the Keggies » Andrew

Greehoppers latest release 5.2

Andrew — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:08:40 +0000

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

Andrew — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:53:49 +0000

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.

Day trip out to Windsor Castle

Andrew — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:08:05 +0000

This morning we woke up early to trek out to Windsor for the day. The idea was visit Windsor Castle and wander down to Eton for a pub lunch. Thankfully the weather cooperated!

Windsor is about an hour train trip from London Victoria, around 45 min direct from Waterloo. You are immediately struck by the Castle’s imposing figure as you walk from Windsor station. As far as castles in England go, this is the best that I have seen. As they say in the guide it is more of a collection of buildings as opposed to one single large castle.

The entrance fee is £16 per person which gives you a years pass to the castle (remember to get your ticket stamped). You get a free audio guide upon entering which is really handy and informative. I prefer the flexibility this allows you – in my opinion self-guided tours are far better than guided ones. Anyway the castle grounds are vast and you need to do quite a bit of walking to cover them.

No photo’s are allowed inside the state apartments so all of mine are of the outside. I could say quite a bit more about the tour but rather you get out there and experience it for yourself.

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After the castle tour we walked down the hill and crossed the Thames river into Eton in search of a pub for lunch. Note to self – next time just go to one of the 20 pubs located directly outside the Castle grounds, Eton has hardly any choice. After wandering round for ages and being seriously hungry we settled for a sandwich at a cafe along the Thames.

If you need to grab a few things before heading back into London, Windsor has a number of shops in close proximity to the castle and station. The shopping area was buzzing today with Castle tourists and locals.

If you get the chance, travel out to Windsor – definitely one of the better day trips that we have done.

Create a Cumulative Flow Diagram using Greenhopper

Andrew — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:27:50 +0000

Note: I have since discovered that actually this does not produce a perfect cumulative flow diagram as the script doesn’t incorporate negative accumulation. Working on a php script which factors both positive and negative to give an accurate flow.

Ok so after much hunting around I have finally found a solution to creating a cumulative flow diagram using Greenhopper – albeit a workaround!

1) Download Toad for MySQL: http://www.quest.com/toad-for-mysql/

2) Connect to your JIRA Database

3) Use the following query to pull out accumulative totals – tweak parameters based on the project you are working on:

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(changegroup.CREATED, ‘%Y/%m/%d’) AS CountDate, changeitem.NEWSTRING, Count(changeitem.NEWSTRING) As Total
FROM changeitem
left outer JOIN changegroup
ON changeitem.groupid = changegroup.ID
left outer JOIN jiraissue
ON changegroup.issueid = jiraissue.ID
left outer JOIN projectversion
ON jiraissue.PROJECT = projectversion.PROJECT
WHERE jiraissue.PROJECT = ** Your Project ID**
AND changeitem.FIELD = ’status’
AND projectversion.vname = ‘Release 1′
GROUP BY CountDate, changeitem.NEWSTRING
ORDER BY CountDate ASC

4) Export your result set into Excel and create a pivot table
5) Change the graph to type Area
6) Summaries your results by running total

See Example here

Greehoppers latest release 5.2

Obstacles Welcome by Ralph de la Vega, 2009

Andrew — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:38:26 +0000

So, it has been two months since my last blogger book review. After my previous read I was looking forward to my next book from Thomas Nelson but unfortunately my expectations weren’t met.

Obstacles Welcome is the story of Ralph de la Vega’s rags to riches progression to becoming the President and CEO of AT&T Mobility. My expectation of the book was a roller coaster story of personal development and growth, but instead it turned out to be a business theory book intertwined with elements of Ralph’s journey.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the theory and it is clearly effective in practice. Personally though, I found that I didn’t connect with the story and what should have been a compelling biography read more like a group of case studies from a university text book.

This is a pity as one cannot deny that Ralph is clearly a dynamic leader and gifted businessman. Obstacles Welcome is not the book for me; however, I recommend it to all those entrepreneurs out there interested in business development and growth.

You can find out a little bit more about Ralph on the site created for this book: http://www.obstacleswelcome.com

Kabul 24 by Ben Pearson & Henry Arnold, 2009

Long weekend in Bath with friends

Andrew — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:55:35 +0000

What a great weekend! The mercury is dropping close to zero in the UK but that isn’t stopping us from getting out and about. It is a 3 hour journey from London out to the picturesque town of Bath. Our friends stay in the suburb of Odd Down which looks out over the city of Bath with views of the country side.

