In my last post on April 12 I announced that I was planning a re-launch of my consulting services to help software teams and organizations take their game from zero-to-hero with a new range of services to help them transform toward iterative/incremental delivery practices.

I’m pleased to announce here that as of April 19, 2011 this new venture has been federally incorporated as Derailleur Consulting, Inc. and now open for business!  Props to my legal team at Cognition LLP for making this a straightforward process with exceptional customer service – it’s well worth taking the time to have folks like them help any new business venture to ensure getting the job done right from the beginning.

My reason for creating this new business is simple and straightforward:  I want to help software teams and organizations, wherever they may be, restore meaning to the concept of R.O.I. or Return On Investment through the application of iterative/incremental software delivery practices and attendant techniques.  As my byline states:  “Agile Team Transformations for World-Class Software Delivery.”

Derailleur Explained

Why the name Derailleur?  Good question:  I’ve had a long-time interest in bicycles and cycling, and it naturally occurred to me to draw an analogy between working with teams to help them be more productive and the simple device that helps multi-speed bicycles slip their chains to various cogs to enable the cyclist to be more productive with each pedal stroke.

Transforming teams toward iterative/incremental processes like Scrum are akin to when a cyclist shifts gears according to the conditions he’s facing:  Low gear for hills, high gear for flats and downhills to maintain momentum.  So it is with agile software delivery, where teams continually shift gears according to the conditions of their project and the market.

Shifting Gears

Since I started blogging in 2004, my focus has run the gamut of technologies and practices - things that have interested me as I’ve wound through several career changes.  So it shouldn’t be much a surprise that I will be winding this blog down as I focus on my new business.  It won’t be shut down right away – I do intend to keep it up for historical purposes – but it will eventually be retired.  Thanks to everyone who have followed my posts and offered public and private feedback!

For now, I’ll be signing off here and moving over to my new site, http://www.derailleurconsulting.com. It’s quite simple right now as I am still evaluating some Content Management Systems (Orchard is winning right now, if I can figure out how to brand it properly).  I’ll also have new Twitter and Facebook feeds for connecting with customers and readers – all of which are accessible on the new site page – while maintaining my current Twitter feed (@crchapman) for my usual off-beat musings.

Do drop by, add me to your Friends list, follow me, etc. to hear about how the business is developing and my exciting, new service offerings that can help teams and businesses become productivity powerhouses.

Cheers!

A brief note today as I celebrate a small anniversary and victory marking my first year back as an independent consultant.  At this time last year I embarked on my first project after leaving the world of Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) Canada with a little ditty helping a local customer get started with SharePoint 2010 Forms Based Authentication customizations.  One thing led to another, and before I knew it I had a profitable first year.

Over this time, I began to help my customer (and eventually their customers) introduce discipline and rigor to their software delivery practices by applying a process that I’d been studying and applying for almost ten years:  Scrum.  As I had seen many times before, the benefits were tangible and almost immediate with improved team morale and productivity:  Where once confusion reigned, there was now a regular rhythm that helped focus and align the business and development practices.

As a result of these experiences, I began to see my priorities changing – I thought I’d be doing a lot more SharePoint work, but I definitely was getting a higher calling.

Opening Soon:  A Practice Dedicated to Better Practices

In September, I fulfilled a long-time ambition to attend a Scrum Master training course delivered by its most famous (infamous?) co-creator, Ken Schwaber at his new training offices in Burlington, Mass.  I came away stuffed with experiences, ideas and clarity about where I wanted to next focus my energies and talents:  Helping software teams and their organizations become great software teams and organizations by applying better practices like Scrum.

It’s a good time to do this as now, finally, after so long “agile” software development is now ascending into the mainstream (even if a little late here in Canada).  There are a lot of good teams who are languishing under bad practices that make it nearly impossible for them to achieve success:  The deck is stacked against them with prevailing practices and failure always looms large, requiring all kinds of unsustainable effort to stave off.  The business climate is demanding that they do more with less and produce real results that justify the investment.

Exactly the job that Scrum and its kin were designed to do.  By the end of the year, I was beginning to inspect and adapt my own processes and it was suggesting that a change in direction was required. 

In the next few weeks I will be re-launching my consulting practice with service offerings directed at helping software teams and organizations take their game from zero to hero:  This includes an array of on-site training programs, coaching and development best practices guidance directed not only at preparing the “boots on the ground”, but also managers and the larger business for the cultural shifts in thinking that just-in-time processes require. 

More information will be forthcoming, so stay tuned:  Season 2 is promising to be a blockbuster…!

Well, this is disappointing:  Due to a lack of sufficient sales, Paul and I made the difficult decision earlier this morning to cancel the Toronto stop for his SharePoint Governance and Information Architecture Master Class. 

We thought and schemed about ways we could keep pushing this inevitable decision off, but in the end time played a factor and not having certainty that we’d have enough people to make the event worthwhile was going to play havoc with his itinerary and ability to secure reasonable travel and accommodation arrangements.

