Nine Things Successful People Do

How do you set your goals? Do you write them on post-it notes and stick them around the house? Do you make sure they are S.M.A.R.T.?

Most of us set ourselves goals and challenges on a regular basis. Some people achieve them, while others may struggle to cross the line. Heidi Grant Halvorson, a motivational psychologist, was interested in the difference between people who are successful and those who aren't. She discovered that often it's not about who you are but what you do, and has written this article to tell us all what we can do to help make our dreams a reality. 
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Simplify Your Estimates

Whichever method you use, estimates are difficult to get right (have you ever just doubled an estimate to be 'on the safe side'?)

Some people add up the number of story points or features of a project and multiply that by how long each one should take, but then you have to figure out how long an average story point will take, and then add in a contingency, and then before you know it your dealing with formulas that will take longer to work out than the project itself! The key is to get back to basics, after all what is an estimate for? The business wants to know how long a project will take and how confident you are in that number. This blog post and the comments below discuss the simple approach to estimation.
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The 10 Minute Test Plan

Do you spend more time writing test plans than actually testing? James Whittaker, Test Director at Google and former colleague of STANZ speaker Goranka Bjedov (watch her keynote here) ran an experiment. He gave his testers 10 minutes to write a test plan to see if they could come up with something that was useful and valuable. With so many test plans discarded because of too much or too little detail, or because they are just re-hashed versions of what's been done before maybe it's time to dig out the stopwatch...
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When Ideas Have Sex Throughout history the human speicies has advanced by sharing and expanding ideas. Our collective knowledge is worth a lot more than the sum of our individual knowledge. In this TED talk Matt Ridley describes how every day we rely on the fact that we share our efforts to make life easier for each individual.

Agile Case Study: CSG International

Have you or your organisation ever thought about going Agile? Have you gone Agile and found it tricky? Have you gone Agile and found it easy?

Every organisation works differently, but one thing is always true: change is hard. One way to alleviate the pain of change, even turn it to a positive opportunity, is to get some training and guidance. That’s exactly what happened when Software Education and CSG International teamed up to help CSG International go Agile. We interviewed Kris Anderson, Engineering Manager, Singleview Research and Development to ask about their ‘Agile’ journey. We hope this case study can be useful to others thinking of making the change.

Our thanks to everyone at CSG International, it’s been great working with you.
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	PROFILE: Juan Barberis
Juan specializes in Agile and Lean as a practitioner, trainer and coach. He has over 20 years’ experience with Agile and Lean. His educational journey with Agile and Lean started in California in the early 90s with Apple software development, and then progressed to Microsoft in the late 90s followed by three years at Dell headquarters leading Internet initiatives such as online diagnostics and web hosting.  Since 2002, he has worked as a trusted consultant with both large and small organizations in the finance, health care, and ICT sectors. As an experienced business and IT consultant, Juan teaches based on his past roles as International Business Development Manager, Sales Manager, Project Manager, Product Owner, and Business Analyst.  He teaches his clients how to minimize risk and maximize ROI based on the lessons he has learned over two decades - both from his successes and his failures – and leveraging the most effective techniques and tools available depending on the circumstance. Juan has an extensive international background having worked in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia since the early 90s. He has been conducting business with Australia and New Zealand since 1992 and relies on his knowledge and forward-looking approach to teach and inspire Software Education's clients towards evaluating Agile and Lean in their organizations.

	New Jeff Patton Agile MasterClass: Passionate Product Ownership There is a brand new Jeff Patton Agile MasterClass scheduled for 2012. Passionate Product Ownership looks at Scrum and Agile and how they apply to product management and user experience. This course will introduce you to new ways of working and thinking, covering concepts and practices you won't find in other courses, such as using a team-based approach to product ownership. To be inspired by Jeff, the Agile Alliance 2007 Gordon Pask Award winner and an Agilist with over 20 years experience book your place on this course.   Software Education is the major sponsor for World Vision
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