As I wrote before, we are truly blessed right now in the Vasa Band. It feels like our music is deeply infused with the Lord’s presence, and everything seems to be aligning perfectly with our long-held aspirations.

We recently had another wonderful performance on Sunday night, conducted by Andreas Kratz. You can listen to a recording of the concert here (please note the file is 45 MB).

I am incredibly proud and grateful to be part of this amazing band and to serve as a Salvation Army bandsman. I’ve played with many great bands, but the sense of fulfillment and joy I experience with this group is unparalleled.

Thank you, everyone—let’s keep moving forward on this path. And a special thanks to Andreas Kratz for helping us shine!

I recently stumbled upon a treasure trove of webcasts dedicated to various Agile practices. At the bottom of the page, I found a list of valuable resources covering topics like Kanban, Agile Design, TDD, Pair Programming, and more.

For instance, check out the webcast on Debugging Pair Programming, which addresses common challenges and solutions when introducing pair programming.

Additionally, the site features a range of other interesting webcasts:

• Agile Design with Alan Shalloway
• Fast Track Test-Driven Development: Testify Your Project with David Evans
• Is Lean the Inevitable Future for Software-Intensive Product Development? with Flow Chain sansei (try saying that three times fast!)

These resources provide valuable insights into Agile methodologies and practices, making them worth checking out.

As part of my commitment to practicing what I preach, I’ve started transitioning more of my work into the cloud. After managing emails, contacts, and calendars online, it’s time to move my files.

Dropbox has proven to be an excellent tool for this purpose. It offers a straightforward way to store files online and sync them across multiple devices. Additionally, Dropbox allows you to share specific folders or make files publicly available. For instance, you can find some example code here.

With Dropbox, I no longer need to rely on USB drives—it’s a seamless and convenient solution for file management. Highly recommended!

OK – I am already sold on this concept and most experienced developers probably are but here is a great (and short) introduction to Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control.

Don’t let the title scare you – it’s not that long an article.

Got a tip from Joakim Sundén about an article that introduces Kanban in a great way. Here you are.

I don’t know if I understood it better this time because I already knew about Kanban, but it really resonated with me in a practical way after reading this.

I also loved some details in the presentation—just check the “Your estimated waiting time” boxes in this picture:

Thank you, Jeff.

As readers of this blog might have noticed I have not only switched to Mac (Book Pro) but also have done so after a long while on the PC-side of things.

I am not sure that it has anything to do with this but the wonderful touch pad on my Mac Book and I don’t click (no pun intended). I may also have to do with lacking fine motoric…  but I hope not.

One of my most trusted Mac-source have supplied me with this video.

Thanks Magnus.

Importing your Outlook contacts to the Mac Address Book can be tricky, especially if you want to avoid losing non-text data like images or if you don’t want to spend money on tools. Here’s a free and easy method to get it done:

1. Open Outlook (I’m using 2007) and go to Contacts.
2. Select all the contacts, right-click, and choose “Send as Business Card.” This will attach all selected contacts to an email.
3. Send the email to an account that your Mac can access.
4. On your Mac, open the email and save all attached contacts (Save -> All) to your hard drive.
5. Use Finder to navigate to the folder where you saved the contacts.
6. Drag and drop the saved contact files into the Address Book.

This method is a bit cumbersome if you have many contacts—I had 238, and sending them took some time—but it’s a free solution.

For...

Last week, during the Kanban course, we discussed Root Cause Analysis multiple times. It’s a powerful technique for identifying the “root of all evil,” or at least the underlying issues causing problems.

While the fundamental concepts of Root Cause Analysis are straightforward, having some guidance and best practices can be incredibly helpful. Henrik Kniberg has once again come to the rescue with a great article on cause-effect diagrams, complete with a humorous touch.

Thanks, Henrik, for the valuable insights!

Yes, I know I’ve already written about an online PowerPoint tool, but this new tool might just replace the need for both PowerPoint and similar software altogether.

I often find myself struggling with presentations that end up being dull and overly reliant on bullet points. While PowerPoint offers ways to enhance presentations, I sometimes find it lacking in creativity.

Enter Prezi. Prezi allows you to create dynamic, visually engaging presentations that are more like interactive mind maps. It’s incredibly user-friendly and has helped me produce presentations that are visually appealing and engaging.

Check out my first attempt which summarizes some key points from a Kanban class last week, as noted by David Andersson. I think it turned out quite well!

Prezi might just be one of the coolest GUIs I’ve worked with—give it a try and see how it transforms your presentations.

During the last week, I attended a course on Kanban (Jedi level, mind you) at Crisp in Stockholm. The course was conducted by David Andersson, who is considered a key figure in applying Kanban to the software industry.

If you’re new to Kanban, I highly recommend this article by Henrik Kniberg as a great introduction. Keep an eye on InfoQ for a comprehensive book on the subject, which includes some excellent case studies.

The course was fantastic and provided a deeper understanding of Lean thinking. Kanban offers simple but powerful tools: visualization (put it up on the wall!), prioritizing value-adding activities, minimizing waste, and performing root-cause analysis.

Kanban itself is straightforward to understand, but mastering it is like any game—simple rules, but a lifetime to perfect.

I also felt a need to delve into the underlying Lean principles that are foundational to both...