Boo.

What Went Wrong?

I’d love to know myself.  Paul and I worked our networks to drive traffic to register.  We tweeted, blogged, cajoled colleagues, pitched the local user group and talked to customers.  No dice.

According to my EventBrite site stats we garnered over 300 page views, and while a bit lower than I’d like even that number wasn’t a wide enough catchment to get interested parties to sign up.  And as I wrote yesterday, that really surprises me because I know how important the topic is:  Governance is *huge* for the enterprise as they are just *now* coming to grips with the reality of hundreds of failed SharePoint implementations.  Ditto for small and medium sized organizations.

They all know that they want to be in some happy future state where SharePoint enables them to be more productive collaborators and information hunter/gatherers but haven’t the foggiest how to achieve it.  Paul’s course provides this guidance – and while it does take some hard work, it’s not that difficult and can be a lot of fun.   It’s our loss to have missed out on the opportunity to have him come to Toronto.

Not All Bad News

Those that have registered for the event will have received a refund notice from the EventBrite site and you can contact me regarding any questions you may have.  Now, it’s not all entirely gloom & doom:  There is an outside chance that Paul may still want to make a trip up to do a guest appearance at a local SharePoint user group.  This is still in the envisioning/planning phase (HA!) – if it comes together, you’ll hear about it here and on Twitter.

Paul has said that it’s unlikely he’ll be back this way (Toronto) any time soon – but there is always an opportunity for the future.  I’ll be working with him over the coming months to see what we can do differently to try and get his Master Class here and in front of an audience of the willing!

Those who have been following my tweets and blog posts (1, 2) recently know that I’ve been helping SharePoint governance impresario Paul Culmsee of CleverWorkarounds fame to bring his Master Class to Toronto this May 12–13.  It could be the time of year and May seeming like a long way off with visions of the cottage dancing in folks’ heads, but it’s been a slow burn to build interest. 

And it makes no sense because I know this class addresses an important issue for a lot of consultants, analysts, project managers and customers  here in the Greater Toronto Area.

Long story short:  We’re on the cusp of making a go/no-go decision this week.  Paul’s got a heavy agenda that’s taking him across the USA and they are gung-ho to have him deliver his practical, deep-dive curriculum.  To lose out here in Canada would be a real shame as he’s not likely to make a trip back this way for a while.  And it’s a horrible way to show our world-famous hospitality, to boot!

So:

This is an exceptional value for two days’ deep-dive into Information Architecture.  You’ll be getting an EXCEPTIONAL value for $1650 CDN!  How exceptional?  When I was with MCS, I’d have to come to you for a minimum of three days at $250/h to give you a mere shadow of the great guidance you’ll get from Paul through a pre-packaged offering that would not address some of the most important issues for your governance planning.  That’s a savings of over $4000!  And you’ll come away with a governance plan that people will actually use!

So:

You’ll be glad you did.  If we can get at least ten folks interested, Paul will seriously consider keeping this afloat and come to Toronto.  Let’s meet this challenge!

UPDATE: Want a sample of what Paul has to offer?  See this sampler vid from one of his recent presentations on SharePoint governance (click to launch):

For folks who follow me on Twitter, you already know that registration for the Toronto SPIA Master Class with Paul Culmsee is now open (see here:  http://spiatoronto.eventbrite.com).  Early Bird tickets are now available for $1395 CDN – there are only 10 seats available at this rate and only until March 31!

This is an exceptional value for two days’ deep-dive into Information Architecture.  Here’s what Paul Culmsee will be covering:

Module 1:  SharePoint Governance f-Laws 1–17

• Why users don’t know what they want
• The danger of platitudes
• Why IT doesn’t get it
• The adaptive challenge – how to govern SharePoint for the hidden organization
• The true forces of organizational chaos
• Wicked problems and how to spot them
• The myth of “best practices” and how to determine when a “practice” really is best

Module 2: The Shared Understanding Toolkit – Part 1

• Introduction of Seven Sigma Understanding Toolkit for addressing the SharePoint Governance blindspot 

Module 3: The Shared Understanding Toolkit – Part 2

• Extending the concepts introduced in Part I for creating a governance plan that will make sense and be read by people.

Module 4:  Information Architecture Trends, Lessons Learned and Key SharePoint Challenges

• The hidden costs of poor information management
• Lessons learned from other organizations in their attempts at structuring their IA
• Review of technical, strategic and organizational challenges for SharePoint

Module 5:  Information Organization and Facets of Collaboration

• Deep-dive into IA structure and organization
• Enterprise collaboration
• Common IA mistakes and avoidance strategies

Module 6:  Information Seeking, Search and Metadata

• Understanding how users seek information and how they manifest in patterns of use
• Strategies for improving SharePoint search and navigation
• Examining taxonomy and metadata and SharePoint 2010 managed metadata

Module 7:  Shared Understanding and Visual Presentation – Documenting Your Information Architecture

• How to communicate your Information Architecture in visual or written form