Decem ber 2008

• Meeting: discussed data, paper topics
• Papers: thinking about possible paper topics based on data
• CODING: almost done for one group
• Not feeling well...cough, cold, fever
• NZCSRSC'09: submitted paper.
• CODING: comparing data from different interviews, common categoried emerging...this is exicting!

November 2008

• NZCSRSC'09: finishing up writing
• Attended Agile Professional Network, Wellington launch (24th Nov)
• submitted applications
• Weekly meeting: discussed paper, application, reviews, codes, thesis chapter, and research assistantship.
• NZCSRSC'09: submitted draft 2.0 to James and Stu for review.
• ACDC'09 paper accepted
• Reading "Doing GT" this explains a lot.
• First one to submit six-monthly report...ahaan
• CODING: More coding...there is so much data to chew on!
• NZCSRC'09: Working on paper.
• CODING: working on a transcript.
• THESIS: was reading up on GT in detail, so decided to note it all down. ended up writing one background chapter towards my final thesis...woohoo! scary and amazingly exicting to behold the "THESIS"!! okay, so it's just one chapter...but it's real!
• Requested "Doing GT" book from interloan, library.
• Borrowed the NVivo software from library and installed it...let's see how good this is!
• Meeting with Stu and James. Got bunch of cool Agile books (looking for a new home) from Stu, and better idea of GT terms and concepts from James
• CODING: transcribed a couple of interviews half way...
• Reading "The discovery of Grounded Theory" in detail:)

October 2008

• Reading up on research methodologies, interview strategies, and general PhD research tips
• Submitted ACDC paper
• ACDC paper done...Working on references section. Not sure about the submission system. Emailing some people...
• Borrowed the Grounded Theory book again, I really want my own copy
• Reading up on evaluating/measuring Agile such as the Nokia test. Working on developing my own little checklist.
• Analyzed Agile Manager and all things related...traditional aspects such as resource management as well as Agile specific tasks such as managing iterations, feature lists, on-site customers....this is a big chart! How can one person manage ALL this?
• Busy with various applications
• Charted out my research plan. Idea is to go through cycles of interviews and analysis.
• Meeting with Stuart (James away for conferences)
• Started discussions on the scrumdevelopment and AgileIndia mailing lists about Nokia Test for Agile, got lots of responses and some very interesing discussion.
• Finished marking most of essay2 for 311.
• Working on ACDC paper, sent draft 1 for review.
• Returned library books.
• applications time...here we go again!
• reading up on the issues that were discussed after the seminar such as defining the scope of the research and impact of organizational and ethnic cultures on the research etc. These are issues that all researchers (working on social aspects of Agile teams) face.
• Done with marking the first essay for 311.

September 2008

• It's Eid! Yay!!! And a relaxed one coz I'm done with the seminar too, thank God One day of bliss...
• Proposal Seminar DONE! Submitted report as well. Got lots of questions at the seminar, which is good...and also some very relevant and valid comments about things to consider in the research.
• Polishing up the proposal report.
• Whanau Event at Parliament hosted by VUW Science faculty for Maori school kids: It was so much fun!! Had great time interacting with kids. Seeing the joy on their faces to make their animated characters move, roll, chase, etc was priceless! I hope some of them find it interesting enough to pursue at uni. Also met the Prime Minister, shook hands, and got pics taken, which was cool

• Agreed to help out with the outreach program where we'll be showing off 'Alice' (a simple and fun way to introduce programming) to local Maori kids at the Parliament. The time slot is only 15 mins so it'll be tight...but should be fun!

• PROPOSAL: got review from Stu, made suggested changes and other additions. Proposal seminar scheduled for end of the month.

• Meeting with James.

• Uni re-opened after mid-trimester break. Took COMP311 labs where teams met milestone2.

• All of us are unwell. This weather is the worst so far this year!

August 2008

• Attended IEEE student presentation event at Wellington. Presented our research as well. It was cool to see what others are doing in the research field.

• Registered to IEEE membership.

• Preparing slides for IEEE presentation.

• Kids' under the weather...went to doc...seems like a tummy flu

• Talked at Elvis about my Agile 2008 experience, attended seminar on GT, attended reading group.

• Read paper for reading group.

