The Apprentice - Anouncing Javier Acero

Posted by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen on the 22.07.2011 | Leave a comment

No one as ever completed their apprenticeship.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Today Javier Acero is facilitating a Ruby workshop in Valladolid thanks to Fernando Burgos (who organised the event).

Given that he is doing this workshop, as he is moving to Madrid and he wanted to do something nice in Valladolid as a little good bye, I wanted to take the chance to welcome him (publicly) as my new apprentice.

Javier is a very nice guy, that is passionate about software development, but at the same time has the humility to keep his curiosity and desire to learn.

I am really happy to have him as my apprentice from now on and I hope I will be able to transmit as much knowledge to him as I can so that he can become a great craftsman in the future.

Please give him a warm welcome and wish us well in this new chapter of our journey.

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Entryways Seedleaf - Or my trip to Floyd

Posted by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen on the 16.07.2011 | Leave a comment

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard. ~ Standing Bear

Two weeks ago I was flying with a torn calf from Madrid over Frankfurt and DC to Floyd, Virginia. I was going to spend the next three weeks with the fine fellows from Entryway. My leg was giving me a hard time and the trip was, from a pure physical point of view not, that pleasant, although I had some great conversations with different people during my flight and I even set up a date for next November to go dress shopping with Corey , Dave , Michael and possibly Brian .

"Why would I embarc on such a venture with a leg hurting like that?" you might ask yourself. The answer is actually quite simple. I was going to meet my dear friend Gustin and spend the next 3 weeks of my time with him at a exotic place called Floyd. I was not to be disapointed!

I arrived at night, after flying from DC on a tiny weenie plane ,at Roanoke airport where Gustin and Jon were waiting for me. It was a pity that it was dark already and I could not enjoy the scenery ( as Dave Hoover was recommending me to ), but given that I had been awake for the last 24 hours I was pretty tired. We arrived home and I jumped to bed getting ready for a great first week that was about to start.

On Monday, the 4th of July we went to a party with Gustin, Andrea, Ceder and little Loic. Funnily enough the partys leitmotiv was the independent thinker celebration. It was really nice to see all the people (young and old) celebrating their way of living in an America that does not really embody their lifestyle; a great way to start my time in Floyd and get a little bit of the gist of how my next 3 weeks in Floyd would be.

So my work at Entryway started on Tuesday and we plunged right into their new venture Seedleaf.

Seedleaf is a food distribution system aimed for local farmers, CSAs and food distributors that helps them selling their produce removing the corporate man in the middle, who usually makes far more money than the people who work the land. Seedleaf is due to launch soon and the fine fellows are working hard to get a great product out there. The fascinating thing about the fellows at Entryway. is their passion for the community they live in. They strive to serve the needs of the community they best they can creating a fair trading environment for the local farmers and food producers.

In the last 2 weeks, while I have been working with Gustin, Jon, Jonathan, Katie and the ever smiling Lake, I have found a group of people passionate and caring about their work and community. It is inspiring how they care about their private lives as much as they care about their professional selves (they actually have a 3 day weekend to be able to disconnect from work and get back totally refreshed and energized every week).

I wanted to write a bit more about my stay here and the work we are doing, but I'll leave that for the last post about this wonderful place called Floyd :)

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Elabs

Posted by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen on the 03.07.2011 | Leave a comment

It’s NOT the job you DO, It’s HOW you DO the job.
~ Anonymous

Amazing how time flies when you are on the road. It seems like yesterday that I came over to Elabs to spend some time with them.

In this last week I spent my time pairing with Antoy Sastre on a nice Backbone.js and CoffeeScript powered app for a new client of Elabs

Elabs has been a great experience in my journey. One of the things I like a lot about Elabs is the fact that they create products, but these are always things that they would use as well. They focus a lot on the open source community and have gained the respect of the ruby community for their efforts.

The daily life at this company is very calm and serene, everyone does what he is supposed to be doing and things seem to flow without the need of a lot of ceremony.

