Sharing our consultant's learning - August 2018

Cloud technologies continue to evolve and many providers now offer Serverless Computing or Function-as-a-Service options that have new advantages and uses for organisations. We had Equinox IT Senior Consultant Carl Douglas present to our clients and our own team about Serverless Computing - what it is, the benefits and uses.

See a summary of Carl's presentation.

Sharing what our consultants are learning

Kirstin Donaldson, Principal Consultant (see Kirsten's profile)

• Culture and Leadership: The Nine Principles of Agile Leadership - I've recently been reading about effective leadership and I came across this article which makes the distinction between Agile leadership and good leadership. I'm not convinced there is a difference but I know that being Agile is aligned with good leadership.
• 10 early signs that someone will make a great leader - This article talks about traits for identifying future tech leaders.

Bill Ross, Principal Consultant (see Bill's profile)

• Goodbye Microservices: From 100s of problem children to 1 superstar - This article is a fascinating read where Alexandra Noonan shares the experiences her company went through moving to a microservices architecture, the issues it caused them, and their subsequent return to a monolithic architecture. It doesn't necessarily mean that microservices are a bad idea, but it highlights the need to fully understand the implications for development, testing, operations, and managing technical debt and complexity when considering a move to a microservices architecture.
• Presenting at ITx on moving from legacy to the future - I spoke at the recent Wellington ITx conference on principles to apply when moving from legacy systems; you can download my slides from within this summary post.

Carl Weller, Principal Consultant (see Carl's profile)

• Technical debt might be hindering your digital transformation - A very good article about the impacts of technical debt on your ability to transform. I'd add a fifth point – look at the power dynamics and behavioural patterns that created so much technical debt. If these are not resolved you will likely end up in a similar place with your new systems in a few years.
• A Kanban Disaster Story - A powerful success story told by Kanban pioneer David J Anderson about the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development and their use of Kanban to deliver a much-needed solution to provide support for people impacted by the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. It’s a great example of a small, nimble team focusing on limiting work in progress and getting stuff done.
• Presenting at ITx on the role of Project Managers on Agile projects - I spoke about the Project Manager role on Agile projects at the recent ITx conference in Wellington and you can download my slides from within this summary post.