On Saturday we hit the town and local sites. Stonehenge was our first stop. Now to cut straight to it – I was expecting more. We stumbled on the site rather unexpectedly – it is situated around a busy intersection and literally looks like a spare field that a farmer sold off with a rock garden in it. Anyways that said I jaywalked across the road to get a couple pics instead of paying the 7 pounds entrance fee. After Stonehenge we stopped off at a local pub for lunch and then headed off the city centre.

We strolled along the river, past the rugby club and sports fields (odd to come across a Lacrosse match in the UK?) and finally landed up at the Roman baths. The 11 pound entrance fee was well worth it – loads of interesting historical facts and architecture. This leg of the journey was rounded off at the supposedly famous Sally Lunns for Sally Lunns buns – not sure what all the hype was about?

Anyway – all in all what a great time – we are definitely looking forward to going back and possibly exploring Bristol and surrounding areas in more detail. If you get a chance make sure you stop off in Bath!

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Piccadilly, Battersea Park fireworks and Mercedes Live 09 – what a weekend!

Kabul 24 by Ben Pearson & Henry Arnold, 2009

Andrew — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:50:02 +0000

This is my first book review for Thomas Nelson publishers. I am a supporter of their approach which provides bloggers with free books in exchange for reviews – great win-win idea! Anyway, here’s to many more books and blog reviews – enjoy.

Kabul 24 captures the story of a group of Christian aid workers who risked their lives to serve the people of war-torn Afghanistan. The common thread that ties the aid workers together is the organisation they are a part of, Shelter Now International (SNI). The aim of SNI is to come alongside refugee communities and serve, love and care for them and provide for their day-to-day needs.

This true life story is set around the time of the 9/11 terror attacks and imminent American invasion of Afghanistan. The atmosphere surrounding the SNI team in Kabul rapidly changes becoming tense and unpredictable. A sense that things could go horribly wrong starts to creep up on the team; and what they certainly hoped would not happen, does. They find themselves caught up in a hostage drama that only God can pull them out of.

My opinion of this book certainly improved the further I progressed. I pushed through the first 50 pages, which I found rather weak, and I am glad that I did. I felt that more historical context could have been given to the characters and the SNI organisation. Once into the main body of the story, I found myself wrapped up in the emotion of the situation. I had found a good companion for my evening commute.

I found this story personally challenging and humbling, particularly the risk taken to serve these refugees. I am left wondering what is to become of Afghanistan. Such anger, deception and brokenness – one can only hope that God has a plan to heal and restore. Overall Kabul 24 is a good read and a book I recommend.

Obstacles Welcome by Ralph de la Vega, 2009

Piccadilly, Battersea Park fireworks and Mercedes Live 09 – what a weekend!

Andrew — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:23:40 +0000

This weekend has been great fun! It all started with a golf outing, otherwise know as a “work training course”, on Friday up north in Harpenden. Caught the train with my golf clubs all the way there and back (oh so committed – not too many funny looks). 18 holes of golf, including a quick pit stop at the Wicked Lady (pub) for some beer battered cod and a brewski made for a fantastic start to the day. Rain and the waning light bought a swift end to the round and saw me heading back to London for the next leg of the journey. All Bar One in Piccadilly was the next meeting point. Great to see a number of South African friends and grab a fairly late Italian meal after walking the streets of Chinatown and round the West End.

After a lazy Saturday morning the wife and I hit the shops with avengence – driven by the icy chill to find winter coats. Two successful purchases and we were ready for the fireworks in Battersea Park. What a fantastic display!! Quick clip for you to view below. Heard so many SA accents in the queue on the way in – we are literally everywhere!

Sunday morning saw us up bright and early to traipse off to the Mercedes Live 09 end-of-season event. Braving the icy conditions we managed to see all the Mercedes drivers and cars along with 12,000 other Formula One fans – great experience. Thank the Lord it didn’t rain. What a weekend!

