agile

Steve’s Update 4/23/2017

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

Let’s get to my weekly “standups”  Scrum style continue!  What have I done and what am I going to do?

(OK, yes traditional Scrum is daily, but give me a break).

So what have I done the last week?

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #1: My editor should be on it.  Waiting for updates as we speak.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5: I completed my monthly goals over a week ahead of time.  I might write more.
  • Way With Worlds Marketing: The newly printed bookmarks are on their way – not sure what was up with the website, but I think they just got overloaded..  So here’s hoping I didn’t completely screw it up.
  • General: Went to assorted meetups, spent time with my girlfriend, and configured a new computer (a major part of my time over the weekend).  The latter should make me more productive, except it’s powerful enough to run Overwatch, so uh . .  yeah, there’s that.
  • Additional: I took an unplanned task to help edit someone’s story.  I might be doing more of this as I feel it lets me use my knowledge.  The idea is maybe I’ll offer, now and then, to do a deep-dive on someone’s chapter #1.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #1:  Well I want to get this back, but it’s not required – I do want it back early May.
  • Seventh Sanctum Spotlight: I’m going to contact the folks who wanted to do it this week to start queuing content.  My goal was to contact but not necessarily publish, so I think this might be easier to just do end of month so next month starts queued up.
  • Miscellaneous Marketing: I want to check with local comic shops on speaking and do more with my self-pub group that also has a group of speakers.
  • General: Finishing any final computer configurations.  Probably get some social time in.  Plan next month.  Lots of miscellaneous and clean-up this month.

Challenges and blockers:

  • No blockers; if anything slightly ahead.
  • Long-term the next pop culture is on hold, and probably won’t start until late summer/early fall as my co-author is busy.

General:

  • Next month is shaping up to focus on Fanime, and a new project – writing fiction.

– Steve

Steve’s Update 4/16/2017

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

Deciding to call this “Steve’s” Update because you know it is mine.  Anyway, the weekly “standups”  Scrum style continue!  What have I done and what am I going to do?

So what have I done the last week?

  • Got the Color Generator deployed.  It’s out and being used, so go to it!  I also learned a lot about generators making it.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #1: I should hear from the editor this week.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5: Still writing away, a bit ahead of my game actually.  Might crank out a bit more than intended.
  • Way With Worlds Marketing: I got new flyers for Way With Worlds put together, now I just have to print them, but ran into some issues with the printer website malfunctioning – maybe everyone is busy.
  • Seventh Sanctum Spotlight: Will probably start next week.  I do have a kind-of-spotlight with Character Creation Is The Whole Game.
  • General: Went to a meetup, went to Rifftrax, cleaned out a closet and a half, did a newsletter, finished my laptop research.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Printing the Way With Worlds Flyers: If the aforementioned interruption is overcome.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5: Still writing.
  • General: Purchase and recieve that laptop, go to some social events.  Likely to be a light week here – going to be focusing on a lot of “life” stuff.

Challenges and blockers:

  • No blockers right now except said interruption with printing the flyers.

General:

  • May will be a bit busy due to Fanime so it’ll probably involve me focusing mostly on my current works and not taking on any new generators, etc.

– Steve

April Sprint – What’s Coming up!

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

I’ve been thinking of how I organize my projects and share them with you my audience and friends.  I’ve not been thrilled with how I’ve done updates, and recent spates of illness and surprises derailed a few things.  So what I’m doing is taking my projects to be managed much more traditional Scrum style.  I got the idea here from Failbetter’s use of Agile to make them publicly engaged via blogposts while doing Sunless Skies.

If you’re not familiar with Scrum,, its basically a method of organization where you A) keep a backlog of stuff to do B) do it in small increments called sprints, and C) regularly report and measure progress.  I recommend reading up on it.

(I’m still big on the Getting Things Done method, and will use it as part of my work, but my large amount of longer-term projects require some different approaches plus this lets me try out techniques from work.)

What this means for you is

  1. Every month (a “sprint”) I’ll tell you what I’m planning to tackle on my projects.  Most Sprints are two weeks, but I plan my projects quarterly/monthly so this is a bit easier.
  2. I’ll do weekly reports (a sort of Standup) on progress. These are usually daily in proper Scrum, but I have my limits.
  3. I’ll do a roundup/retrospective at the end.

So what’s up for April!

Finishing The Color Generator: I’ll finish the Color Generator in April with the goal of deploying before the end of the Month – preferably mid-month.  I’ll be regularly updating it with new data so keep an eye out.

New Seventh Sanctum Spotlight: A new Seventh Sanctum project to spotlight talent and interesting media – this is an experiment and may or may not succeed.

Way With Worlds Minibooks #1: The followups to Way With Worlds.  I will send this to editor – remember these don’t launch until June.

Way With Worlds Minibook #5: Get this to at least 60% completion if not more.  And, yes I have four of these suckers written already – make room in your summer reading!

There are also some marketing efforts, tech purchases, and home maintenance but I don’t think you care about those.

So I’ll be posting updates weekly (probably Monday) to let you know where everything is once a week!

And as it’s Sunday, let’s get to a status!

What I’ve worked on:

  • Wrote 5 more questions on Minibook 5.
  • Minibook #1 will be in the hands of the editor next week.
  • Reached out to initial “promotables” for the Sanctum Spotlight and designed how it’ll run.  It’s pretty much ready to go, I’ll start it later this month.
  • A few notes on the Color Generator are in place, I’ll dive into that more soon.

What’s coming up this week:

  • I plan to focus on the Color Generator to get as much done as possible.
  • I’ll be attending two professional events, so that consumes time.

 

– Steve