What's New for the Week of September 25, 2006

Here's our host news this week:

After a several month run with so much as a sniffle, Dave has been knocked down by two successive bugs. (The human kind, not the computer kind.)

Jerry's preparing to be a volunteer book seller at Tony Hillerman's mystery conference, just before AYE in November. When he closes up the cash registers, he'll race to the airport and fly to Phoenix for the Sunday night welcoming dinner. After AYE, he'll fly back to Albuquerque to host a novel writer's conference. That will make three conferences in ten days, so he should really be juiced.

Don's currently in Boston, MA at a users conference. He'll be home just long enough to leave for another quick trip to the DC area that will include the weekend.

At home in Bellevue, Washington, Steve is writing aticles, redesigning and adding content to his website, writing a newsletter for AYE, and creating handouts for his AYE sessions.

Esther is on her way to the Jaoo conference in Denmark.

Johanna is writing her project management book, preparing for her talk next week and for her AYE sessions.

Musings on Women and IT

I wonder about many things. I call them "mysteries of life." One of the things I really don't understand is why there aren't more women in IT (the general field of software development, whether it's for a product company or an IT organization). After all, to paraphrase one of the old Saturday Night Live skits, "IT been veddy veddy good to me." Take a look at Musings on Women and IT to see the conversation so far. Maybe you can explain this mystery of life: why there aren't more women in IT.

Rewriting the Story of Resistance

Change usually involves resistance. This resistance needs to be expected, and dealt with. In this week's new article Rewriting the Story of Resistance Dale Emery demonstrates how changing your viewpoint can help you deal with the resistance to change.

You can find other articles in the AYE Library on the Article page.

What's New for the Week of September 18, 2006

Here's the host news this week:

Esther is working on writing projects and getting ready for her talk at the JAOO Conference in Aarhus, Denmark.

Jerry will be participating in a Scrum simulation on Wednesday in Albuquerque. In addition, Michael Hunter (a previous AYE participant) interviewed Jerry in Five Questions With Gerald M. Weinberg.

Dave is juggling client work with AYE preparation, and hopes to find time to give the dog a bath.

Don's spending his last week in Maryland working on client projects and finishing an article that's been a year in the writing.

Steve's writing articles, updating his website, and designing AYE session handouts.

Johanna is continuing to write the project management book, several other articles, and to prepare for her Israel trip in October.

What's New for the Week of September 11, 2006

Here's our host news this week:

Esther is remembering her friend and AYE 2000 participant, Anna Allison. Anna was on one of the planes hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Jerry's catching up on paperwork and family medical matters, plus getting the roof fixed after the unusual rain here in New Mexico.

Don's in the Washington DC area this week, trying to get writing and project work done while taking care of his granddaughters.

Steve is back home in Seattle after being in Crested Butte, Colorado last week for Consultant's Camp. He is now grappling with his laptop's
email system to create a secure connection with the email server so his password isn't send "in the clear."

Johanna is leading five sessions at the Software Development Best Practices conference, and giving a talk to the Software Quality Group of New England (Wednesday).

AYE Classic: Chinese Contracts

Why do some contracts chafe and bind while others leave both
parties feeling well-served and satisfied? This week's AYE Classic Chinese Contracts by James Bullock examines the elements of congruent contracts.

What's New for the Week of September 4, 2006

Happy Labor Day (for our US readers) and the unofficial kick-off of the fall season. Here's what's new with the hosts this week:

Jerry presented a workshop on the Fieldstone Method to SouthWest Writers, in Albuquerque, NM. He will be a subject matter expert this week at a Scrum workshop for New Mexico SPIN.

Don's involved in a DOE exercise with Willem van den Ende and Ira Weinstein. The results will be seen soon on the AYE wiki. He'll be practicing Farmer Meditation this week preparing for 2 weeks with his granddaughter.

Steve is having fun at Consultants Camp in Crested Butte, Colorado. He is joined at camp by AYE participants Dale Emery, James Bach, Jon Bach, Rick Brenner, Judah Mogilensky, Michael Dedolph and Jim Ward. Steve will be trial-running his AYE session Communicate Effectively with Upper Management during camp.

Esther is enjoying the last days of summer at her cabin in the north woods.

Johanna celebrated Labor Day by cleaning up the house, and is celebrating the start of school by writing the project management book and another article this week.