Recently in WorthPoint Category

I was invited on Tuesday evening to watch a tradition here at NewHelix.  Every Tuesday and Thursday nights during the summer the staff get together for a fun basketball game at a local park.  During the day the staff take up a collection to pay for the lights on the court.  Two hours of lights run 200 pesos which comes out to less than $5 US, not a bad deal.

I sat on the sidelines and watched the guys play.  A priority for me on this trip was to learn the personalities of the developers supporting WorthPoint.  This became a great opportunity to learn more about them.  As they played I could see traits of natural leadership skills, who followed up their shots, who called out for the ball, who hustled and other traits that can relate to how a person can work in a team atmosphere.

Tonight is their Thursday game and they've convinced me to come join them on the court, not just from the sidelines.  My next blog post will be from the Iligan hospital where I'll be recovering from my heart attack.  Talk to you then.

Enjoy a couple of videos from Tuesday night's game.





Comments (0)

As much as we in the USA believe we have heightened security measures its a real eye-opener to visit an area like Mindanao.  Armed security guards are a way of life here in every aspect of public life.  Men in uniform wielding M-1 rifles, machine guns, shotguns and sidearms are commonplace. 

The one main difference I've noticed here from the other similar areas of the world I've visited are the guard's personality.  In the middle east and other high violence areas security personnel are not at all friendly, they speak...you listen.  Here in Mindanao the security staff carry the same air of authority but they do it in a very polite and friendly manner.  They truly appear to be here to protect and serve.

From stepping off the plane I was immediately approached by the local police representative at the airport to inquire about my purpose of being here and to ensure that someone I trusted was going to meet me there.  I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette with him and he showed me a poster listing the most wanted terrorists in Mindanao, each accused of kidnapping or other heinous crime.  This wasn't a scare tactic as much as his way to let me know this was something to take seriously.  He seemed very much relieved when I talked about our NewHelix staff and how I was going to be working with them the whole time I was here.

Armed guards at the entrance to the local mall in Cagayan de Oro:




Comments (0)

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.


Comments (0)

It's 8:45 AM and I'm sitting in a coffee shop in the Manilla airport wrapping up a cheese and cracker tray.  So far so good on the WorthPoint trip to Iligan City.  I left Dulles International Saturday afternoon at 6:00 PM on American Airlines to Los Angeles.  That 5 hour trip was just a precursor to the Los Angeles to Guam to Manilla marathon flight on Philippine Air.  16 hours.  Thats 21 hours without a cigarette.  Ok...Ok...I hear you.  I shouldn't be smoking anyway.

The Manilla airport has a very Singapore feel to it.  It is extremely clean, I cannot find one piece of trash anywhere inside or outside the terminal.  The airline representatives and terminal security guards are all very helpful and friendly.  I've actually had two guards come up to me and ask if I needed any assistance (I didn't think I looked that lost).

Manilla has the smell of burnt oil and exhaust fumes that I've found in almost every port city I've visited throughout the world.  Ecology Green has not taken root here yet.  Taxis, buses and the delivery trucks I see are all spouting black smoke from their mufflers.  Oh and if you visit here and walk around outside expect to be approached by every cabbie in the area asking if you need a ride.

My last flight takes off in about an hour taking me to Cagayan de Oro.  There I'll be met by some NewHelix folks who will bring me to Iligan.  I should reach NewHelix at 2:00 and I've got my first WorthPoint meeting scheduled at 3:00.  No sense in wasting time, may as well jump in as soon as I get there.  No matter how rough the trip here is, its definitely worth doing.  I'm looking forward to working face-to-face with my developers and setting up process to improve our Skype communications in the future.

In a little over 5 hours my 30-something hour trek will be concluded for the trip out.  I don't want to think about having to do it all over again on the way home.

Comments (0)

Today I say goodbye to the USA as I travel to the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. I will be visiting the cities of Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro.  The purpose of this trip is to spend some time with my off-shore developers at NewHelix in Iligan.  NewHelix supports WorthPoint in the development and maintenance of our public-facing site along with many other efforts on the back end that our visitors never see.

When I first started at WorthPoint my first responsibility was to establish an Agile development methodology between the requirements providers (product owners), management and our NewHelix developers.  The implementation has been received with mixed reviews, some good and others identifying room for improvement.  My CTO, Andy Forbes, and I both realized that we could not reach the level we required in our development efforts without some face to face communications.  Skype is a great resource but can only facilitate communication to a certain extent.  Cultural and language differences, though they are fewer when working with a Philippine company, do not help either.  I've found it increasingly difficult to present certain concepts like design, development and management techniques.  This trip is for me to present the WorthPoint expectations, identify areas of improvement, encourage the areas they are currently doing well, and then ensure that the information is received correctly on their end.  Once this is accomplished then Skype communications should flow much easier.  I do plan on making recurring visits though not as long as this first one.

Travel to Mindanao is not trivial matter.  I've gone through my rounds of immunizations, fought the passport office, taking my Malaria pills, researched the area on Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube.  To be completely honest I'd rather be heading to Tahiti but Iligan will do for now.  This is an area of the world I've never had a chance to explore.  My Navy days had me spending time all over the Atlantic, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Persian Gulf.  I have to thank WorthPoint for this opportunity to expand my cultural experience.

Funny story...I went to get my Typhoid immunization and the doctor reviewed what I should look out for while I was there.  She covered Malaria and Dengue fever, both spread by mosquitoes.  It appears the mosquitoes in Mindanao have their own version of a labor union.  The Dengue fever carrying kind come out during the day and at dusk they go home and the Malaria group take over.  I had to laugh, it reminded me of the old Warner Brothers cartoons where the sheep dogs clocked in and out to protect the sheep from the coyote.

So today I commence my journey by spending the next 30 hours either in flight or in an airport.  Check back for more journal entries throughout my trip.  I'll see you on the other side!

If you have stories to share about a visit you've made to the Philippines I'd love to hear them.

Comments (0)