I wonder how often domain names are taught at the university level.

This thought was in the back of my mind as I developed and gave a guest lecture in the Fall of 2020 to students of Dr. Sara Steffes Hanses at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh on consulting. I have had the honor to present to her classes in the past to share my wisdom and lessons learned over the years as a consultant – and how I think as a consultant even when I work for a firm. Where this lecture was virtual, my plan was to deliver it with the same enthusiasm as I have in the past.

The class I gave the guest lecture to is part of a program called Interactive Web Management, or IWM. It is a unique hybrid of business, technology, marketing and journalism, and students in the IWM program get a well-rounded education and experience across all that encompasses a Web site today. Especially in today’s world of hyper-specialization I see this program as a great way to offer the big picture, and allow graduates to choose their specialty or specialties.

Timing for my class was around the first meeting students have with their “clients,” non-profit or university organizations for whom they will consult to, which is the basis of their semester work. As I have given this guest lecture before, there are many elements that are continued. That being said, I fully re-evaluate it based on my own experience and the marketplace since the last lecture.

This is also why I introduced “extras” a few years ago – topics that were not core to the lecture but related and important nonetheless. For one of my extras this time, I chose domain names. If you have read anything else I have written here at The Hot Iron, you know I work a lot with domain names and have opinions and advice on them. I decided to cover domain names as an “extra” as many may have some familiarity with them, but not all aspects.

Two slides were dedicated to domain names, as you can see from the presentation linked and embedded. Where the bullet points were brief, there was a lot of substance I spoke to. As an introduction, I reaffirmed likely to all what a domain name is and how you can use it. I also talked about the selection of a name, giving an example of how one friend and former client, Foresight Childproofing, came up with their primary domain name, ChildProofHome.com. I then concluded this with talking about the various top-level domains, or TLDs, available, and recommended people have a great experience with working with domain names at Name.com.

As the first slide focused on registering a new, available domain name, I could have stopped there and felt good about the knowledge I shared. However I decided to go deeper and explore with them the world of the domain name aftermarket – when a domain name you desire is already registered and is available for registration at a premium price from a broker. I feel if people know very little about domain names in general, they are completely clueless about the aftermarket. Here I described what it is, and shared stories of how I acquired domain names from the aftermarket for clients in the past. I also recommended they explore DomainMarket.com, a larger and reputable marketplace.

I have shared the slides to my guest lecture here for all to review and “leverage” for their own use on SlideShare, whether for work, academia or personal use.

Deconstructing Educating on Domain Names

There’s no time like the present for a teaching moment. As a guest lecturer, it is your role to contribute something unique to the class – whether it’s a unique topic or point-of-view. Bringing a heightened awareness of domain names to this class was my way of offering both. Did it resonate with the students? I can’t say for sure, as most had their cameras off.

---

This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

---

Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS/XML feed or Read by Email

Announcements • Technology • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink

There are certain things in life we seem to remember forever. It could be a song, a saying or advice that really resonated with us. The latter happened to me, and it is something that has been a positive message to me over the decades of work and into these current times.

What was it? “Don’t get used to a desk.”

The Origin of It At a Desk

Shortly after completing the multiweek training program at my first job after college, I would be sent off into the wild to add value for clients of the consulting firm. Or in this case to the “bench” – as there was not a billable project to work on, I would await one while working on internal, non-billable projects. But before I was released, I was to meet with the vice president of HR for the firm.

For some reason I can still remember the scene – he sat behind his large desk in his large office. There was some small talk, then he espoused the wisdom that stuck with me, “don’t get used to a desk.” Being the naïve early-20’s kid that I was, I didn’t question it, simply said thank you and went on my way. My first desk was a traditional metal desk with a large cathode ray tube, or CRT, workstation on it in a large room in the building that was called a bullpen, that I shared with several other recent trainee-graduates. Certainly I didn’t want to get used to this desk.

One of Many Career Tools

As I progressed along in my career, I collected a wide variety of tools that I carried in the metaphoric toolbox I brought to work every day. Some were major, like what I learned about programming in the “real world” as compared to what I taught myself and learned in college. Some were minor but no less significant, like the soft consulting skills I learned the hard way that I was never formally taught anywhere. Not getting used to a desk was one of them.

