A burn up chart keeps track of what the tasks are and in what stage of done they are. It is shared with the client, and it builds trust and helps to avoid surprises.
A lesson learned from the lego exercise: there was no user story for the body, but we had to build it in order to attach the legs to the head. Same for many parts of software. These are called nonfunctional requirements.
In my opinion, Agile is just a zillion tiny waterfalls, with a customer on your shoulder.
As a warmup, we played charades, only the words were concepts from yesterday.
YAGNI - "you ain't gonna need it."
"every line of code is a libility."
Cycle: Estimate, plan, develop, showcase, retrospective.
The economic model of TW is based on where a $1 of revenue goes. There was a pi chart that had many parts. There are several types of overhead. Salary ia large part of total expenses.
TW earns fees from clients. If the client is displeased with the work, or thinks that they will be displeased with the work partway through the project, they might not pay. As TWers, we have to do well enough at making good work and communicating with the client that this problem is kept to a minimum.
Fixed costs include rent and servers. TW treats employees as a fixed cost rather than a variable cost, which means that when times are bad TW doesn't just start firing people. "The biggest problem in this industry is getting good talent. Pushing them away (doesn't make sense)"
Operating expenses include the salaries of Legal and Recruiting. There are two kinds of overhead: overhead that goes towards any one country/office, and overhead that goes towards the company as a whole.
Types of deals in the consulting world: time and materials, fixed bid, and risk and reward (which is a combination of the above two, I think.) TW does mostly the first type. "TW charges more per hr than most other companies."
Risk and how it influences fixed price deals. Caps on time and expenses deals.
SOW = statement of work. It's a cost to fixed bids, and it's corrosive to the relationship...
The deal review process happens before TW decides to try to get a project(?): capability(can we do it), intangibles (new tech is good because it gives us an edge later), financial (how's the compensation).
The deal review process happens before TW decides to try to get a project(?): capability(can we do it), intangibles (new tech is good because it gives us an edge later), financial (how's the compensation).
Gross margin should be a certain number (but in the example we were shown, was below that)
On your first day on a contract, "what's in the contract?" (hardly anyone does this, but it might be a good idea?)
Differences between the UK and the US in how billing works- country customs and regulations(?)
Accurate timesheets confirm (or indicate a need for fixing) estimate quality.
A shadow is a non-charged consultant. It's a way to train a junior consultant and make them useful.
Blended rate
Wikileaks:
There will be a forum tor tech leaders and tech $ people at the Churchill in the Bay Area next Weds at 7pm their time, 8:30am our time. TW is sponsoring it. It's being broadcast live and we may be able to watch it if our trainers let us take time off during the work day to do that.
The boycotts of Wikileaks by various companies.
Lawrence Lessig wrote a review of the Social Network that goes into a case study about Nantucket Nectar and why the internet is a good thing in that context.
The subpoena of Twitter records in relation to Wikileaks.
Daniel Ellsberg, the guy who stole the Pentagon Papers, is 83 and still gets arrested at protests. This guy is badass.
Civil liberties group involving tech companies?