In software product development, the lack of organisational culture can lead to deliverability failure even when a project plan is in place. Organisational processes are essential in project planning as they enable a stable process performance in any organisation. They also provide a basis for an increasing set of standard processes that highlights the often neglected issues in a software development environment.

One of the Agile Development methodologies (Scrum) is being introduced into the product development process at my company. What prompted the introduction of scrum is the direct and continuous interaction of stakeholders with the team in charge of product(s) development.

So what's Scrum?

Scrum is an iterative, agile development methodology for creating products shippable features by using a time box called Sprint. The Scrum Team consists of:

1. Product Owner: sets priorities and signs off development
2. Scrum Master: manages the process and removes blockages
3. The Team (Technical and Nontechnical): Develop the product
4. Stakeholders: observe, advise, and raise ideas to the Product Owner

Before the sprint, the Product Owner creates and maintains the Product Backlog. Product Backlog (user stories) are list of requirements and issues owned by the Product Owner. It can be contributed to by all the parties involved but can only be prioritised by the Product Owner.

On the first day of the sprint the Product Owner, Scrum Master and the team hold Sprint Planning:

1. Product Owner presents items
2. Team estimates items
3. Team selects items based on priority
4. Team creates Sprint Backlog (List of items selected by the Sprint Team. It is a commitment of what will be completed during Sprint and it is owned by the Team)

In addition, a realistic planning of the deliverable helps breakdown the process and create a Sprint Backlog. There is a useful app by Unboxed Consulting Limited called Poker Planning. Poker Planning uses Fibonacci sequence for story sizing as it reflect the existing doubt in the approximate estimation of quantity of bigger items.

On everyday of the Sprint, a daily Stand Up (Scrum) is held and attended by the Team and the Scrum Master. Product Owner and Stakeholders may choose to observe but not participate. Speakers (The Team) take turns to:

1. Describe the activities of the previous day
2. Explain the plan for the present day
3. Highlight anything that is in their way to complete the work

During the Stand Up, the Scrum Master uses the session to manage Blockages (impediments and blockages that stop one or all items from being developed and are updated daily).

At the end of the Sprint, A Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective are held. These sessions are used for:

1. The Team to present the work to the Product Owner and Stakeholders (Review)
2. The Product Owner to review and accept/reject the work (Review)
3. The Team to discuss any issues that arose in the Sprint (Retrospective)
4. The Team come up with solutions to any issues to implement in future Sprints (Retrospective)

The above is a sketchy summary of my week long scrum training which continues next week. I picked up a book (Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process) at Waterstones on the subject yesterday. Hopefully, I will get some reading done this weekend as it is bank holiday weekend.

A big thank you to Marijke Langenhoven for taking time out of her busy schedule to educate my colleagues and I about Scrum.

Learn and adapt. Ciao!

First week update:

Performance-wise, we executed and completed all the planned stories in the sprint mostly because we committed to granular tasks and over-estimated nearly everything (rookie mistakes). Also, unallocated “bug fixing time” during last week’s sprint could have resulted in deterministic chaos supposing we had much demanding tasks to complete. According to the Product Owner, the best effort strategy is to allocate “bug fixing time” and fix as much bugs as we can during the allocated time.

Team's first week Sprint Burndown chart.

“Innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas.” – Innovation Unit (2004) UK Department of Trade and Industry.

Personally, I don’t have any problem with new ideas in as much as they don’t invade users privacy. We were recently discussing Google Glass inside the office and inside this long e-mail threads, I realised that everyone’s concern was the potential breach of its users privacy.

Google need to get rid of the ads. The point is, why would anyone want to see relevant ads based on their activities? While I understand that the ads will be integrated seamlessly – I am still very skeptical about it. Intrusive advertising is going to get a big NO.

The question we should be asking is who will benefit the most from this innovation? Those that will benefit the most are those paying Google to advertise their brands and products.

I have been working on a new app for Windows 8 with Donnie Ibiyemi. I designed the logo but my overly-opinionated sister said it is too simple. I love it. Simplicity is necessary sometimes. Why make the logo complex anyway?

Below are some of the screenshots of the app. Enjoy!

