Greenhoppers latest release 5.2

A couple of months back I wrote a post on creating a cumulative flow diagram (CFD) using Greenhopper. Unfortunately the article didn’t provide readers with a solution to the problem, as I was unable to finish off the custom php script I was planning to use to generate the pivot of data required to create a CFD.

Thankfully the Greenhopper team had enough time to do it for me! The latest release of Greenhopper – 5.2 includes CFD’s as well a number of other changes which you can catch up on in the Release notes.

It was a great touch by the Greenhopper team to invite me to test the latest set of features prior to the launch. I was impressed that they took the time out to send me a personal email and invite my feedback – thanks!

In testing the latest release I realised I have been a little out of touch with progress made on JIRA over the past while. The tweaks made to the interface add a “minty freshness” to the user experience, which I like. There is a clear focus to developing the supporting agile widgets – great value to project managers who are looking for that little bit extra than competing products provide. I need more time to explore 5.2 further – so far so good though.

Greenhopper has great potential in the PM tool marketplace – with such competitive pricing and available functionality, it is hard to ignore. It still doesn’t provide you with multi project/programme reporting and analysis but what’s the bet that is planned for Release 6 – watch out!

Hyderabad Business Trip

Two weeks ago I travelled to Hyderabad, India on business. We flew Emirates via Dubai: fairly comfortable, decent food and great entertainment system = good flight. The Hyderabad airport is impressive – definitely something for the people of Hyderabad to be proud of. It is, however, on the drive out from the airport that you start to realise that the development of infrastructure is very much still in progress. Four lane highways lead to dirt road off-ramps, which then lead back on to further stretches of tarred road. This theme runs throughout Hyderabad with pockets of infrastructure clearly outstanding.

The city is vast and best explored via taxi. We were fortunate to have one driver with us throughout our stay who diligently navigated the crazy traffic and roads. I have uploaded a couple videos from one of our rides into the office. Gives you an idea of what it is like out on the streets.

Hyderabad is known as on of the major IT hubs in India and this is clearly evident. A number of the large firms have built massive campuses, I managed to get a photo of the front end of Microsoft’s campus. There are masses of buildings going up everywhere. Most of them shells though, awaiting fresh investment since the recession.

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Why all the foreign investment you might ask? India has a large highly educated and skilled workforce, and with the favourable exchange rate, it is a desirable emerging market to invest in. A quick sum to give you an idea of the scale: 8 developers can be hired in India on the wage of a single developer in London. Hmmm that is a bit of a no brainer for CEO’s. This cost however comes with its challenges – cultural differences and communication being the most prominent.

My experience of the people and culture of India was limited to my interactions with those I met in our business meetings and at the hotel. Polite, humble, dedicated, genuine and hard working are some of the words that come to mind in recalling those we met. Unfortunately our time was limited on this trip, our only outing being a business lunch at a local curry restaurant to sample dum briyani (famous in Hyderabad). I was breathing fire after the starters, the briyani was great!

No sooner had we arrived than we were once again packing for the journey back. Next time we will have to hang around a little longer to explore.

India is a country full of potential and destined for greatness, let’s hope it is realised.