pretty cold out there, between -15°C and -5°C when i was where. But warmly dressed, with a cap, a scarf, some gloves, you won’t feel the cold. At least it didn’t prevent us from having walks in the center, on some islands and even to cross the bridge.

I leave you with those few photos, thanks to Eva to have taken them

Une maison suédoise

Stockholm et ses lacs gelés

Stockholm et son port enneigé

In one of my next article, i’ll tell you about 3 visits i’ve made here in Stockholm and that i really enjoyed.

Take care.

Nicolas

I didn’t put how to pronounce each swedish word, cause i don’t know phonetics.

Characters introduced by the Swedish alphabet / Caractères spéciaux de l’alphabet suédois / Caracteres especiales del sueco:  å - ö - ä

Special characters on a swedish keyboard

Small dictionnary of Swedish / Petit dictionnaire rapide de suédois / Pequeño diccionario de sueco:

• Hej = Hello / Salut / Hola
• Jag heter Nicolas = My name is Nicolas / Je m’appelle Nicolas / Me llamo Nicolas
• Hej då = Bye / Au revoir / Adios
• God morgon = Good morning / Bonjour / Buenos días
• Gröt = Porridge
• Håll Käften = Shut up / Ta gueule / Calláte
• Skål = Cheers! / Santé! / ¡Salud!
• Puss = Kiss / Bisou / Beso
• Pussar = Kisses / Bisous / Besos
• Sverige = Sweden / Suède / Suecia
• Jag tycker om Sverige = I love Sweden / J’adore la Suède / Me gusta Suecia
• Kram = Hugs / Je t’embrasse / Abrazos
• Hur mår du? = How are you? / Comment çà va? / ¿Que tal?
• Jag saknar dig = I miss you / Tu me manques / Te echo de menos
• Jag älskar dig = I love you / Je t’aime / Te quiero
• Tack = Please / S’il te plaît / Por favor and Thank you / Merci / Gracias
• Varsågod = You’re welcome / De rien / De nada
• Jag är hungrig = I’m hungry / J’ai faim / Tengo hambre
• Ge mig en hamburgare tack/snålla = Please give me a burger / Donne moi un hamburger s’il te plait / Dame una hamburguesa por favor
• Bra = Good / Bien / Bien
• Du är snygg = You are good-looking / Tu es joli(e) / Eres guapo(a)
• är du full? = Are you drunk? / Es-tu bourré? / ¿Estas borracho?
• du är ful = You are ugly / Tu es moche / Eres feo
• Kom hit = Come here / Viens ici / Ven aqui
• Frankrike = France / France / Francia
• Trevligt att träffas = Nice to meet you / Enchanté / Encantado(a)

Enjoy, and come to Sweden!

I have been talking about this for a long time, but recently i procrastinated a lot… Anyway, now it’s over, i’m done and i can proudly announce that the new version of my personal homepage is online!.

www.nicolasdaudin.com is now under PHP5. For you it’s a very slight change but for me its a gain of time in the content administration (now dynamic) and in the internationalization of my page. Plus i got to go over my basis in PHP.

I also took this opportunity to update the layout of my page, removing some items from the menu, to leave a clear menu leading to the most important: my blog, my personal profile and my profesional profile.

Updates are not over yet, especially in the content of these pages. Besides, i am thinking of adding a section concerning the design of web pages similar to mine… but i’ll let you know on that matter.

Anyway, feel free to go to my page have a look, and please give me your feedback, positive or negative.

Nicolas.