Author Archives: Eric Lefevre-Ardant

About Eric Lefevre-Ardant

Independent technical consultant.

First Sprint Review

Today, I organized the first Sprint Review for our project. This was not something that we had planned in advance. I did mention it a couple of weeks ago to the people in Valtech, but I did not take the … Continue reading

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The Ten Day MBA, by Steven Silbiger

Here is another in a series of well-established books lent to me by my friend Thomas Chuzeville. This one is supposed to teach you all the things learned in an MBA (surprised?). Sounds like one more of those ‘do it … Continue reading

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List of Certified ScrumMasters

This gives the list of the 5627 known certified ScrumMasters. I see about 35 SMs in France (none from my training session yet). Meaning that, if things go as planned, once we at Valtech are included, we would eventually represent … Continue reading

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Agile Project Management with Scrum, by Ken Schwaber

As per Craig Larman’s recommendation, I read Agile Project Management with Scrum before attending Craig’s ScrumMaster certification course. Overall, I am slightly disappointed. This book does not really help getting the basics of Scrum. Instead, it focuses on providing real-life … Continue reading

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ScrumMaster?

I’ve just attended a training session on the Scrum method, provided by aforementioned Craig. The objective of the session was to get a Certification as a ScrumMaster. Not being on of the most senior consultants, I had to trade 2 … Continue reading

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The Power of a Man vs. Manpower

I have been involved in an offshore project for Manpower for more than 6 months. Well, we have recently learned that Craig Larman was going to coach it and lean more towards Agile methods. Craig is Chief Scientist with my … Continue reading

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Baby Steps

Well, it was bound to happen. We are now happily engaged. And to each other, too! ;-) Cécile has the pictures.

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Back to Paris: a glance on the progress made in Bangalore

I made it back from Bangalore yesterday. The journey back was not as bad as the journey in (where we were re-rerouted to Bombay, with a connecting flight to Bangalore), but we did have a 5-hour delay before taking off … Continue reading

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Bangalore: take two

Arrived in Bangalore this morning. I had done my best to take the direct flight from Paris, but we got overbooked, so we had to change to another flight going to Bombay. Let’s just say that it did NOT go … Continue reading

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These salesguys will drive me crazy

I don’t understand. This morning, I sent an unreviewed version of a document to one of the salesguys, specifying that I still needed a couple of hours to go over it again. As I explained in my email, I wanted … Continue reading

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Back from Bangalore

Just came back from visiting the development team in India. My employer now has more than 400 people working in the Bangalore office. Other views of the city.

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Explain complex concepts graphically

I learned a valuable lesson today. 2 months ago, I tried explaining that a technical decision taken for the project I’m working on was bad. In fact, I clearly explained that there were security issues that could compromise the website, … Continue reading

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ScreenSelect – the British Netflix?

I have started renting DVDs from ScreenSelect. Overall, the service is pretty good. I do have a couple of complaints, though: They do not necessarily have in stock all the DVDs they are listing on their site. Some have not … Continue reading

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Mmmm Nice

Not a recent discovery, but good all the same: a Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down.

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Back to London & DVD Rentals

I am back on a project in central London. I cannot complain; the flat I’ve been allocated is situated just South of Tower Bridge. Also, I get to work in the nice UK building of Valtech. Another thing I learned … Continue reading

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