Did I mention their awesome office? If you happen to be in Gothenburg some day you definitively have to come for a visit. CJ had the incredible luck (or good taste you might say) to find out that the old Hasselblad building was free.

I am sitting here in Dulles International Airport waiting for my next flight so excuse me for my short post. During my time at Elabs I have seen first handed how professionally the crew works, with this nordic calmness and focus.

Thanks a lot for having me during this time guys, it has been a pleasure and an honour to be part of your team during this last weeks! But you are not getting rid of me that easily, I'll be back! :)

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Value based charging

Posted by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen on the 28.06.2011 | Leave a comment

I actually wanted to write about value based charging a while ago. As it happens sometimes, I got sidetracked and my mind was on many other things, as you might have seen by my recent lack of blog posts.

That's when Brian Marick reminded me to write about it now. So here we go...

There are various models of charging in current business. The main models we can recognize are:

• Fixed price
• Time based
• Value / Result based

Fixed price based charging

In this model of charging providers will set a price depending on their understanding of the scope of the project at the inception time.

One of the flaws of fixed based charging is that you are setting the price given on the current (early) understanding of the project, which might be flawed (specially if you consider the cone of uncertainty. )

This model puts the entirety of the risk on the providers side. This sort of charging should be only done if the task at hand is a routine endeavor for the providers team and requires very little interaction with the customer.

Most times, when providers use this form of charging they would build in the offer a buffer calculating their internal costs. One possible formula for calculating the total cost would be the following:

Fixed price = (scope * your hourly price * fixed price overhead factor) + material

Time based charging

In this model most providers of services charge for the time spent doing the work. The time charged for varies from hourly, daily to iteration based (when working in an agile team).

When charging for time the provider considers that the amount of time he spends doing the work has a certain price. It does not consider the actual value provided to the customer during the time worked.

There are variations to this though. Some companies will charge time, but with a notion of value in it. I have seen this done when an iteration has a certain cost attached to it and the total amount charged varies depending on the story points delivered by the team (i.e. if there was less delivered the provider will charge less acording to the committed number of story points).

The only problem when charging a certain price per iteration is that, given the team is working in an agile way, they will develop the most valuable stories first, leaving the less valueable stories for the end of the project without varying the price of the iteration.

Value based charging

In this model we base our charging model on the premise that our customers should only pay for the value they are getting from our work and not for the time we spent doing it.

Similar to time based charging models, there are different models and approaches to value based charging.

The possibly simplest way to charge per value (although the one that requires a lot of trust between the customer and the provider) is the one that I like to call What was my work worth to you?

When working like this all the risk resides on the provider as you are putting the payment decission entirely on the customers hands and you will have no control whatsoever in the outcome. It requires a high level of trust from both parties as the risk lies solely on the providers side.

Another modality of value based charging, which works for bigger projects or training/coaching services, is based on an upfront study of the work at hand.

When engaging in such a project the provider will try to understand the customers context and the variables that play in this context. As a provider you are trying to get as many insights about the project at hand as you can before you commit to any price.

When the provider has evaluated all the factors that make up the project he and the customer will calculate which expected revenue growth the customer will benefit from after the project will be completed. Once this has been figured out the provider can make different offers (with different levels of options in every offer), charging a percentage of the gain the customer will see when these targets are met.

Similar to fixed bit charging this can put the entirety of the risk on the provider. The difference though is that as a provider you have to keep in mind, and never forget, to first try to understand your customer and his context before you commit to any price. You should always give different offers with varying costs and scope, so that the customer can decide which will suit his needs best.

It is important when charging like this that measurable outcomes are set so that the customer and provider can assert to which level the targets have been met.

This can be seen as well as a result based approach to charging, although result based charging is different in that the charging will occur when the project gives the desired (or a fraction of the desired) outcomes. There are modalities to this charging model which work when working with start ups, which could be based on equity percentages, etc.