The Google Play help website said, “You will have 15 minutes to cancel an order.” While I understand why anyone would want to cancel an order. What I don’t understand is what happens to the app that they have downloaded. I have cancelled orders in past simply because of dissatisfaction with the purchased item(s). In most cases, I don’t get to keep the item(s). It should be the same thing for digital product(s).

I don’t own an Android device so I wouldn’t know what happens after you cancelled an order. Are you prompted by Google to delete the app? Or, do you get to keep the app? I might have find someone with an Android device in order to solve this mystery because the Google Play Help website doesn’t have sufficient information about this.

It is not fair to the developer if anyone can just install app(s) and cancel their order(s) after purchase(s). The app should at least be automatically disabled or rendered useless.

I decided to create a Chrome Extension for one of the image bookmarking site that I use called Ffffound. You simply have to click the icon after installation to add images that you’ve discovered to your Ffffound founds. :)

I’m thinking of creating something similar for Svpply and Fancy as well. I will if I have few hours to waste this weekend.

You can install it from here.

The difference between invention and innovation, is that you execute, you take an idea and you turn it into reality. You bring it into the marketplace.

Watch the BBC Documentary here.

Yesterday, I decided to release my Eyowo Prestashop Module as an open-source software instead of making money from it on the Prestashop Marketplace. It felt good.

Eyowo Prestashop Module allows you to accept credit card payments on your website easily and quickly. If you have Eyowo merchant account setup, then this module is for you. It will allow you to do auth/capture transactions within the confines of the Eyowo payment system. This module is useful for e-commerce stores in Nigeria.

The installation is straightforward as well. Simply open eyowo.php in a text editor and change the value of wallet.

class Eyowo extends PaymentModule{

public function __construct(){

$this->name = 'eyowo';

$this->tab = 'payments_gateways';

$this->version = 1.0;

$this->author = 'Finbarrs Oketunji';

$this->need_instance = 0;

$this->wallet = '6I1312W';

$this->gw = 'https://www.eyowo.com/gateway/pay';

You can download it from here.

Sketching is an application for everyone who loves to draw, sketch, and paint! It is easy-to-use for every artist. It is a fun and intuitive paint and drawing app, and can transform your iOS devices into an ideal artist’s toolkit. With tools designed for professional artists, kids, illustrators, and designers, the easy-to-use interface can help unlock the artist in everyone. You can e-mail your work to your friends and family, or share it with them on social media. Check it out here. Enjoy!

NowPlaying App is an easy way to share with your friends what are you’re currently listening to on your devices. You can download it here.

I wasn’t expecting the Gmail App for iPhone & iPad to be this sleek after the last week iTunes 11 disappointment. I actually thought the IT big guns might have fell off the design rails.

I’ve been impressed by the User Interface of the new Gmail App for iPhone & iPad. The use of colour is incredible, and most of its functionalities are top-notch. You can also add multiple accounts. Dope! Great user experience too. Well done guys!

Perhaps, we’re witnessing the effects of the Sparrow acquisition?

You can read their blog post and download it here > The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad: version 2.0.

Windows 8 Metro Icons. Download here.

Emmet

It can do mathematics equations in the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), update CSS3 vendor prefixes and many more. You can transform a single line of code like this ul#nav>li.Item$6>a{Item $} into a structured code block by simply pressing the tab key. Now tell me that isn’t awesome.

Also, you don’t have to visit Lorem Ipsum website to generate dummy texts for your project(s). All you’ve to do is type p6>lorem - this might just be the coolest toolkit. :)

Some recruiters like to waste the time of applicants that submit applications to their companies. You just have to remind yourself that they need you even if you’re looking for a job. I recently encounter one and it got to a stage that I became frustrated.

I spent three hours being interviewed for the position of a Product Designer. I was e-mailed after a week that I should complete a technical test. I spent an entire evening writing JavaScript for their slider because I wasn’t allowed to use jQuery plugins. I sent them the complete code and they were happy with what I did. I waited for another week hoping that I would be offer the position – to my greatest surprise, I was asked to do a ground up build for their new website, write a presentation and come to their office again to present the case study.

I became furious that I had to write their HR Manager this e-mail:

Hi xxxxx,

Thanks for all your e-mails.

