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Greetings!

  1. Posted on July 14, 2009 5:53:PM by John Clifford to Retrospectives
  2. Methods & Processes, planning, Management, practices

Welcome to the first post on my new software development blog!

Let me tell you a little about myself. I'm an experienced software developer, tester, program and project manager, QA manager, and development team manager, with over two decades of experience in high tech. I've worked at small startups and the world's largest software company. I've written device drivers, OS portability layers, libraries, utilities, and UI components, for environments including CP/M-80, MS-DOS, Windows and Windows CE, AmigaDOS, MacOS, PalmOS, Unix, VAX VMS, and IBM MVS/TSO. I've worked on development tools, desktop applications, and platforms. I've managed developers, testers, program and project managers, and entire development teams. And I've had the privilege of working with some very smart people at very successful companies... and with some very smart people at very unsuccessful companies.

I've learned that failure can be a great learning opportunity, and that the opportunities to turn failure into success are really within our control if we're willing to face the brutal facts, recognizing those signs of disaster that are so obvious in hindsight and then devising a solution while there is still time. Agile retrospectives are a great tool for this, as are other tools and techniques.

Many of my posts will be about what I see, and have seen, along with some general observations and perhaps answers to questions. Feel free to leave comments, or contact me through the blog or via Construx's website. 

Mike Den said:

January 26, 2010 11:50:PM

Your comment on success and failure is so true. It is only by trying lots of initiatives that we can improve our chances that one of them will be a star.

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John Clifford

John Clifford is a Senior Fellow and Agile Practices Lead at Construx Software where he focuses on software development, project management, portfolio management, product management, and organizational management practices. John has three decades experience across the software development and organizational management spectrum, working for small startups and woth world's largest software company. He has been an individual contributor, development manager, group project manager, development director, and CEO.

John has worked on software for everything from microcomputers to mainframes, in domains as disparate as mobile telephony platforms, desktop applications, asynchronous device drives, and computer-to-computer telecommunications. He has developed software in assembler, C, C++, .NET, and Java on platforms that include CP/M, Unix, VAX VMS, MVS/TSO, MacOS, Windows, OS/2, Windows CE, and Linux. He understands project management as a successful practitioner, and as one of the original software developers on Microsoft Project for Windows. His product management skills include the design and creation of industry-recognized software, and he has helped clients focus on the essentials to deliver more quickly with higher revenue.

John has led numerous successful Scrum and Lean-Kanban adoptions, and his clients include several Fortune 500 companies with locations across the US, Europe, and Asia. He holds Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Product Owner, and Certified Scrum Professional certifcations for the Scrum Alliance. He is a charter Kanban Coaching Professional, at the invitation of the Lean-Kanban University. He presents at Lean, Agile, and Scrum conferences, and has been recognized for his knowledge and ability in the application of Agile and Lean principles to all facets of software project planning, management and execution.

 

Contact John