The Agile Buzz

Agile is one of those buzz words that IT managers, business execs, and everyone else love to use in conversation. However, I have yet to meet more than a handful of people who ever really knew what Agile really was; more importantly, how it could and/or should be used at their company. This is not going to be another "Here is the definition of Agile; go forth and use it wisely, as great knowledge of definitions comes terrible application of that term". Okay, just killed the quote, whatever. I am going to focus on the why your company should consider Agile, a hybrid, or just drop the darn buzz word and get work done instead.

If you want the definition of Agile, go to Wikipedia or search for Agile Manifesto. That should be a good start.

If you are a software development company, I will argue until I am dead that you should be using Agile. I have been in highly regulated environments and can argue agile's benefit in virtually all cases. I can also argue in almost all cases that the cost-benefit will be so shocking in the long run that you would be squandering a small fortune by not investing in Agile.

But I don't care about the software development companies...if they don't at least know what agile is and have made a conscious decision to use or not to use it, then they probably have far bigger problems they need to focus on...I can help you with that if you need. Who I really care about is every other company out there that has an IT department or technology team or designated "tech" people that need to write code in order for the business to function. For example, if you have a database system or data warehouse and need to write SQL to pull out data into spreadsheets....or write code to pull the data into a BI tool such as Cognos. I do want to note that Agile can be applied to business processes and just about anything, but there will be plenty of post for that later...I could probably write a book series on this.

Anyway, let's discuss how Agile can help you. If your company is broken into a bunch of silos, groups don't work well together, there is generally poor communication, and/or the culture is that people cling to their knowledge and refuse to share and play nice, then I highly recommend you not only throw out the idea of Agile, but don't even waste your breath with the word until you have fixed your other issues first. This is the short and easy one.

If your company still has any of the above issues, but they are minimal, or non-existent (yay), then you should consider Agile, or at least a hybrid. Since it would take too long to cover all uses for Agile, I am going to focus on something all companies need and use...reports. If you want examples for development related to operational systems, shoot me a message and I'll write up something for that.

One thing to understand is that a huge benefit of Agile is delivery of something that will provide immediate business value. Let's use a financial report for our example. Here we go: the business needs a financial report that will show a financial snapshot of how the company is doing in regards to operational costs, sales figures, profits and losses, and trending against competitors. Let's ignore the BI piece of this for now, since my BI people are going to scream dashboard.

The reporting need that I just wrote is very generalized and contains tons of top-level requirements that could technically equate to dozens of smaller reports, each of which could have dozens upon dozens of requirements. If we try to tackle this the old-fashioned way, then we would get a project manager, do a cost-benefit analysis, figure out resources, get an idea of complexity, and put together some insanely large Project outline that has about as much chance of being met as I do winning Powerball.

Let's break this up. Let's ask what the most important piece of data is. Maybe there are a few items...so let's rank them if need be. Either way, we want to start with one item. For simplicity, we are going to focus on sales figures for each of the company's products in each division. Again, for simplicity, we are going to assume that our data is in a structured source and we don't need to worry about where to get the data from. So, my first User Story is "I want total sales for all products company-wide for last year." This is something I can write some quick SQL for and get an immediate result and a manager can use that data to make business decisions. Wow that was fast and simple. I already have a deliverable and I haven't even broken a sweat. Now my next user story will be "I want to see total sales for each division for last year." Great, some more SQL and I have another deliverable. Now I can take both sets of data and plop them into a spreadsheet, or PowerPoint, or whatever and I now have the beginnings a of sales report. We can then get more detail from there and with each user story, or building blocks as I usually call them, we can keep building our report without affecting the currently useable product.

I have probably oversimplified this to no end, and you are probably saying that all of this is common sense. I would not be able to dispute that. However, I would then probably point at you and say how often does this actually happen at your company? And the common response would be "Well, it's more political than that and there is lots of red tape, blah blah, etc."

But here is the reality, if you have the culture to support Agile methodologies, then what I just described is really that easy for your company to implement. Of course you will need documentation, of course you will need detailed workflows to follow, and of course, like implementing anything that is different from the norm, you will have push-back.

One final touch-point I want to leave you with is that Agile may not be right for your company. Maybe it is the right thing to use, but it wouldn't be cost effective in enough time to allow for a proper budget to be assigned. Maybe the culture just won't support Agile without "changing the world". Or, maybe Agile is the perfect fit and it's time to go for it. Either way, you need to know what Agile really is and how it can be used as a tool to improve your company; otherwise, you are just tossing around buzz words and ultimately causing more headaches for everyone.