I won’t be attending the presentation as I feel that I am wasting my time. I spent three hours during the interview, and I have been asked to write codes for the “second stage” of the recruitment process. I feel that I should have been offered the job by now if [company name] is truly looking for a Product Designer.

With that being said, I will like to withdraw my application. I will look for something else. I wish [company name] all the best with your search for a Product Designer.

Thank you for understanding.

Kind Regards,

Finbarrs Oketunji.

By the way, I was offered a position with another company the same day that they interviewed me. To hell with Time Wasting Recruiters.

I recently started redesigning Haystacks’ app. Haystacks is a London-based company that develop apps for kids. The usefulness of this particular app is that parents will be able to search for interesting things to do in London with their kids. Work in Progress

As a founder, you’ve to realise that it is a marathon and not a sprint. It is very easy to start, and it is very hard to finish a marathon. So while anybody can jump into the marathon and start off. You can just start getting to the 10 miles marker, the 13 miles marker, the 15 miles marker, and then you hit the wall at the 18-19 miles marker. Which is probably 4-5 years in…

— Jason Calacanis.

One of my favorite repeated quote in the biography of Steve Jobs is, “Real artists ship.” Those three phrases struck a chord with me before I started designing the dashboard for my startup, and I’ve been using it as a guiding principle till this point.

It became my mantra when I needed to get pumped up to get things done, but the urgency in the quote itself can lead to the delivery of a product that isn’t useful to anyone. I mean, there were times in the past weeks that I was close to pushing out an uncompleted dashboard. That’s probably because the quote was written boldly on one my corrugated flash cards, or perhaps the unrealistic expectations of some customers played a role in what could have been a clumsy decision.

I’m honestly not naïve to the constant complains by some critics disguising themselves as potential customers because things aren’t living up to their expectations. In fact, it is an exclusive human trait, and I will probably do something similar if I was in their shoes. I have come to the realization that mental toughness is required when dealing with certain people, because if care is not taken they will blow you off course with their non-constructive criticism. Be quick to set yourself back on course and stay focus on the task you have at hand.

The question these impatient people should ask themselves is, “what am I creating today?” Instead of complaining about what someone else is creating like teenagers who lost their lunch money to playground bullies (Disclaimer: I frown at bullies).

With that being said, I will leave all the whiners of the world with this,

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Cheers!

Photo Credit: Patrick Haney.

I just completed the development of Speak Yoruba App website (HTML5 x CSS3 x jQuery x Typography (Lexia Font by Fonts.com)). Buy the app from App Store for $0.99 if you want to learn Yoruba. And, no, it is not my start-up. It is for a friend.

Whenever we talk about ‘biodesign’ we should simply bear in mind just how amazingly superior a spider’s web is to any load-bearing structure man has made. From this insight, we should look to the superiority of nature for the solutions. If we want to tackle a new task in the studio, then it’s best to go outside first and look at what millenia-old answers there may already be to the problem.

I spent two weeks working on an iOS radio app which finally worked yesterday. My intention is to use it as a template when creating radio apps for radio stations and DJs. And, of course make a lot of money while I am at it. A friend and a mentor just told me to start thinking about creating something similar for the Android market.

I just installed SDK and Eclipse. I spent 27 minutes trying to figure out this issue “Unable to find a userdata.img file for ABI armeabi…” - which by the way was because I didn’t install “ARM EABI v7a System Image.” Stupid me! Anyway, the emulator is working, so it is time to WORK.

I must admit I wasn’t quite happy when someone tweeted at me with @234Downloads handle on twitter a while ago. I felt the utilisation of “234” as prefix for most of the names of Nigerian brands surfacing is becoming annoying, overused, and widespread. Of course, “234” is Nigeria’s international dialing code, but can we be a little bit more unique? Sadly, no one can claim exclusivity to the prefix. Sigh!

Rebranding is necessary if I intend to stay relevant in this not so encouraging startup ecosystem. I have to urgently come up with a bizarre and distinct name. Didtum (a Latin word for distribute) would have fit perfectly if the domain name hasn’t been registered. I will try purchasing it that’s if the owner won’t be asking for an arm and a leg. Acquisition of the domain name would mean introduction of the new name to customers when I demo the dashboard for feedbacks. I look forward to brainstorming few more names with my best friend sometime this week. :)