Tiger Philosophy 165: Agile Project Management with Scrum

TP 165 Agile Project management with Scrum

Those  who are involved in software development projects, either are working or have heard of Agile/Scrum methodology. Traditionally software development was done through waterfall method. Waterfall method demands a detail definition of requirements. In majority of cases the details and  obstacles of developing a software are not known  in advance.

The agile method takes the uncertainty principle into consideration. It recognizes the uncertainty in the requirements/obstacles/insights which are not thoroughly thought through. With this agile thinking a new method (Scrum) was developed by Ken Schawber. Scrum divides the team in three roles, the product owner who wants something, the development team which creates that something and the scrum master, who make sure that everything goes well in the process of  wanting and creating of that something.

In Scrum short sprint of 30 days are defined, in which certain work according to the priority of the product owner must be realized. After each sprint demonstration of the developed work has to be given to the  product owner.tp 165

Advantage of Scrum are  short lines between the product owner and development team. New functionalities are delivered  in every sprint, after each sprint new decisions can be made according to the result, need and the situation at that moment.

Tiger Philosophy 163: It starts with an idea!

The book is based around TED talks (ww.ted.com). TED was introduced in 1984, where pioneers from 3 disciplines (Technology, Entertainment and Design) were invited to share their thoughts, expertise or an idea worth spreading. This book takes you to a short journey in history of TED, how one event started in 1984 has spread, inspired and changed the life of millions of people around the world.

TED is becoming from a local phenomenon tTP 163 het begint met een ideeo a global one from an idea worth spreading to an idea worth doing.

This book builds on the power of ideas also described as memes. Meme is an idea a thought which reproduces, spreads and evolves like a gene. Memes do not have a biological evolution but they are evolving and are struggling for the survival of the fittest. Memes reproduce with each other and through process of natural selection are competing in the pool of other memes.

 

Memes of democracy are in competition with memes of communism, memes of  religion are competing with  memes of science.

Memes reproduce like viruses in other persons mind. If a particular meme is fitter for survival, it will copy itself as an idea in other persons mind. By doing so it will secure its survival in the process of evolution.

Tiger Philosophy lesson 161:Pir-E-Kamil – پیر کامل

Pir-E-Kamil is an Urdu novel. A good friend insisted that I should read this novel, that i would enjoy reading it, and i really did.

The storPeer-e-Kamily is about 2 main characters, Imama Hasim who is a very   religious person converted from Ahmadiyya to Islam. Who is totally devoted to Islam and then  there is Salar Sikander a highly intelligent person, who sees no meaning or purpose in anything…

I enjoyed the writing style of the writer, it’s exciting to read this novel. The writer plays with different perspective of different characters on the same situations in a non-chronological order.  For instance she writes certain event from Imama’s perspective and the same situation from Salars’s perspective which gives you a full spectrum of feelings and thoughts present in a certain situation. In the beginning one cannot see the relationship between the main characters and why the writer is telling totally separate stories and how they relate to each other, but as the story progresses, you see the strong connection between the two.

Pir-e-Kamil

The story is about search for meaning in life choosing ones on path despite the adversaries. It is about contemplation on the actions and repenting on the mistakes on has made. Finding meaning in something which is greater than one self. There is a moral teaching in the story, the story makes more sense if you have the background of Pakistani culture, lot of things will seem odd or strange to non-Pakistani reader.

The fate and the chance are given a fair trial in the story. How to people, meet each other in the strangest situations, how their path depart from each other’s life, how they hold each other responsible for their misery, how they become each other’s perfect mentors and how fate or chance brings them together again in an unusual way. Where hate has turned into love, anger has converted in understanding and selfishness has made place for others.

There is an evolution in the character of Salar Sikander from godless person to godly person, which really pulls you into the story.

Although the main emphasis of the writer is put on Islam through the whole story. In my opinion the story is not so much about believing in Islam but worshipping in general in  something which is far greater than oneself. That could have been accomplished by any other means than religion and it would not have made any difference to the story.

 

 

McDonald’s behind the arches

A great read, I really enjoyed reading this book. I started the book because of my discontent with McDonald’s and it’s  national and international policies and the way how it is influencing our health.

During this book I could not help then only admire and appreciate the innovativeness and Mcdonalds behind the archesentrepreneurship qualities of McDonalds and its earlier pioneers.

How a vision of “one” man transferred the  food industry and peoples way of consuming food.

How a perfect and harmonious cooperation of franchisees, suppliers and the central organ was organized to build a maximum synergy.  How the uniformity, central control, QSC(quality, service and cleanliness) became the key factors for the success formula. How McDonald’s created a total new fast-food and food processing industry.

McDonalds has grown to a giant which now can destroy the very thing which it was designed  to serve , namely  his customers by destroying their health.

 

Voltaire The Philosophical Dictionary

I received this book 2 years ago on my birthday. Voltaire is a pseudonym used in this book. This book is assembled like a dictionary, every word can be seen as a chapter and is not sequential nor has any chapter any direct relationship with each other.

In this book Voltaire discusses subjects like, Trinity, Theism, Superstition. morality, virtue, god, love, compassion, fanaticism, motivation… It is an ongoing assemblance of subjects which are related to religion and morality. His major focus lies on Christianity and the bible. He discusses many of the books of bible in great detail, like job, genesis, psalms, Jacob.