• To do: save and transcribe interviews, fill forms for AA grant, get it reviewed, and fax it.

• Sorting out expenses report for Agile 2008 academic grant.

• Went to work...sat in the lab wondering why no one was turning up only to realize it was the mid-trimester break!! Downside of being a phd student: blissfully unaware of the university schedule

• Planning to apply for NZ IEEE Post Graduate Event, to be held at Vic on 28th August.

• Back to Welly missing the summer.

• Attended sessions on leadership, coaching, and management.

• Conducted 3 interviews with Agile managers for the research.

• Agile 2008: Research in progress stream had some really cool topics and neat presentations. Mine was the very last one but thankfully the audience (and myself) was still awake! Got some good feedback on my research findings and few prospective participants. Met up with Jennifer and other kiwis, and other cool people from around the world. The Sheraton Hotel (official venue of the conference) was invaded by Agile enthusiasts from across the world, there were some 1600+ attendees and around 20 parallel running presentations every session! The most ironic things were first that the biggest Agile conference was held in the city with the world's biggest 'waterfall' and secondly, that the Sheraton (conference venue) also had a imposing waterfall in the lobby LOL :):)

• Landed in Canada a little early. Checked out Niagara, Marineland, and Wonderland. The summer sun is awesome!

• Agile alliance grant application accepted, thank God

July 2008

• Interview went well. Results expected later in August.

• Read the other assigned paper, prepared comments and questions.

• Got short listed for Anita Borg Scholarship, by God's grace. Looking forward to the phone interview. Let's see how it goes. It's nice to see organizations catering to the interests of women in IT and encouraging them through such scholarships.

• Read one of the RiP ? papers on grounded theory....interesting read.

• Got instructions on Research in Progress (RiP ?) session at Agile 08 -- need to prepare talk and presentation ppt

• Worked on some changes to the Agile 08 paper based on reviewers' comments. Its difficult to cater to requests of adding more information without exceeding the 4 page limit! Learned a few latex tricks on the way.

• Tutoring COMP311 twice a week

• Having trouble getting my ID card updated...which means i can't borrow books...so stalled progress on GT section. Stu and Rowan helping with sorting this.

• PROPOSAL: Submitted next draft for review

• PROPOSAL: working on Research Methods chapter. Need to re-issue books on grounded theory.

• Taking up tutoring for COMP311 for trimester 2.

• Sent couple of papers to Agile reading group.

• Helped Haibo (SIM BIT student) with tips on interviewing project managers.

• PROPOSAL: working on Research Plan chapter.

June 2008

• PROPOSAL: Worked on Agile Methods chapter, expanded on XP and Scrum. Gave copies for review.

• Elvis: talk by Shane Markstrum on Javacop

• Agile Reading Group: discussed paper.

• Getting tickets sorted.

• No luck with NZPSAA application

• Read paper for Agile reading group on Tuesday.

• Need to submit proposal draft by Friday.

• Prepared presentation for elvis talk. presented a dry run of my proposal. Good feedback from many people, will help me improve the ppt.

• Started a Group on Facebook called WICIT Women In Computing and IT, for girls/women in computing to connect and help each other. Got the idea from one of the essay questions. Hopefully there will be good response.

• Wrote 3 essays, scanned transcripts, got references from James and Stuart and submitted application. Let's see how it goes.

• Thinking of applying to the Google Anita Borg scholarship for women in computing. Need to write 3 essays for the same.

• Registered for Agile 2008. Visa application may take a while.

• Weekly meeting. Invited Diane over to the meeting. Planning an Agile methods reading group for all those interested in Agile.

• Sent off AA application after final review.

• Met Diane over at SIM, who's also a PhD student in the same area...Agile rules

• Weekly meeting with Stu. next round of revision on AA application. Signed 6-monthly report.

• Getting papers together for visa...filling LOTS of forms with repetitive information...This points to a desperate need for designing a relational database at the concerned office.

• PROPOSAL: working on intro and agile methods chapter.

May 2008

• writing to get letters of invitation for canadian visa. tickets are expensive!!

• PROPOSAL: expanding on agile methods chapter. Changed structure of thesis.

• Submitted two applications for review. done with 6-monthly report...will submit to Stu at meeting.