This advice came in handy many times over the years, namely due to the variety of desks I have had. I had my share of folding banquet tables, namely in temporary offices setup for the work I was doing at the client. But that wasn’t the worst case, as that honor goes to the plywood-walled off section of a dimly-lit warehouse of a defense contractor during the Persian Gulf War. To the other extreme were nice cubicles in an office environment, and some of them even had a window view. But nice wasn’t just for the office equipment; for on one project I worked on we had a “war room” where the entire team was in one high-collaborative space. Some of the offices even provided me with a nametag, and in most cases my last name was spelled correctly.

Where the advice really resonated with me, however, wasn’t directly related to the esthetics of the desk or workspace itself. It had more to do with the fact that where I sat or stood to do work really didn’t matter. Despite the worst of the scenarios (did I mention I had to wear my winter coat in the dimly-lit warehouse as well?) I was able to be productive and get my job done. Sure, I have preferences to where I would like to work, but for the most part my physical surroundings have been a non-issue to where I have worked over the decades.

Coming Full Circle

As this advice was given to me long before social media, eventually I connected with the person who offered it years later on LinkedIn. When I did I shared with him that his advice stuck with me and was vital to me as I worked in consulting and for companies.

His reaction? He laughed! In addition to being a senior leader at the firm I first worked for, he is an extremely talented improvisational musician. Though he wasn’t able to recall the meeting as vividly as I did, he admitted he often would improvise such advice to young employees of the firm as the started on their careers. He was grateful I remembered it and that it served me well.

Deconstructing Not Getting Used to a Desk

There are many things we learn informally in life and our careers, many of them are soft skills that never appear in any text book or course material. Where many go by the wayside, some stay with you over time. I believe these that do are situational, especially ones that are put to the test and work to your advantage. Not getting used to a desk served me well, not only in the midst of a less-than-ideal work location, but in the hope of a better one to come along in the future.

---

This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

---

Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS/XML feed or Read by Email

Business • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink

Shortly after completing my Scrum training and becoming a Certified ScrumMaster, it was clear to me that in order to be successful at the Agile framework, I have to be an active practitioner. Where I am planning that in my job with my director who is a Scrum Master himself, I sought other ways to use it.

Where I am applying Scrum right away is in my own work and in my personal life. The latter was reinforced when I read Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland as he talks about how to use Scrum well beyond software development. This led me to creating personal Scrum Boards for both. The picture accompanying this post is of my Scrum Boards, with my work one to the left and my personal one to the right.

Elements of a Scrum Board

A Scrum Board is a tool for tracking progress and providing visibility on a project. There is single definition of how one is structured or organized, as it should ideally fit your needs, whether individually or for your Scrum Team. The basic components of it should include the following, and I also indicate how I have adapted these components for my needs.

Backlog – A Backlog is the work to be done. Larger, higher-level items are called Epics, and smaller, shorter, more specific items are called User Stories.

In both of my Scrum Boards the Backlog is the first column – yes, I purposely blurred out the tasks in it, both for confidentiality and to not bore you, my dear reader, of the mundane minutiae of my life. Most all of these are User Stories. Each is written on a Post-It note so they can be easily moved around.

Not Started – This is actually an optional component, and is also referred to as a Sprint Backlog. All work done in Scrum is done in Sprints, a defined period of time such as 2 or 4 weeks. The items in these columns are what I plan to work on during the week. As it is not required, I simply could have all of my Backlog prioritized in one column.

For myself, I have 1-week Sprints. At the start of the week, I review – or Refine – the Backlog and select the work to be done in the Sprint. Refinement also includes readdressing the priorities of Epics and User Stories, which can vary from week to week, or in this case Sprint to Sprint. Once this process is completed, I move the Post-Its to the appropriate column.

In Process – When I start an Epic or User Story, I move it to this column from Not Started, indicating what I am actively working on.

It’s not uncommon for me to have multiple items in process as I am often awaiting something else to be completed to proceed. It is not my intent to have more things in process than I can manage. The goal here is to use this to get more work done by breaking tasks into smaller components.

Done – Once a User Story or Epic has been completed, it gets moved to this column, and a small celebration takes place in my mind.

The accompanying photo was taken towards the end of last week, when I had several items done, and since then I completed more. At the end of the week I clear all Done items, and hold a review, or Retrospective, to go over the week, realities in my schedule, setting up the next Sprint the following week.

More To It Beyond Myself

In using Sprint Boards for personal work, I am adapting it from a standard Scrum flow. I am performing the roles of a Scrum Team myself – the Scrum Master, Product Owner and Development Team. I also am not doing a Sprint Review per se, a process of demonstrating the work of a sprint for approval, for as I move an item to Done I am reviewing it at that time. Additionally, my Retrospective and Refinement processes are not as involved.

