WEBVTT - Listener Grab Bag 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from half 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.800 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.880 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. Come with me and you'll 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.880 be in a world of pure imagination and tech. I'm 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.360 an executive producer here at hell Stuff Works. I love 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.240 all things tech, and typically I would cover a specific 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.240 topic at this point, but instead I'm going to look 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:32.839 at a bunch of different topics have been sent to 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.600 me over the past several months that perhaps don't merit 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.720 a full episode, but I could group them together and 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.400 actually address them instead of just leaving them to hang 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.240 in the air or in the ether. So I'm gonna 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:51.680 take a several handful of requests from various listeners to 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.200 chat about very different topics and kind of give you 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.800 a quick overview of each one some of them. One 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.440 of them in particular, I will do a full episode 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:02.880 on later, but we'll mention that when we get there. 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.240 First listener Marcus wrote in and asked if I could 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.040 cover fido net. So, for those of you who have 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.000 been around for a while, you may be familiar with 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.040 this term, and so Marcus said, this is for you, 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:17.840 what the heck is fido net? Well, from the name, 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:20.720 you might think it's a computer network for dogs, and 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.480 in fact the logo is an as key art image 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.319 of a dog, but that's not what the network actually is. First, 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.959 fido net is closely related to bulletin board systems or 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.160 bbs is. I've talked about these in the past, but 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:37.920 let me give a quick summary of what those are, 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.240 and then we'll get back to phido net. Bolton board 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.800 Systems developed not long after the home computer market got established. 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.960 If you've listened to my episodes about the early computer days, 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.920 the home computer days, you know that hobbyists made up 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.440 a large chunk of the computer owning population. Many of 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.320 those hobbyists weren't just interested in getting a new toy 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.400 or a fancy calculating machine. They wanted to experiment with 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.280 what they could do with these machines, and they wanted 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.320 their computer to be able to communicate with other computers. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.360 In places like California, there were hobby clubs like the 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.600 Homebrew Computer Club, but in other places it could be 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.960 hard to find someone who shared your interests. It was 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.960 just difficult to track anyone else down. So what was 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.600 needed was a means of communication between different machines, even 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.560 if they were separated by hundreds of miles from each other. 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.480 These days, we use the Internet to send and retrieve 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.880 information all across the world through millions of interconnected machines. 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.920 But back in the late seventies and early eighties, the 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.760 Internet was still kind of taking shape. It was really young, 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.640 and it was not accessible to most people. It's pretty 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.840 much a network connecting some government and academic institutions, and 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.280 slowly a few other machines were growing and joining the network, 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.520 and that was about it. The average person didn't have 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.240 Internet access. Heck, at that time, the average person had 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.040 no idea that the Internet was even a thing at all. 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:07.040 In nine, a couple of members of the Chicago area 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:12.840 Computer Hobbyists Exchange also known as CASH, began to experiment 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.680 with their newsletter archives. Then this crazy idea, why not 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.480 use a microcomputer, you know, a personal computer or home 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:25.200 computer to host the newsletter. The computer would have a modem, 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.840 a dial up modem that hooks into the telephone line, 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.079 and members could use their own computers that had dial 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.440 up modems to call into the host machine and read 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.280 the newsletter archives. If this sounds a bit like a 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.040 rudimentary Internet, You're not far off. The Internet uses a 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.120 similar structure, with machines acting as servers serving data to 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:49.160 other machines that are acting as clients. With a BBS, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.480 the host computer is a server and the users computer 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.200 is the client, except this was a one to one 0:03:55.280 --> 0:04:00.440 connection in most cases, not a persistent Internet. A cash 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:05.680 club called their hosted system Ward and Randy's Computerized bulletin 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.880 Board System, which was frequently shortened to c b b 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.520 S that would later become BBS. This was named Afterward 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.320 Christensen and Randy Seuss. Those were the two who created 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.359 this software. They wrote up a report about their idea 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.159 and how they did it, and a magazine called byte 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:27.400 b y t E ran the story. More hobbyists began 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:31.359 to create similar systems on their home machines. Now over time, 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:36.160 these systems became more sophisticated. Programmers began to make hosting 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:40.520 software that would allow for more complicated features and operations. 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.479 By the mid nineteen eighties, typical bbs could host messages, 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.000 including a simple version of email. You could log into 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.360 the host machine, You could look for other members who 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.520 also used that service, and you can leave them messages. 