Long weekend in Bath with friends

Day trip out to the white cliffs of Dover, Kent

Andrew — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:04:15 +0000

Today we travelled east from Maidstone Kent to the cliffs of Dover. About a 40 min drive from Maidstone city centre along the M20. We decided to go on a National Trust walk and then for tea. There was a 3 pound entry fee to the National Trust area which has fantastic panoramic views of the White Cliffs, France and Dover castle.

The ferry takes 30 min’s to reach France where a range of fresh produce shops can be found. Quite popular to do a monthly shop and wine restock – definitely got to try this some time!

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What you need to relocate to the UK from SA

Andrew — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:49:10 +0000

My wife and I have just gone through the process of relocating to the UK from SA. Along the way we have discovered loads of interesting sites and picked up valuable tips from friends see below:

British Citizenship and Passport

If applying for British citizenship and a passport before your relocation ensure that you give yourself enough time as these can take up to 6 months to process. Also factor in the time for collecting the relevant documentation required from home affairs. Here is a link to the website used to help with the processing of my application: http://ukinsouthafrica.fco.gov.uk/en/passports/. Note that if your mother is of British descent and you were born before 1983 then you are eligible for a British passport. That was news to me…good news!

Visa

We used a company called 1^st Contact to help us with the process of applying for my wife’s spousal visa. The reason for this being that it can be tricky figuring out all the documentation you need to send with the application. You don’t want to waste R 8,000 on a failed application. They handle all the paper work and admin which is great. Their services cost about R 2,000. I, along with a number of my friends in the UK, highly recommend them. 1^st Contact also offer loads of other helpful services.

Money

So how do you get money into the UK? Here are a couple options that we considered.

FNB offer a Visa Travelex Card which you can load pounds onto and draw from any ATM in the UK. There are fees which you are charged for drawing this money on the other side, obviously these need to be considered. If you are interested go to the Forex desk at FNB and ask for a Travelex Card or phone 08601 FOREX (08601 36739). You should be able to buy similar products from your bank or a local Forex company.

An SA credit card comes in handy in the UK, especially if you are looking to rent a car when you arrive. You have to have worked for a period before a UK bank will give you a credit card over here and car rental companies will only accept credit cards for payment. Your credit card can also be used as an alternate source for loading money on to, which you can spend when in the UK. Double check the expiry date on your credit card before leaving.

Opening a UK Bank Account

UK bank accounts are not easily acquired as most banks require a utility bill with your name on it before opening an account. To help us with this process we signed up for 1^st Contacts Kickstart package. As part of the service 1^st contact organise an appointment with a selection of UK banks (Lloyds, Barclays, or HSBC) and write an accompanying letter, which the bank accept as an alternative to a utility bill. This allows you to quickly set up a bank account upon arrival while starting the process of applying for jobs…very helpful! The Kickstart package also includes O2 SIM cards and loads of other use full information and extras.

Flights

When booking flights, naturally, you will always look for the cheapest options. We booked one way flights through Student Flights and found their service fantastic.

One thing to consider when moving country is the baggage restrictions of the airline that you are flying with. We flew Virgin Atlantic, they restrict passengers to one large bag weighing up to 23 kg and one piece of hand luggage of up to 6 kgs per passenger (Hint: they don’t usually weigh this). There is a chance that you could be charged up to $ 25 per kg for overweight bags when checking in. This all however depends on the mood of the person booking you in on the day. Most airlines will allow you 5 kg leeway, in my opinion though, stuffing in that extra book isn’t worth the risk. If you have the cash and need to send over extra baggage calco cargo and u-bag.com offer unaccompanied baggage transfer services, which are worth considering.

One bonus discovery that I made is that most airlines offer a free allowance for golf clubs. You can transport 14 golf clubs, boots, umbrella and 12 balls. Pity they don’t have a free musical instrument allowance – had to leave my guitar behind, bleak! You can pick up a decent golf travel bag at theProshop for around R 800 (see below).

Searching for employment

My advise is to get your CV out on one of the websites below upon arrival. Make sure that you include your correct UK mobile number – school boy error I made first time round! I was fortunate enough to be picked up by a specialist IT recruiter – Eurobase. There service has been fantastic and with their help I have managed to secure a job within the first month of being here. Here are a couple more good websites for job searching:

For any further information regarding applying for jobs and finding accommodation take a look at the 1st Contact website. Hope you found this info useful – you welcome to comment with any further suggestions for other readers.