ISG Playbook
APIs
WIP Limits (https://youtu.be/zEJn6eQO6FE)
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Hello Everyone, due to Covid-19 we have seen rapidly changes in our Digital and Technology infrastructure. Companies like Cisco and platforms like Webex and Zoom are essential for Virtual Meetings with more than 5 billion Minutes Spent in Remote Meetings amid Coronavirus. with that being said, how do we embrace remote work? for those that don't know me. I'm an Enterprise SAFe Agile Coach within the Federal space and part of Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE). My job requires me to be innovative and out-of-the box thinker and come up with solutions to problems very frequently for my clients and programs. One of the advantages of being an Agile Coach, is that I can apply best practices and learning into my personal and professional life.
I have seen many articles explaining best practices, routines, workspace, working hours and communication, while Working from Home. However, I haven't seen Articles on the importance of kids and work life balance for Parents. It is extremely difficult to balance with kids at home and have productivity.
Humans have the tendency to learn faster by "Visualizing the work" being done. Kanban is a technique that was introduced by Toyota in the 1940's. Kanban means "Single Card" in Japanese.
Here are some best practices to get your Personal Kanban Board Started
- Kanban follows the scrum process. The biggest differences between the two is that Kanban workflow is based on cycle time. As Kanban is a pulled system NOT Pushed.
- During Kanban, Teams will agree on WIP Limits. Which represents the swim lanes limits as a team.
For example if you have (3) Developers and (3) Testers then your WIP limit will be the following:
Dev Lanes and Test Lanes (6) for developers and (6) for Testers. The idea is to decrease the cycle time as Kanban typically releases 2 times more than Scrum teams per iteration.
When the teams complete their work,they can self-manage and pull more work based on backlog priorities.
Lastly, similar to Scrum, when teams have done few iterations, they should have a velocity or cycle time as a whole.
I have tried creating a Personal Kanban Board for my 7 year old son. He has been able to prioritize the work using WIP Limits and highest value to the end user in this case- School Teacher and reading. I will highly recommend setting one up. It will connect you better with your kids and at the same time increase engagement and productivity.
As of March 17th, a survey of global HR executives shows that 88% of organizations have encouraged or required their employees to work from home.(1)
Zoom's video conferencing application has seen widespread adoption at an unprecedented rate, with reported revenue increase of 78 percent. Zoom's stock(NASDAQ: ZM) price has soared, peaking at a 100 dollar per share increase from December 27th, 2019, the day that a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of illness in for a patient in China.
Since then Zoom has been the darling of Tech Media and the most touted success story in Business Media during the pandemic. Until Yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon, articles started appearing with a new term: "Zoombombing", or when uninvited guests join unsecured meetings and disrupt the meeting. By this morning a tidal wave of articles decrying the evils and peril of using Zoom, their security practices, and allegations of being hacked have appeared.
Despite the allegations Zoom, is the tool of choice for virtual meetings for a reason. It has great features, it's easy to use, and has highly configurable meeting settings.
View the Zoom Meeting Security Best Practices below. Using these techniques or a combination thereof will keep your meeting secure. Remember, the incidences that are behind the avalanche of bad press for Zoom are for unsecured meetings.
The CCSQ LACE wishes you Happy Zooming!
(1) Gartner, Inc. survey of 800 global human resources (HR) executives
Can Prevent Zoombombing
First and foremost, don't post meeting information on social media or other public websites.
- Generate the Meeting ID automatically. This is set by default in Zoom so don’t disable the option and set your own Personal Meeting ID, which will often be easier to guess.
- Require a login password. Zoombombing happens when an attacker obtains the meeting ID , and no password has been set. Hosts should generate and allocate their own unique password for each meeting. The password can be a mixture of letters and numbers. If you can, use a password generator to ensure you have a complex one
- Use the Waiting Room feature. This automatically turns off the facility for others to join the meeting before you, the host. It might seem a bit tedious to have to confirm each participant one by one to join the meeting, but it does mean you will be allowing in only legitimate attendees.
- Mute participants upon entry – you can unmute attendees when they need to speak or when you are satisfied that only authorized folks are in the meeting.
- Disable video by default for hosts and participants, Again, you can allow users to display video after the meeting has started.*
- Screen sharing should be on, but initially for the host only, unless you are sure you know all the participants.*
See more:
5 tips for maintaining your sanity during the Maryland Stay at Home order.
Create Social Spaces
We are social creatures. Even the most introverted people need some social interaction. We often don't realize how socializing with our colleagues and friends at work satisfies those needs, until we work from home. Create some online social spaces to spend time with your colleagues outside of a work context. Join a video call and have lunch. Join a virtual happy hour and blow off some steam with your co-workers.
Do Something New
Pick up a new hobby. Read more. Take Online Courses For Free. Write a blog. Do a podcast. Plant a garden. Find ways to replace the time that you used to spend meeting with friends, shopping, hitting the gym, eating out, etc with something new. Filling your free time will make keeping a good work/life balance easier.
Get some exercise
Staying at home can mean a mean a more sedentary lifestyle. Walking around the office to ask questions and have quick discussion, going to the bathroom, the printer and recycling bins adds in terms of physical activity. Ask anyone who counts steps. Take walks to start working out. Keep your metabolism healthy
Maintain your Boundaries
Maintain the boundaries you set for work/life hours. Post working hours for your family. Don't get sucked into 1 hour conversations at 5:30 PM. Hold yourself to your scheduled social time with colleagues during work.
Find the Positives
Once you've worked from home for a month, you may realize a few things:
- How ridiculous all those meetings were
- How much your organization's communication quality needs to improve
- How chat is an effective and efficient way to get similar results to a meeting
- How incredibly inefficient it is to commute in rush hour traffic twice a day
- How much time we weren't working during work hours
- How it’s no longer as necessary to live in an expensive city
- How difficult it is to concentrate at home when you have kids or a stay at home spouse
- How lonely working from home can be
- How much more productive you are
Rules of Thumb For Working From Home
Create a Work Space
Creating a work space in your home helps you context switch been work and life. Try to create a space that is out of the main flow of traffic in your house. If you can't, make sure you have a comfortable headset so you can "tune out" the activity of your household. Use a background in your online meetings to keep the activity in your household from being a distraction for others during meetings
Have a Routine
Just like when going into the office, you should try to maintain a routine. Healthy routines provide us with structure. Often, people new to work from home will find their sleep and meal schedules thrown off. Build time into your day to get up and stretch, take a walk, eat, and socialize with co-workers.
Create a Daily Work Plan
When we work from home we are more self-guided. Start your day by identifying the highest priority work you have for the day, and use a simple tool to track your work. Make sure you account for the meetings you have and the parts of your routine that aren't "hands on keyboard"
"Get Ready" for Work
Make the first part of your daily routine getting ready for work. This will help you context switch from being at home to being at work. Plus, you'll feel better. I swear.
Set Good Boundaries
People who are new to working from home tend to work far more than they do when going to the office. When you did go to the office, how many times each evening did you think or talk about a work problem? It's much harder to not act on that when your work space is in your home. You may have to more rigorous to create that separation by turning off notifications on your phone at a certain time every day.