Sept 2021 Post

So it’s now September 2021, the end of Q3 2021. Time flies so fast and it seems like just last year Covid scared the shit out of everyone.

Here in Malaysia, things are seemingly back to normal with the Klang Valley ‘upgraded’ to Phase 2 which means less restrictions and more dine-ins for those who have received two doses of vaccine.

However, we are not out of the woods yet with reported cases among children increasing. Most probably due to them being unvaccinated and people unknowingly bringing the virus back home with them.

Closer to my circle of friends, found out that a schoolmate of mine passed away recently due to Covid as well. May he rest in peace…

So back to September and here is what I have been doing so far..

Agile Skills

There are two topics under this chapter which I want to touch on :

Scrum mastering expectations

Scrum mastering teams is sometimes a tricky affair as you are in the middle managing expectations of the team members e.g. developers and the above layer such as the product owners, sponsor, business and governance teams.

Not forgetting if you are in a matrix reporting environment, you may also have your direct boss asking you questions on progress.

How do I manage it ? …. well, usually I will offer a pragmatic and realistic view of the current situation affecting the product and team. The aim is to be consistent and to be unrelenting in driving the betterment of the product. Having an unbiased view is sometimes easier said than done so you must be very aware of any information that you want to convey which might affect the morale of the team.

If ever you are in doubt, look deeper into what you can offer and write it out ! .. haha … just like what I am doing now.

What can I offer :

1. Mentorship : guiding the team is sometimes necessary in order to get the motion going. I have involved myself in various capacities (provided you know how of course). Examples include engaging IT infrastructure teams to secure necessary server resources, request for IT security clearance, advise on compliance to regulations and possibly team building and one to one sessions with team members.
   
   
2. Discipline : inculcating a certain discipline within the scrum team takes time and sometimes can be an art. Take for example, story pointing. Each sprint could be a different story.
   
   The story points can be estimated based on individual capacity and on the willingness of the team member to take up and own the story. That discipline is ownership is a culture that is slowly developed over time. Also, confidence and skillset sometimes play an important role. The individual will be willing to own it if he knows what he is doing and comfortable in doing it.
   
   Another side of discipline is on the scrum master him/herself. For example, the discipline of planning and organizing events sprint after sprint e.g. daily stand ups, backlog grooming, sprint planning, retrospectives and demos can be daunting if you do not organize properly. Patience is also a virtue as there will be instances where key attendees maybe unavailable or even unwilling to attend so you will have to approach nicely and ask.
   
   
3. Support : Being there for the team is also building trust within the team to ensure they are self-sufficient and able to perform their tasks independently without impediments. Scrum master will have to stick with the team if they are right and also being a disciplined task master if they are unable to complete stories. Multiple hats as you can see in the diagram below 🙂
   

Above just summarizes what I am learning as a scrum master. Join me in this learning as I go through the journey of self discovery 🙂

Picture below from https://www.scrum.org/courses/professional-scrum-master-ii-2021-09-18-50303

Continuous learning and improvement

Continuous learning is the basis for agile and Continuous improvement is the aim of getting the product you are involved in to be significantly better.

Hence, it is also planning for the future to see what is viable for the product even though it is not here yet. For example, if the product is aimed to for a global audience but currently built for a specific country, then it is important to start looking into how multiple countries can be supported as the product progresses on its roadmap to be global.

I will rant more on this topic in next month’s post 🙂

Technical Skills

Xamarin – Android Publishing

I managed to publish my Android app built using Xamarin on to the Google Play Store. Currently still making the final touches to the app such as splash screen, etc.

Will share the link once the app is tested successfully and ready 🙂

Listing screen

.Net MAUI

Started installing Visual Studio 2022 in a VM and playing around with .Net MAUI. Unfortunately, I have not been able to run on a emulator yet as I am trying to find the IP address for the Android emulator which is outside of the VM.

Images and animations for mobile apps

In my endeavour to beautify my app, there were several interesting free resource sites that I found.

1. Lottie – A Lottie is a JSON-based animation file format that enables designers to ship animations on any platform as easily as shipping static assets. If you want to find out more on what Lottie is, go to to their article here.
   
   To find out more how to use them in Xamarin, please view this article.
   
   
2. FreePik– Have a lot of interesting images that can be used to adorn your mobile app or whatever app nowadays.
   
   That’s all for this week’s rants on my life’s journey. 40+++ and counting ….

Adios, amigoes !! {for now}