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.560 But it was all limited to that host machine. You 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.520 couldn't leave messages for someone on a front BBS because 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:03.920 there was no connection at that point between the two. 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.160 So a BBS was limited by the host computer, and 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.320 the users were often limited by which bbs is were 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:16.040 within their dialing network. So if you wanted to log 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.800 into a local BBS, it wasn't a big deal. You 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:20.440 could do that. You could look at the user list 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:22.960 and you'd say, Oh, that's my buddy Bill. I'm gonna 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.719 leave Bill a message and use the hosting service to 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.520 leave a message for your buddy Bill. Bill. When Bill 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:30.880 logs in can see that he's got a message, he 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.520 sees into Oh, Sally sent me a message, and sends 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.279 a message back to Sally, and so on and so forth. 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.240 If you want to log into a different BBS, you 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.279 had to call a totally different number, the number for 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.160 that particular machine, and then you would connect into it 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.640 and you could navigate and leave messages to those users. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:51.760 Some of these bbs is might be in other area codes, 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.000 as in telephone area codes, and back in those days, 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.039 you had to pay for a long distance and the 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.760 rates were depending and upon lots of different things, but 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:03.919 it boiled down to the fact that most people weren't 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.080 willing to spend lots of money to connect to other 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.839 bbs is, so you were kind of limited in your options. 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:15.640 This created an opportunity for programmers and BBS operators. Users 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.400 loved getting access to files, systems, and games that were 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.400 on other machines, but they didn't necessarily have the money 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.719 to dial up for a long distance call to connect 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.320 their computer to another one that was across the country. 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.200 Kristensen and Seuss had proposed a way to network bbs 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.240 is to allow for information exchange, but it was another 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.960 enthusiast named Tom Jennings who actually made it happen. In 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:44.480 four Jennings created a BBS hosting program he called fidoh. 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.440 This was for computers running on MS DOSS. As MS 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:50.960 DOSS was establishing itself as a power player in the 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:55.800 home computer space, more BBS operators began to adopt Fido, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.800 and so Jennings added in a little feature in his 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.640 BBS hosting program m. It would let to Phido bbs 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:04.800 is call each other, so as long as they were 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.279 both running the phyto software, they could communicate. The call 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.240 would be automatic, and upon making a connection, the two 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.920 separate bbs is could exchange data, meaning messages in this case, 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:19.400 so messages from one user to another. This would effectively 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.600 allow users from one BBS to send mail to people 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:26.840 connecting to the other bbs. So if you, Sally wanted 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.040 to send a message to Bill, but Bill was using 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.760 a different BBS, and your BBS and Bills BBS, we're 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.400 able to talk to each other. Suddenly you could do that, 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.880 when as before, you could only leave messages for the 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.920 people who logged into your specific BBS. This was revolutionary. 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.040 You were no longer restricted to chatting with people that 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.720 were only in your own community. It was kind of 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.600 like opening up a highway between two previously isolated cities. 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.680 People could come and go and make new connections. And 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.480 by adding more bbs is to the system, you could 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:03.520 increase this even greater. Right, you could suddenly leave messages 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.720 for people at all sorts of different places. Administrators had 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:08.600 to figure out a few ways to make the system 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.800 efficient and reduce costs as much as they could. That 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.800 included coming up with ways to compress data so it 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:18.520 could be sent quickly across dial up modems, and since 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.640 exchanges frequently happened between systems that had to call one 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.680 another over long distance. Time was money, so you wanted 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.800 to cut that time down as much as possible, thus 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.880 the need for compression strategies, because the smaller the file, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.640 the less time it takes to transmit it across the 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.520 telephone lines. Phone companies also would charge different rates for 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.320 a long distance at different times of the day, which 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.679 would lead administrators to try and tweak their systems to 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.400 connect to one another at the low points of the day, 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.200 typically in the middle of the night, although the middle 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:50.680 of the night in one place is not the middle 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.480 of the night in other places, so even that required 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.080 some tricky work. This meant that you could have technically 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.800 received a new message, but you weren't able to see 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.400 it yet. So let's say you've got a friend named Julie. 