These are just a few examples of charging models (specially the value based ones) that I wanted to share with you. There are some more based on retainers, margins, etc.

I myself am exploring the posibilities of value based charging and most of the time I use the What was my work worth to you? form of charging which seems very natural to me. I have worked with equity based charging as well and retainers.

Have you any experience with value based charging? Do you have any questions about all this? Share your thoughts!

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Noma

Posted by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen on the 25.06.2011 | Leave a comment

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
~ Howard Thurman

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of dining at the best restaurant (as for the year 2011) of the world, the famous Noma.

It is funny how your mind creates expectations and ideas in your head. Before I went to Noma I thought of it as a place where french cuisine is served and everything has to be done with the right etiquette. I was to be surprised...

When we entered Noma we where greeted by the 45 staff members; they all stood in line, smiling, happy to have us there as their guests. The feeling that something great was about to happen was in the air.

We where invited to dine in the apprentices staff room, the very place where the chefs to be learn their craft from their mentors. The room was beautifully arranged, not making you feel you are in a restaurant at all, but sitting in someones living room. The views to the bay where stunning, the bookshelves full of books on wines and food; all in all something totally unexpected for a restaurant.

Once seated our hosts welcomed us to Noma and something big started to happen that would deeply impact me in the way I see my craft and confirm the many ideals and ideas I have already. I took a few pictures already about the whole experience (and the servings that you can look at on my instagram ) so I am not going to explain the whole evening, but rather share with you the lessons learned from this experience.

One of the things that struck me is that the night we where at Noma there were 45 staff members for the 60 guests dining. The result of that was an incredible service (everyone got served the food at almost the same time). You might think that having 45 memebers of staff for a relatively small restaurant is a very expensive thing to do, and it would be if it was a classical place.

You see, Noma is a place that follows what we, as software craftsmen, believe in. They have large numbers of apprentices that are learning, by doing, to become great chefs one day. Of the 45 staff, only 15 have a salary; the rest are there because they want to learn and have a passion for food. As I mentioned earlier, we where actually dining in the room where the Apprentices usually learn. Not only that, Noma even has a test kitchen (on a boat) where the apprentices can cook themselves and practice without compromising the quality of the food served to the customers.

The other striking thing when you come to Noma is to see the passion this people have. They truly love what they are doing, they are constantly smiling, with this confident look in their eyes; their motto Dining at Noma is about having fun.

And you will truly enjoy your evening there! They will explain with high detail where the food and wine come from, tell you anecdotes and even show you their kitchen, sharing the problems they have getting some ingredients and how they travel around to find new ingredients, researching and trying out new recipes.

Unlike other kitchens where there is a lot of stress, anguish and shouting, at Noma you see peace, passion, and everyone doing what they have to do, without being told so. You can see master chefs explaining the right technique to the apprentices while they are preparing the food for their guests in a calm and assertative way.

Noma is about the people that work at Noma. It is about passion and openess, about sharing with their customers what they do, about having a good time together with their guests, providing one of the best dining experiences in the world that will stick in the memories of those who are fortunate enought to spend an evening with them.

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My Weekend at BeCode

Posted by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen on the 25.05.2011 | Leave a comment

Do what you like doing. Fortune will follow.
~ BeCode

Last Friday evening I started a journey to Valencia. I wanted to visit a good friend of mine Xavi Gost. I knew I was going to see a different place, a place where people live by their passions and mold their lives according to that, creating their own realities; I would not be disappointed.

After an uneventfull train ride I finally arrived in Valencia, but Xavi was no where to be seen.

"Well" , I thought, "he possibly is a little late, the streets seem to be busy.", so I waited outside the station and enjoyed the view of the busy city with all the people coming and going from the station.

After a while two young men came walking towards me pointing their fingers at me:
"We are looking for you!".

And my weekend with the people from the Punk Incubator began...

