The Six Ninjas

Goodbye to the Shedworking

paul 11 Feb

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For the past 2 years I’ve worked out of an office built in the back of our garage - affectionately known as “the Shed”. We’re moving house next week and the next home office will be inside the house; I’ll miss the Shed but am looking forward to new views from the office window. I was [...]

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The X Factor iPhone Application Development

paul 22 Dec

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We’ve recently developed an iPhone application for The X Factor show, in partnership with an awesome team at Music Technology. It’s called X Matcher and, although it took longer to push through the App Store review and approvals process than we planned, it’s nice to get it out in the store at last. We’ve learnt a [...]

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New online Scrum tool

paul 17 Dec

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I’m always looking out for new online Agile tools to use with my distributed Scrum teams. Recently I came across a new one which I think is the best I’ve seen so far: Bright Green Projects. This tool is simple, elegant and includes all the functionality I need to monitor a project using distributed Scrum [...]

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Charity - it’s not just about Fund Raising

paul 24 Aug

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As a company, we have a number of core values that we adhere to. One of these is “charity - we are part of our community so we donate a percentage of our profits and time to charities chosen by our staff”. Anyone who has followed my Blog will know I’m a keen road cyclist and, [...]

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Agile Planning Poker with Distributed Scrum Teams

paul 24 Jul

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We’re building a new Scrum team at the moment to kick-off the development of a new product. As always, we’ll be using a distributed team, so need to collaborate and communicate virtually, as the cost of bringing the whole team together is just too high for our product development budget. I’ve been looking at ways of [...]

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How SMEs are challenging the taboo’s of the big business world

Mike Beardshall 18 Jul

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The world of business has changed over the last decade, not because of the recession but in a weird and naturally balancing way, the recession has helped. I keep rattling on about SMEs and the way they will eventually take over the world but stay with me for a few minutes because Im about to [...]

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Is your IT department able to support a complex project alone ?

Mike Beardshall 05 Jul

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The changing economy is forcing organisations to look at further cost efficiencies and to identify those areas of the business that can be outsourced. It’s a hard choice, on the one hand, the internal teams have the business knowledge but are considered an expensive luxury and on the other hand outsourcing brings it’s own dangers [...]

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Agile Software Development - Applying Rhythm to the Battle

paul 03 Jul

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I spent many years in the military and, as well as my involvement in business change, software development and project management, I also specialised as a Logistician. Within the military, and particularly in Operational Logistics, there’s a term called “Battle Rhythm”. In military terms, it’s used to describe a mechanism for both managing and maintaining [...]

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The Agile Distributed Team’s “Dream Tool”

paul 02 Jul

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I’ve talked before about the communications challenges of working with a distributed development team. As a company, we also work in a virtual office, with some of us working from the Head office, some at home and some from client site. We catch up regularly and spend quite a bit of time updating each other [...]

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Ok you have your business strategy but who’s following it ?

Mike Beardshall 18 Jun

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One of the biggest problems businesses face is that the corporate strategy does not successfully ripple down to the workers and when it does, it’s so watered down the meaning and more importantly, the direction is lost. So to all you CEOs, MDs and CTOs out there…..Having a corporate strategy is one of the crucial things [...]

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Looking after your customers - the dreaded complaint

Mike Beardshall 14 Jun

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There is an old saying which has many variations but the one I like best is “treat your customers like they own you, because they do”. This is not rocket science but so many companies forget the simple fact that they continue to be a company because they have customers, no customer, no company…. It’s [...]

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Outsourcing software development, managing the risk

Mike Beardshall 07 Jun

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Many companies undertake outsouring in one form or another whether it be a simple matter of using a hosting provider for your website or outsourcing a business function such as software development or call centre. Before venturing into an outsourced relationship you need to carefully consider the risks in order to objectively determine whether outsourcing [...]

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The economy forecast, sunny spells and isolated pockets of rain

Mike Beardshall 01 Jun

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On another day when the UK’s FTSE rallied up by 2% and the US ecomony closing higher at 2.8% too is there a glimmer of light at the end of the long tunnel called recession ? There is a long way to go before we can place the dreaded ‘R’ word back to the anals of [...]

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“I thought of that while riding my bike”

paul 29 May

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“I thought of that while riding my bike” - so said Albert Einstein when asked about the theory of relativity. How many of us have “thought of that while riding my bike”? All too often - in these days of crunchy deadlines and in a world that never sleeps, where someone on the other side of [...]

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SME’s - keep your employees at home where possible (home working saves in so many ways)

Mike Beardshall 25 May

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Not all companies have grasped the concept of homeworking, and indeed the concept is not practical for many. But if like our company you tend to work in a distributed or Noded way then it really is worth considering. The benefits are not only the lifestyle benefits for the employee but hard cash savings for [...]

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-24

mitul 23 May

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#FollowFriday @rleseberg @acumenfund @adrianh @TEDchris @SuePublicover @room122 @expert20 @nickycast @paul_jackson # What a great atmosphere in Oxford street today #

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The first mouse never gets the cheese - be a clever mouse when launching your product

Mike Beardshall 23 May

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There is an old saying ‘the first mouse never gets the cheese’ the concept is used in business when launching a new product to market. The concept works like this: You spend an inordinate amount of time and money developing your product. Once you launch you’re competitors think its a fantastic idea and, because they are bigger [...]

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Knowledge - An old dog learning new tricks

paul 22 May

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It’s many years since I finished formal education, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped learning and taking in new knowledge - although I will admit it takes longer to sink in these days as the brain cells diminish day by day! For most people, learning has to be done after the day job; and that can [...]

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Creating a business out of an idea

Mike Beardshall 21 May

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We have all been there, looking out of the window watching the world go by when all of a sudden it hits you. An idea has just popped into your head with no warning, you play about with it, juggling it from side to side and bounce it off the wall and after about 5 [...]

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The perfect process - striving for perfection with Six Sigma

Mike Beardshall 18 May

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No I am not about to give you a lecture on the good or bad of six sigma, you either think it works or you don’t. I have worked with so many companies over the years, each advocating the perfect (sometimes hybrid) methodology that I realise there is a place and moe importantly a reason [...]

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