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.960 Julie lives across the country, and she writes you a 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.520 really nice letter on her BBS. You log into your 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.120 local BBS, but because your system and julie system have 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:16.079 not yet called each other that day to exchange information, 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.719 you don't yet see Julie's message. It lives on her 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.120 native BBS but has not yet made the transition over 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:27.079 to yours, so it would look as if Julie hadn't 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.360 written you yet, when in fact she had. It's just 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.280 that the two systems have not sinked up yet at 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.120 that point. Once they did sink you would see her 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.840 letter once you checked your mail. So it wasn't quite 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.520 as seamless as web mail would be later on, but 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.480 it was still far faster than using something like snail mail. 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.640 By the early ninety nineties, fido net had twenty thousand 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.080 bbs s or nodes connected to it. By this time, 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.920 phido net could support many different inter networked features. Websites 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.120 could end up adopting some of the popular features later on, 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.680 such as message forums. Jeff Brush cre aided a system 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.960 called Echo Mail in nineteen six that was essentially a 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.760 message board where people could post a message and anyone 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:09.120 connected to one of the bbs is on that network 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.360 could respond to that message, so it could become all 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.960 sorts of discussions, just like you see on forums and 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.000 message boards today on the web. Fido neet kept going 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.199 strong as online service providers like a O L Online 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.959 showed up later, but once internet access became more common 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.360 and broadband access became a thing, the BBSs saw a 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:35.400 steady drop in activity many node administrators chose to take 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.480 their machines offline or they didn't bother to fix them 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.200 once a machine broke down. Phido neet still exists to 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.720 this day, however, with computers still sending information back and 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.240 forth to each other. It interconnects with the Internet, meaning 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.920 it's not entirely separate from the network of networks. And 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.199 that's the general skinny on fido NEETs. So we're gonna 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:58.480 now move on to the next topic, and this one 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:03.360 is about agile work environments in general and Scrum in particular, 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.160 and it's a request from listener Lucien. So if you're 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.360 a software developer, if you're in that business, you're you've 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:15.000 likely at least heard about agile methodology and agile processes, 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:19.360 or maybe you've gone through the actual process of adopting 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.400 agile methodology. But for the rest of us the term 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:27.640 might sound a little mystical. So what is agile methodology? Basically, 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.720 it's just a framework for getting work done. It's a process, 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.720 if you will, to follow when you're working on developing software. 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.199 There have been many proposed methods of streamlining the development 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:41.959 process so that a development team is making the best 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:46.320 use of its time and talent. Scrum technically predates the 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.720 current versions of Agile, but many of the concepts from 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:54.360 scrum have been adopted by the Agile framework. Ikuhiro No 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.560 Naka and hiro Taka Takuchi proposed the process in an 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.680 article in Harvard Business Review back in nineteen six. They 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.840 elaborated on the idea over time, likening software development to 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.520 a game of rugby. Now, in rugby, players try to 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.640 move a ball down a field into an opponent's end zone, 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.040 and they can pass the ball back and forth to 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.439 one another. Not not in a forward line, but they 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:21.080 can pass it back and forth to one another in 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.240 an effort to try and get the ball to that 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:27.080 end zone. That basic concept plays over to software development, 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.480 in which part of a team, or a small team 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.240 within a team, might have control of the project the ball, 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.600 in other words, for one part of the process before 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:40.040 passing it over to another mini team to keep the 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.720 development moving forward. By the ninet nineties, this method had 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.480 taken on the name scrum, which is also the word 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.240 for a massive rugby players trying to gain possession of 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.000 a ball during a rugby game. If you've ever seen 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.120 anything that looks like a big huddle in rugby, and 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.320 it involves both teams and they're all kind of pushing 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.640 against each other's shoulder to shoulder. That's a scrum. The 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:06.480 development moves forward in phases called sprints, and each sprint 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.840 can take anywhere between a week to a month or more. 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.000 There are three big roles within the scrum methodology, and 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.360 everyone falls into one of those categories. First, you have 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.760 the product owner. Now, this is the person who defines 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.880 what the software is supposed to be, what it can do, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.280 what it looks like once it's all finished. The product 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.760 owner is supposed to think of the software in terms 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.679 of how the final customer is going to experience that software. 