Voltaire ridicules the religious thinking and the scriptures in a very witty way. His ridicule comes out of a deep understanding of cultures, languages and a thorough study of religion history and scriptures. He points out falsehood in the Christianity which are accepted buy the church but cannot be traced back into the scriptures.

He explains how many traditions which existed before the religions became part of the religions like circumcision . His sharp remarks and a funny way of writing makes this book a master piece. This book created a revolution in France toward Christianity and religious thinking and has become a  source of inspiration to many other philosophers.

 

The Biology Of Belief

A difficult to comprehend book.  I was listening to the lectures of Wane Dayer in which he refers to this book and shows his admiration for it. That was the reason I bought this book.

Bruce Lipton  is a cell biologist, who has been researching cells for over 25 years. Through the research of Dr Lipton and other leading-edge scientists, stunning new discoveries have been made about the interaction between our mind and body and the processes by which cells receive information. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology, that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts. He gives few scientific proves for these theories  and also rebels against the dogma scientist hold these days about the evolution theory ( The survival of the fittest  ) is not  as accurate as it learned to us.

It was quite difficult to understand the scientific aspects of the book. Bruce makes a switch in this book from scientific evidences to  practical side  of our thought process. He  emphasis how important it is to “control” or thoughts, because they  our continuously shaping our  life’s and life of the society in which we are living .

All in all a nice read but difficult to grasp material, maybe I have to read it one more time to really understand him!

 

The 7 habits of highly effective people

7 habits of highly effective people has become a bible on leadership and management concepts of our time. It is one of the few books which does not talk about quick fixes, it  puts emphasis on fundamental principles. Like the law of nature  there are laws for success and happiness which are  governed by basic principles.  

Principles, like honesty, authenticity, integrity, loyalty, discipline, patients, love,  human dignity, contribution, quality, excellence, growth, encouragement, responsibility. We cannot bypass these principles in creating an authentic  and effective personal and business life. True happiness does not lie in quick fixes but in development of a strong character, which is in alignment with the law of nature.

What makes this book even more special is that  Stephen puts relationship with people above everything else and uses a beautiful analogy between business and family life. According to Stephen,  leading a  business is not any different than leading a family or personal life.

He challenges the  existing concepts about personal development, management and efficiency and reflects on those subject from a very different point of view. “The point is not to be efficient but effective, it is not doing things right but doing the right things right.

This book will take you into a journey in which you will discover your own personal leadership.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Jobs biography

Book of Steve Jobs is a great source of inspiration. During the whole book I have  felt great irritation and admiration towards him. Whatever  we think about Steve Jobs,  we must agree that he has revolutionized, the computer, music  and phone industry.

His love for simplicity and perfection is so scary and yet at the same time so inspiring.

One thing  which inspired me the most in his personality was, his ability to focus and totally disconnected from the feelings of other people.  Steve was so direct in his communication that he could insult and criticize somebody till that person was  buried alive of shame,  without feeling even a little compassion or regret for the other. Because of this personality traits and his love for technology art and perfection  made him such a great product developer.

What many people don’t know about Steve Jobs was his love for eastern philosophy. He was inspired by Zen’s minimalistic approach to life which can be seen in Apple’s products. When Steve Jobs was Jong boy he used to walk in  Harry Krishna clothes and  walked  bare footed on the streets. He did not take shower for weeks because he believed it was not necessary for him because he consumed a certain fruit diet.

After reading this book I am inspired to create great products and services which really add  value to peoples life.

The 4-hour workweek

A great book, Tim talks about new concepts of business; he talks about the difference between the old type of businessman and the new rich person. One of the great insight  I had from reading this book was  that we have to  separate your time from our income. That means we have to think business in term of systems  which will  run automatically without  our active participation.  So the money is flowing in and we still have lot free time to do things we really want to do.  We do not need to ”work” for  our money, because we have set up systems.

Tim gives a radical new way of earning and living, his approach to simple everyday things  is also quit different then the most writers.

He also describe certain challenges in his book to get us out  of our comfort zone. That means doing things we don’t feel so comfortable doing. Here are some  example of the challenges in the book:

1. Lay down on the ground in a very crowded place for 10 sec
2. Ask the number of man/women you like in public  places.
3. Try to get 50% discount on everything you buy.

It will be a little embarrassing but hey what else is new.

 

Your Erroneous Zones

Your Erroneous Zones is a true master peace. This book talks about how we have become neurotic in our thinking. Out of control human beings, who are blaming and putting responsibility for there life outside them self.

Wayne’s main message is, whatever is happening in our life it is the result of choices we have made till so far. Our emotional health is the result of responsibility we have taken till so far for our life.

Wane Dyer talks about the no limit person (NLP). The NLP has certain qualities. First of all he does not give responsibility of his life to anybody else except him self. Second the quality of happiness of the NLP comes out from him self, it is not referenced to anything outside him self. The third quality of NLP is, he does what he chooses to do, and he is not immobilized, by what the others will think of him, whether is it is right or wrong, whether he can do it or not, he does not make excuse for him self. He has an authentic confidence in him self and his thinking to live an authentic life that is a life he really desires to life.

You maybe interested to know, that Wayne Dyer is one of the pioneers in the (attention creates reality) movement. The movie secret is also inspired by Wayne Dyer’s philosophy.