• Its application season! Working on 4 applications + one 6-monthly report.

• PROPOSAL: Got reviews for 1st draft. Need to restructure the chapters. The research plan needs to include time-line and a brief expected outline of the final thesis.

• Working on AA application.

• Agile 2008 session info available online [Our session]

• Reading up on "Servant Leadership"...goes way back to 1970s, finding new meaning and fit in the agile sphere. Written by Robert K. Greenleaf.

• Six monthly reports due...6 months pass by too quickly!

• PROPOSAL: Need to give printed copies to Stuart and James for review.

• Re-enrollment successful. Changed username from "hodarash" to "rashina". Sounds better under author details in papers

• Interesting discussion on the Agile India mailing list, on the role of PM in agile setting. Summarized [here]

• Meeting with James and Stuart. Discussed proposal draft, AA application, and re-enrollment/invoice.

• Not too late if you have my supervisors we got it in on time! Expecting results by mid june.

April 2008

• Came across a research funding source, bit too late for this round of applications. Next round in Nov.

• Attended seminar by Jevon Wright, massey student.

• Weekly meeting with Stuart and James: summary of India trip, Agile 2008 reviews and planning for conference attendance, discussed Agile Alliance grant application, looked at my poster for NZCSRSC'08...need to stick it up near office. Sent proposal draft to supervisors for review.

• Agile 2008: Paper accepted...thank God Will be informed of preparations for presentation soon.

• PROPOSAL: Brushing up Introduction. Adding material and diagrams to Agile Methods chapter. Grounded Theory chapter in good shape.

• PROPOSAL: shuffled the chapters around a bit. Need to finish this soon. Know what to write...just need the right time/mind to write it!

• Got poster from Pondy, who had presented it at NZCSRSC'08 on my behalf.

• Filled in application to re-enroll as full time student. Also emailed programmers to retain my disk space and change username (as James suggested.)

• Good to be back at uni again.

• Reached Wellington, finally....the flight was way too long. Horribly jet lagged. And of course, all of us are down with severe cold and cough. Let's hope things get back to normal, soon!

• Wrapping up things here in India...been eventful and nice. Other than the mosquito bites, which we all suffered from...most of all Imran, who also has an allergy to it...the bitten area goes bright red and swollen...poor baby!

• 3 more interviews done. Brings the total in India to 9...which is more than I had hoped for

• Finished NZCSRSC poster and sent off to Pondy, who will be presenting on my behalf. Thanks a ton!!

March 2008

• Started on poster for NZCSRSC.

• Attended Agile Mumbai conference at Mukhesh Patel Institute of Management. Guess who the '1 Phd student from NZ is'

• Met Angela, Elizabeth, Amhed Sidky and a host of other agile practitioners. Got to interview some of them as well. Participated in Angela's session on User stories, was very interactive. We did some exercises in groups using cards to write user stories and completed a release planning. Also attended Sidky's Value-driven development session which was also very interactive and fun. Teams pretended to be 'agile coaches' trying to convince the 'company' to adopt some agile practices. Other presentations included Patterns in Automated Functional Testing etc.

• More interviews in line.
• Need to start on the poster for NZCSRSC presentation.

• Unable to reschedule trip to make it in time for NZCSRSC'08 Two good people kindly offered to present on my behalf...thanks sooo much! Promise to self: will better organize trips in future to avoid mess ups! :"(

• Submitted Sci Fac SRG application on 17th March (deadline)
• Looked into OOPSLA'08 doctorial symposium, student research competition, and poster categories. deadline 2nd July.

• Interviewed an agile coach in a large organization. Very relevant and healthy discussion. Had a chance to attend a real stand up meeting, which was cool Will return to interview another executive and observe some more.

• Interview with a renowned firm, high level executive. Will go back to chat with team members and observe practices.

• Interview with a start up agile firm leader. Several important issues came up during the chat on various agile related problems, specially with transition.

• Attended Agile NCR conference in Delhi, India organized by ASCI (Agile Software Community of India). It was really cool to see the level of awareness and enthusiasm about agile in India. The presentations were good - keynotes on adoption tips by Peter Deemer (Yahoo! India), Intro to Agile by Naresh Jain, Agile and CMMi by Jagadish Shree (Wipro), Metrics, Case studies on agile development in distributed environments. In the end, there was an open space where I hosted a session on Agile adoption and awareness and we had a good discussion. Overall, it was an excellent start to agile events in North India...full credit goes to Anurag (Xebia) for organizing the event.