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.920 Now that customer might be an average person, or it 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.319 might be another company, but whatever it is, the product 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.960 owner is the one who defines what the software is 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.200 supposed to be able to do. So let's just say 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.839 that it's a spreadsheet program. The product owner would be 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.040 the one who has to say, all right, this program 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.880 has to be able to record and tally long lists 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:58.120 of figures and run various operations on those figures. But 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:01.840 the product owner probably and say also it should play 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.520 music and display headlines of breaking news. The product owner 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.959 sets the expectations for the rest of the team as 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.840 to what the software should ultimately do at the end 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.839 of the day, and a good product owner won't make 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.800 lots of changes to that expectation as the project moves forward, 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.960 Otherwise the team will have to deal with the dreaded 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.280 feature creep. If you listen to the Apple episodes, you 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.360 heard me talk a lot about feature creep. That's when 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:32.880 typically well meaning but perhaps naive stakeholders add more requirements 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.520 to an increasingly bloated and complicated project. It also makes 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.600 it harder to actually make the project work. The more 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.520 stuff you add to it, the more opportunities there are 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:47.000 for stuff to go wrong. Next, you've got your scrum master. Now, 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.920 this should be a totally different person from the product owner. 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.560 The scrum master's job is to run interference for the 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.920 rest of the team to smooth out potential obstacles, to 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.040 make sure the team has the assets they need to 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.760 get their work done on. They're kind of a facilitator. 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:04.920 They're also in charge of making sure the team is 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.360 able to follow the scrum philosophy, which relies very heavily 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.320 on self organization. Now, if you've ever been a work 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.720 environment in which self organization played a big part and 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:16.880 you were new to it, you might have experienced some 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.480 difficulty in adjusting at first. It is something that some 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:24.040 people find really challenging. The scrum master is supposed to 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.000 help team members who are feeling a bit lost. The 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.880 final role is what the majority of the people on 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.600 any given project fall into, which is the development team. 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.040 These are the people responsible for creating the product according 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.800 to the expectations of the product owner. Typically, the team 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:45.240 works on incremental segments of the development process. Each increment 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:50.080 represents a sprint, and they might be implementing a new 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:54.360 feature or developing something totally different that's supposed to integrate 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.400 with the rest of the software later on. It can 0:15:56.480 --> 0:16:01.280 really depend upon whatever the software development project is. Most 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:06.680 projects require several sprints, and each sprint has a predetermined deadline. 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:09.520 So when I say sprints take maybe a week to 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.800 more than a month, that deadline is set ahead of 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.000 time based upon the assessments of the product owner and 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.600 the scrum master. They take a look and they say, well, 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.320 based upon what we need and based upon what our 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:23.760 team is able to do, we expect that this part 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.360 of the project is going to take two weeks, so 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.040 we're gonna set that sprint time for two weeks. Ideally, 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.920 each sprint ends with a fully developed increment in the 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.600 product that would be ready to go if it were 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.760 fully realized piece of software. So, in other words, if 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:45.760 you are developing a specific feature for a software program, 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.240 at the end of that sprint, that feature should be 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.320 completely done, and if everything else were ready to go, 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.960 you would say, let's ship today. You're not supposed to 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.760 have something that's partly finished or it's dependent upon something else. 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.360 Ideally it's all self contained. Each sprint begins with a 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:05.080 meeting to define requirements and expectations, and it ends with 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.960 another meeting to review how the process worked. In addition 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:13.960 to those bookend meetings, the development team has a daily scrum, 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.320 which is a short fifteen minute meeting that's meant to 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.240 review what work has been done already, what work still 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.960 needs to be done, and what could possibly cause problems 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.680 in getting work done for that day. So if you say, hey, 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.600 I need to do X, Y and Z by the 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:34.760 end of today, but I can't or it's gonna be 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.000 hard because of this other thing, the scrum master can 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:40.480 try and take care of that other thing and remove 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.760 that obstacle from your path. Then you rinse and repeat 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:46.239 until the full project is finished and ready to go. 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.120 And that's scrum in a nutshell. There's a lot more 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.679 that has been said and written about it extensively, and 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.800 it's not a one size fits all solution to software development. