Philippine Travel Journal - Day One Continued

Yes I know what you're thinking, I already have a Day One entry.  Well I realized that my actual first day covered 30+ hours including crossing the International Date Line so I deserve to have two Day One entries.

The trip from Manilla to Cagayan went well especially since it only lasted 1 hour 20 minutes.  After landing I was met by Aldrin Valdellon and Alex Perez who drove me the rest of the way to the NewHelix offices in Iligan City.  We traveled through the rural areas of northern Mindanao that includes protected forests and rice paddys.  I noticed lots of livestock like cows, goats, chickens and even a few water buffalo. 

There wasn't much wildlife other than birds to be seen but we did have one visitor.  A giant spider the size of my head jumped up on my passenger side window and tried to break the glass so he could eat me.  Ok ok, maybe he was only 4 inches across and maybe he wasn't trying to eat me but you couldn't convince me of that at the time.  It was unnerving seeing this monstrosity that close to my face with only a 1/4 inch piece of glass separating us.  He eventually gave up and left the vehicle.  I think I saw him bring down a water buffalo in my rear view mirror.

The afternoon was spent meeting with the leadership of NewHelix and coming to agreement on the goals we wanted to achieve during my visit.  They broke down as follows (in no particular order of priority):

• Establish a new organization chart with improved local management chains
• Conduct in-depth review of the SCRUM process we have experienced to-date
• Establish and conduct a SCRUM meeting daily
• Review and improve current software test processes
• Review and improve current metric reporting system (Pentaho)
• Conduct personnel reviews on staff supporting WorthPoint
• Establish regression testing process through the use of Selenium
  
• Discuss future plans for the WorthPoint widget

That covers my priorities for being here.  Time permitting we will also address:

• Visual design concepts
• Programmatic design concepts
• Review and document build procedures
• Review and document our configuration management processes
  

I'll cover our progress here.  Before dusk sets on my final day here I'm hoping to have made great progress on many (if not all) of these areas.