On Friday we went out to see a bit of the city and have some dinner (I was actually quite hungry). We spend some time talking about them and what they do, but most of the time we just had some fun and banter. I was too tired that day to continue for much longer so I decided to go to sleep relatively soon.

What took me by surprise (and it was a pleasant one), was that the very workshop of Be Code has a bedroom where visitors can spend the night and rest. It was a great feeling to be able to sleep in the very heart and soul of Be Code. Although I must say that it wasn't an easy night, as I had the visit of at least 6 females who didn't want to let me sleep. Before you jump into conclusions those females where members of the Culicidae family ;).

Saturday we had a nice breakfast in a street cafe. After getting our engines started with our breakfast we went to a local market. We walked around the marked enjoying the smells and sights of it all. Valencia has a great central market filled with the flair of the markets from the past. You should definitively check it out!

So while spending our time in the market we bought our food we would prepare later at Xavi's house (Xavi and Ana are really great hosts; Thanks a lot guys! ).

Back at Xavi's home we cooked two fantastic Doradas and continued our conversations.

Later that same day we organised a small dojo with some of the people from Be Code. A couple of hours later we went out to have some drinks in the city.

Sunday was much calmer, we went out to have a nice Paella as a nice goodbye meal.

The team of Be Code is a tightly knit set of people who believe in a common goal, they love what they do, love their life, and change the environment around them.

It is no surprise that they don't shun away from having difficult conversations with colleagues and customers alike.

They are the type of people that will not beat around the bush in any situation, and with their raw ways tell you exactly what they think. There are no excuses, this people mean what they say and say what they mean. It is great to see how they create and live the reality they want to live in.

All in all I had a great weekend and I hope to be able to come back soon, maybe next time I leave with a mohawk ;)

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Karma

Posted by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen on the 24.05.2011 | Leave a comment

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?
~ Confucius

Over the past week I have had a very altered feeling, something that was not right, a sensation; my karma was altered.

I might not appear that way, but deep down in myself, I am a very sensitive person; fluctuations of mood and emotions get picked up very quickly into me and I try to process them.

This empathy I have developed over the years (one might argue that I was born that way) usually helps me a lot when dealing with people (which is brilliant; after all I work giving a service to my customers). It's just that sometimes it works to well...

As I said earlier I was altered this past week. What made me struggle is to be around people who needed to show off and, in some cases, disrespect others in levels I would never think of doing.

If you respect others, they will receive respect in return.

As an old XPer the values of eXtreme Programming are very ingrained in my way of life. It is astonishing how, in a way or another, they have molded me to be the person I am today.

Being agile does not mean you follow a set of practices; the practices are just an outcome of the values you hold and share. It is really astonishing how many people in the world proclaim to be agile because they follow some magic formula that someone has laid upon them. They follow a map, a set of practices, blindly, not realizing that to be truly agile they have to have some strong core values and draw their own map. Moreover they need to be able to react to changes and not look like a dear in front of an approaching car, struck by fear and unable to move.

To conlcude I want to ask you some questions:
Do you show respect to others? Even when you disagree with them?
Do you give everyone the chance to speak up without fear?
Do you try to simplify everything you do, or do you strive for complexity?
Do you engage in conversations, or do you rather listen to the sound of your own voice?

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Accountability

Posted by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen on the 17.05.2011 | Leave a comment

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for injury.
~ John Stuart Mill

Sometimes I see an attitude in society or at teams where they, with bravado, proclaim that something is not their job.

I have been lucky to share my time with people that are far from letting this statements fall, although I see them around me, in different places.

Think about it, you live in a society, within a system. It is easy to blame that system (or company), it is the great excuse, specially when things are wrong.

"There is nothing we can do!" you say, but there is.

Change only happens when you start changing. When you take responsibility and feel accountable for each and every action.

When the system fails for some unknown reason, go fix it! Don't blame some other person or complain about their behaviour. Start working on yourself, start being the way you want others to be.

Change the system; within!

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