• NZCSRSC'08: submitted Camera ready copy.

February 2008

• Agile 2008: Stu made some changes and submitted paper on time yayy!! while I was overlooking Java...islands that is

• Agile 2008: paper finished, thank God! Got reviews from James and Stu. Looking good. Making suggested changes.

• Agile 2008: paper almost done. Need to add references. Sent for review to my supervisors.

• NZCSRSC'08: made changes to paper to reflect reviewers' comments. Waiting for final camera ready submission instructions to be up on the website.
• Agile 2008: paper running over length...need to figure out what to cut short to fit into 4 pages, including references. Sent first draft for review...mostly for suggestions on length management. Need to improve formatting and complete sections.

• Got HEC approval for sending questionnaires and for phone interviews as required
• Read several blogs by Indian agile practitioners and contacted them for interviews. Will explore the idea of using questionnaires over email.
• Interview #4 done. went well.

• NZCSRSC'08 paper accepted!! Thank God and thanks to stuArt and James My first ever academic paper *sigh * lol

• The official statistics: 3 reviews, reviewers' confidence ranging from 1 (low), 2 (medium), 3 (high). Overall rating in all 3 reviews: 2 (accept) Out of 21 points: 2 "poor", 3 "fair", 11 "good", 5 "excellent" Need to correct couple of spelling and grammar errors and the reference style (needs to better conform to ACM format) Next step: To make the camera ready copy and then the poster thingy...hmmm...

• Conferences: Super excited and look fwd to attending the Agile India conferences India. Angela's presenting at one of the conferences...so it'll be great to catch up.

• Agile 2008: paper on issues with adoption coming along.

• Interviews: Lot of interesting stuff coming out of interviews. So much data from just 3 interviews!! This is cool...but also tough I guess to make sense of all this information. So far people have been open about their experiences and opinions. Lets see how the rounds in India go...i've got some interviews lined up in March and hope to get more as I meet people at the two conferences.

• Thanks to James for getting the cool new sound recorder that I can use for my interviews! Installed the software and tested the stuff, working fine.

• Interview#4 last Monday of Feb.
• emailed prospective interviewees to fix interview time
• Designed my business card...should come in handy
• PROPOSAL UPDATE: will start on agile methods chapter
• Interview#3 over, went well. Need to transcribe notes
• used cards to summarize interviews and sort into few categories.
• finished transcribing interviews (1 and 2)

January 2008

• Applied for Agile Alliance small research grant (31st deadline)
• Conducted second interview today. Using the digital recorder is so much better...the sound quality is better, as well as the ease of recording and later, transcribing.

• PROPOSAL UPDATE: The chapter on grounded theory background almost done. Lot of work ahead...toddling along.

• PROPOSAL UPDATE: working on it. this feels like programming in a way...tackling the problem one task at a time. Currently working on Background: Grounded Theory. Keep feeding the PDF monster with material (one section at a time) and it actually grows faster than I initially imagined (or so it seems right now!) Finding ALL the right/appropriate references as you go is not easy...so i've decided to put place holders like '[ref]' so that it doesn't stop me from writing and plan to go back and find the correct references later.

• More interviews planned for coming months
• Reviewed all 3 NZCSRSC papers and submitted
• PROPOSAL: used latex templates for proposal. Created chapters and general layout with some content. latex is really useful as far as things like formatting is concerned. specially for table of contents which gets updated automatically (along with page numbers) with every new change in the chapters. other advantage is that i dont have to deal with one huge document...instead it can easily be divided into different files for each chapter and simply included in a master file. however it does have a learning curve...good thing i checked out the tex to dvi to pdf conversions back last year...so thats easy. need to refer to latex commands...getting a hang of some already.

• interviewed first participant for approx. 1 hour. Need to type out the interview for analysis...this is the tougher part!
• Received 3 papers for review from NZCSRSC
• Drawing list of interview questions...will have this reviewed by James and Stuart in next meeting.