Hello reader...
The time has come to move on from Conchango. I've had a wonderful time here, nearly 5 years and it's been a real blast. I've learnt so much about top flight consultancy and most of this has come from the superb people I work with. If you are looking to raise your game and work for a fun London based consultancy and know a thing or two million about Agile development, Microsoft products, enterprise platform development, J2EE, Mobility or User Experience then you couldn't do better then work for Conchango. These guys are storming the Agile world and truely grasp this approach - if you are considering Agile then you need to speak to the experts!
As for me I've decided to go down the route of working for a product company - a longer term commitment to a project and hopefully find something thats got Agile and Windows Mobile in the mix too...the interim will be contracting whilst I seek for this holy grail of a shrubbery company!
Project highlights
Britvic Technician 2000 project - my induction to Mobility, 18 months of seriously hard work putting together a field service solution for 200 service engineers. A great client team comprising of business experts and seconded engineers were the magic ingredient - almost as near to an agile project as you can get without realising it! Did these guys know how to throw a party! (lots of practice :-)
BCA IMS - Kick start to the whole Agile and Scrum sweetness that has energised my passion for development work and totally changed the way I approach things now.
People highlights
Too many people to mention them all - thank you everyone that I've had the pleasure to work with, however a couple stand out...
Mark Sibunruang - a developers developer, this guy cuts the mustard with a seriously large axe - if he enjoyed the limelight he'd be a leading light in the development practice world.Shows what you get when you mix reading the New Scientist with a dev manual!
Howard van Rooijen - "tireless guru", guys a machine...shove fine food and drink in and out comes quality development work - magic! Embodies the antithesis of the maxim, "garbage in, garbage out"! See you at the next gastro geek lunch on the 18th, anyone taking a tablet pc?! ;-)
Ian Shimmings - Quite simply "The Man", and currently Ken Schwaber's side-kick co-presenting this weeks Scrum course in London. Thank you for introducing me to Agile - a life saver!
Rhodri, Merrick, JamesD, Lois, Lozza, Gabster (marry me? ;-), Pete W's, Matt H, Stu & Rach, SteveW, SarahP, Gav & Shove, Colin, RobG, Nik, Helen, MikeL, Iyas, Kay, NeilC, Ash, Tim, Justin, Max, Sian - you guys all rock and a special thank you for making work fun!
Anyway - to keep up with my blogging (what little there is of it!) I'll be dusting off my previous personal blog here,
http://jimblogdog.blogspot.com/
A final big thank you to Conchango and all that sail in her - good luck and all the best for the future!