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.359 For example, if you've got a team that has a 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:02.840 lot of ultra specialized workers, people who really focus in 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:08.480 on a narrow but deep set of software development skills, 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.320 scrum probably won't work so well because it's really meant 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.600 for people who are more general purpose programmers. Uh. They 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:18.560 have to be really flexible and be able to move 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.960 from one thing to another. If you've got someone who's 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:23.240 got a kind of a razor sharp focus on a 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.480 very deep subject, they probably can't be as flexible as 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.639 other people. And it's not to say that one type 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.480 of developer is better than another. They both have their 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:38.600 uses dependent upon what it is you need to create. Uh. 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.600 So this particular methodology, while it might be ideal for 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:46.600 certain organizations and the types of software they develop, may 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.240 not work at all for others. And I can tell 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:53.960 you having observed it at firsthand. Anytime you implement a 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:58.080 new methodology, a new process. There are so many growing 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.119 pains and so much a smith It has to happen, 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.920 and typically the people who are going through it hate 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.280 it when it first starts because change is scary and 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.240 no one likes to have to do it. Uh So 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.359 it's it's one of those things where is it an 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:20.280 effective tool. It's completely dependent upon your circumstance. Also, I 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:25.800 should add that while there's anecdotal reports about scrum and 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:31.879 agile methodologies improving workflow, there's no empirical evidence necessarily that 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:37.000 actually states that these approaches to work are inherently better 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.719 than others. It may just be that it is a 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:44.440 way for you to write down how projects get done 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:46.200 so that you have a better way of keeping track 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:48.919 of it, which has its own value, But it doesn't 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.240 necessarily mean that this particular approach is going to get 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:56.600 things done in a more efficient and uh cost effective manner. 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:58.600 I've got a lot more to say in this listener 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.520 grab bag episode, some more subjects to cover, but before 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.320 I do that, let's take a quick break to thank 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:14.800 our sponsor. One of the other requests I received recently 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:16.879 was in response to the show I did about the 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:21.760 history of clocks. The request was to talk about atmospheric clocks, 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.040 a particular type of clock that harnesses physics to keep 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.800 the clock wound and keeping time properly. And it's pretty 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.800 cool stuff. So here's to you, climber z z z 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.679 whomever you may be. First, a quick review. For a 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.440 mechanical clock. To keep time, you need a few elements 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.320 in place. You need some sort of way to generate 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.800 the force necessary to turn the hands on the clock's dial. 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.320 This force should be steady, but it also cannot be 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.200 constant if we want it to be easy to read 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:53.879 the time on the clock. If the hands are constantly 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.919 in motion, even if they're moving slowly, it's harder to 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:58.760 read the time. So there needs to be a method 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.040 of regulating the movement of the clock pieces to make 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.639 it simpler and more regular to tell time, and to 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:09.200 make sure you're you're telling time accurately. Enter the escapement. 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:11.720 Now it sounds like a trap door or something, but 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.679 an escapement is actually a device that helps regulate the 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.280 motion of a clock's innards. And there are a lot 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:19.919 of different types of escapements, but they all basically do 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:22.240 the same thing. They act as a break for the 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.200 other parts of a clock, and they released that break 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.520 at regular intervals to allow the parts to move and 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:30.919 for the hands to progress around the clock dial. So 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:32.960 let me explain with an example, and this is when 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:35.440 I talked about in that previous episode about the history 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:38.399 of clocks. I mentioned that there was a famous water 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.480 clock tower built in China around the year ten ninety four, 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:45.520 which was eight years after they had started building the thing. 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.000 It took eight years to build it. The inventor of 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.359 this tower was a genius named Sue Song. He used 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:55.000 a water wheel to transmit force from flowing water to 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:59.320 the clock's mechanisms. Now, imagine that you've got a vertically 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.880 aligned water wheel, and around the rim of the water 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:07.639 wheel are buckets. As water falls from above, it fills 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:11.479 the bucket on the furthest edge of the water wheel, 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.879 and the weight of the filled bucket causes the wheel 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:18.240 to rotate. Now, if you didn't have a break, the 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.719 wheel would rotate rather haphazardly. Su Song knew this, so 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.720 he built in a simple but effective system on the 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:28.200 opposite side where the water was flowing. He created a 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.880 weighted lever. On one end of this lever, you would 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:34.919 have a little bit of a weight, and on the 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:38.800 other end, it would actually rest against the backside of 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.080 the bucket opposite the one being filled. If you're having 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:46.120 trouble imagining this, draw a circle. Then draw some simple buckets, 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:50.000 all facing along the same direction. So let's say we're 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:54.639