A Scrum Board is typically displayed prominently in an office or managed using an online tool that all have access to. Mine is on a project board that kids use at school for presentations, as its tri-fold format allows me to easily transport it through my house or even to my co-working space. During the workday it is open and visible and at night it’s folded away.

There are other components that can be added to a Scrum Board. This article from Scrum Inc. on Scrum Boards expands more on them, and how other elements of Scrum interface with them.

You Can Do It

Have I convinced you to have your own Scrum Board? I welcome your thoughts and how you manage your own in the comments to this post.

Deconstructing Scrum Boards

A single, visible place for all elements of your project are what Scrum Boards are for and are a key component to the Scrum framework. Though my own Scrum Boards are modified in some form to use for myself, even in this form it is good practice to follow as my overall work is transformed towards Agile.

---

This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

---

Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS/XML feed or Read by Email

Business • Agile / Scrum • Thrive • (4) Comments • Permalink

At some point we switched from saying "disaster recovery" to "business continuity," and I think it's time to switch it back.

Perhaps it started in the 1990's when a wave of buzzwords and political correctness came into vogue. The phrase “disaster recovery” has such a harsh tone to it, where “business continuity” is so much more positive, isn't it? Positive, sure, but did losing the edge of the phrase diminish the need for how we often apply it, in creating a disaster recovery plan?

Disaster recovery planning is creating an action plan and related activities in preparation for a disaster in one’s life. It is typically something a business does, but individuals and families can prepare one as well.

By calling it recovery rather than continuity, we have a sense of urgency and a goal of pushing forward, wherever it takes us. Continuity implies we will still be the same afterwards, where as we are living now that may not completely be the case. By using the term disaster rather than business, it means it impacts all of us, not just businesses. Individuals, families and related organizations all need a disaster recovery plan and to be included in a business’ plan too, including the resources to execute on that plan, and I’m referring to more than pallets of toilet paper. The contents of a plan would be different based on a focus of more creative options.

The onset of a pandemic on a free-market, capitalistic society has been devastating. Now in the third calendar month of it, we are seeing daily reports of businesses - not just small businesses but large ones too - filing bankruptcy or closing altogether. This is on top of record layoffs and furloughs leading to record unemployment claims. The "disaster" today is not just with companies but with people as well. Many of both were not prepared or prepared to the degree they needed to be.

So what do you think? I welcome your thoughts in the comments to this post.

Deconstructing Disaster Recovery

Words matter. By softening them it may pease some people, but it could also be detrimental to the goal of using those words. Disaster recovery says there was something bad, and we are going to come back from it. This phrase - and goal - is what we need right about now.

Image of cap generated from The Washington Post

---

This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

---

Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS/XML feed or Read by Email

Business • Strategize • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink

A timeout for a little self-promotion as I am proud to announce I am now a Certified ScrumMaster® or CSM. Last week I took a 2-day course and over the weekend I passed the exam from the Scrum Alliance to become a CSM.

What is a CSM?

A CSM is a practitioner of the Scrum. With its origins in software development, Scrum is “framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.” The Scrum Master facilitates the Scrum and is one of 3 roles on a Scrum team. The team delivers software, or whatever the work product is, in an iterative approach over periods of time called sprints, where a sprint can last a few weeks to a month.

There is much more to Scrum, and I will be writing more about it in the future. A good guide to Scrum is called simply The Scrum Guide by the co-creators of Scrum, Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, and you can read it at ScrumGuides.org. The definition of Scrum quoted above comes from The Scrum Guide. Among the myriad of books out there on Scrum is Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Sutherland that I previously read and wrote takeaways about.

Now what?

One thing that was clear to me from the course is that Scrum is a framework you must actively participate in to gain your expertise. I will be taking a two-prong approach to this. For my job, I will be discussing Scrum with leadership. As well, I will be using Scrum in my personal life to manage my multiple activities and projects.

Just the Beginning

I am excited for this certification. The course and test were a tremendous learning opportunity, and I look forward to continued learning to maintain the certification. Of course more importantly is applying what I learned and honing my skills in Scrum. Special thanks to my instructor Mike Stuedemann and my classmates Ibrahim, Nelia, Nicole and Rod for a fun and engaging learning experience.

Certified ScrumMaster® is a certification mark of Scrum Alliance, Inc. Any unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

---

This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

---

Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS/XML feed or Read by Email

Announcements • Agile / Scrum • Thrive • Web Development • (0) Comments • Permalink