I have had some real problems to get going with the Sprint Planner Helper Project after the trip to Ethiopia. I am not sure why – but it made me think about the project, the scope, and purpose.

First and foremost – I am not working, I am on parental leave. That means this is my spare time project and I promised myself that I would end it if I didn’t feel up to it for some reason. Since I have found it hard to restart, I conclude that I have reached that point.

Secondly – the main reason and purpose of the project was to learn, not to produce a wonder-application (although that would have been nice :)). I think that I have learned quite a lot during this project and that I am at a junction right now. You cannot pursue depth in all directions.

I have some real trouble getting back into my normal flow after Ethiopia.

This week, I will play and do the presentations at a concert with Solna Brass. And there has been a lot of stuff with the Salvation Army and the band.

I’ll try to get to it next week.

By the way, the Vasa Band got a good review of the CD Priority in Brass Band World. Here is a picture of it:

The review was next to the review of A Breathless Alleluia by the Black Dyke Band… Something to be compared to!

The last week has been quite unusual and busy, as we’re still recovering from an illness we picked up in Africa. Elin has been hit the hardest, but Abbe and I have also felt the effects.

I haven’t had the chance to update the blog recently, but I wanted to share some pictures from our trip.

A typical outing often involved us being followed around. It was a common occurrence throughout our travels.

A building site in Addis Ababa.

The beautiful Wenchi Crater - we walked down to the water…

…and this is how we made our way back up. Yes, that’s me on a horse with Abbe on my back!

On our way home to...

We’re back home again from Ethiopia. The trip was truly something extra. As I heard someone say: “Africa is more of everything - the worst as well as the best” – this trip has really taken its toll.

We had some amazing experiences but also faced some really hard times. One challenge was keeping track of what Albert put into his mouth. There are so many things that you wouldn’t even want to touch, and he gladly put them into his mouth. He also was sick for most of the trip, nothing too serious but still concerning.

We went on two great tours: one to the south, Wondo Genet, and one to the east, Ambo, of Addis Ababa. The rest of the time was spent in Addis.

I’ll upload some (many?) photos as I get the time. Right now, we’re taking care of Elin, who is still...

I am going to Ethiopia for two weeks and the project comes to a natural (and needed) halt during that period.

I had hoped that I would have got further than this but I must stay content with what I’ve got.

The visit to Ethiopia will be something very different and exciting. Especially with Albert who right now is 14 months and have just started to walk…

Get back to you on the trip at www.marcusoft.net

I found these two great presentations surrounding ASP.NET MVC:

• [File

  New -> Company: Creating NerdDinner.com with Microsoft ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC)](http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/T49F) – Really funny too…

• Microsoft ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC): Ninja on Fire Black Belt Tips – A bit slow presentation, but some real nuggets are to be found.

I haven’t watched them all the way through yet, but they promise a great deal.

I’ve recently come to a realization: I’m not making as much progress as I’d like on this project. It’s not exactly flattering to acknowledge that it’s taken me about 2.5 months to reach this conclusion, but here we are.

Given that I’m on parental leave, I’ve decided to slow down the pace of this project. I don’t want to feel pressured to “produce” results—this is supposed to be a fun and relaxing endeavor. So, from now on, progress will be slower and only when it feels enjoyable.

In today’s session, I focused on identifying aggregates and creating repositories for the Sprint domain object.

Aggregates are still a bit challenging for me to fully grasp. The mainstream definition suggests they are “things that must exist together,” with common examples like the Order-OrderLine relationship.

For my Sprint domain, I have a list of SprintItems, each with a list of Read More

Today I did something that I never dared before—I posted a comment on an article I read in ComputerSweden. Nothing scary there, but the article was written by one of the IT heroes of Sweden, Ivar Jacobson. He invented RUP and has been a busy debater and writer.

His column was about Scrum and how it’s “coming apart” (my translation). You can read it here (in Swedish).

Here are my comment and Ivar’s prompt answer.

The last line was something extra: “Marcus, you’re welcome to write to me directly” :)

I can’t miss out on that opportunity, can I?

Today I will continue working on the model surrounding Sprints, and of course drive it forward with tests.

I came to realize today that I am now converted. I am now a TDD guy. I will do tests even if it’s not required of me. And the reason is security and speed.

I have gone from coding along with no worries – the tester will find (any) bugs for me… Then I heard of unit-testing and started to write some – just for fun at the start (yeah – pretty sick). After a while, I didn’t dare to check in any code that I couldn’t prove with some test – but I wrote the code first. And after a while of doing that, I was so fed up with running behind with the tests that I thought I’d give true TDD a chance.

What I pretty soon came to...

Here is a clip of a group of girls, the Cactus Cuties, that sings the American National Anthem in the most wonderful way.

They are just spot on in their parts – and the balance is just amazing.

I don’t care that it is sugar-sweet and patriotic, music-making like this always makes me happy.