Social Media and your business

This is not a new topic, but I was in a discussion recently about it and thought I would share my thoughts; social media has been around for most of history in one form or another. But I am focusing on current Internet-based social media for this post and to provide guidance on how to choose where your business might want to be. So, the general timeline starts with websites, then blogs, SecondLife, Facebook, LinkedIn, mySpace, flickr, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, and so many more in the mix. It's actually quite daunting if you sit down and try to figure out where you want to make a presence.

Let's start with the basics; most companies rely on an employee's experience to determine what forms of social media to use. The common thing you will hear is that the employee who is deciding to use social media for the company has an account on LinkedIn, they and/or their kids use Facebook and Twitter, and every competitor has a website. If the company isn't trying to sell products or services online, then a simple website to show information about the company is created; if the company wants to extend it's selling power to the web, then it will either employee an internal IT team or hire a 3rd party to create an e-commerce website. Then, someone creates an account LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for the company, and works at maintaining it. Or for larger companies, they may have a dedicated person or team to manage these. I am not going to focus too much on IT infrastructure or security in this post, as they are really large topics I can cover later.

Website 101

A website is typically expected for any business; it doesn't matter if you are a Fortune 100 or a small pizzeria. The depth of the website really depends on your business and what you are trying to convey to current and potential customers. As I noted, if you have no interest to sell anything, you should at least have a website that explains what your company does, offerings of your company, and how potential customers, suppliers, partners, etc. can get in touch with you. For example, if you are a medical manufacturer that only sells directly to suppliers, you may just want to have a basic site that explains what you make, about your company, and how a potential supplier could get in touch with you. For a smaller business, such as a restaurant, you would want to describe your restaurant and food, and if you don't want to offer an online reservation system (maybe you are a pizza and sub shop), then at least have your menu posted so people can get an idea of what you offer and can make the process of reviewing a menu at the restaurant less daunting.

If you want to sell things online, then you will want an e-commerce website. Maybe you are into specialty crafts, so a site like Etsy or eBay would be more than sufficient for handling your needs. Or maybe you are trying to be the next Amazon and need a powerful and separately hosted e-commerce site. For the smaller companies, you can probably get away with setting up the site yourself on a per-canned hosting site; for the crafting example I mentioned Etsy or eBay. There are many other sites such as GoDaddy where you can get a Web 2.0 template that you customize and set everything up yourself. If you are a bit larger, then you will either want an IT staff that can handle this or you will want to contract out to a 3rd party.

Internet Social Sites-A-Plenty

This post would be too long if I went into detail on each service out there. Therefore, I am going to post some guidelines and you will have to do the leg work...or you can send me a message and we can talk. Basically, you need to know the type of audience you want for your business. I am going to bring back the Etsy example again, because it's a great example of a niche place for typically smaller businesses or hobbyists to sell their goods. People go to this site, which is very popular, knowing what Etsy is about.

Another example is that your company has products and services they sell, and want people to get excited about new offerings. One option is creating a Facebook site. This allows people to Like your site and get word out about your company and offerings. You can easily get feedback and opinions without even having to do focus groups. Please note that focus groups are still important depending on what you are trying to sell or produce.

Yet another example is that you are a company in the music or entertainment arena. Sites like the re-designed mySpace are great sites. And don't forget that Twitter is still extremely popular to use; especially for getting out bursts of news. Examples relating to this would be new artist releases, upcoming gigs, trends in the industry, and more.

Whatever you choose, make sure you do your research before just diving in. Although Twitter is popular, it may end up being a bad solution for your company. Or maybe Facebook would be a poor choice, but LinkedIn would be perfect. There are so many factors to consider.

Why Not to be Social

I am not going to imply that a company not getting into social media is hiding something. However, social media can be a blessing or a nightmare for a company. For example, if your company doesn't have much of a social media presence, and let's say there is a recall on one of your products, the buzz may not be as severe as if you had been in many social media arenas. However, if you were in the various social arenas, you may have more of a voice on the matter and you will be able to get a quicker idea of public opinion on the situation. This is one of the most important things to consider before divings into social media.

As a parting note, I love social media for the pure marketing and viral aspects of it. But be careful, social media should never be taken lightly in the decision making process.

Challenges of training for long distance cardio events

There are tons of challenges when trying to training for any long distance cardio event. However, they can mainly be summed up into three categories; Time, Money, Mind & Body. Long distance cardio events include the following and more (since I can never remember so many of them):

1. Half Marathon
2. Marathon
3. Ultra Marathon (all distances...not sure on each distance...know it goes up to 100 miles)
4. Triathlon (Sprint Distance)
5. Triathlon (Olympic Distance)
6. Triathlon (Half Ironman Distance)
7. Triathlon (Ironman Distance)
8. Triathlon (Longer Distance? I am sure there are some nuts somewhere who goes further)
9. Duathlons (variety of combos...long distance total is all I care about)
10. Long distance cycling events (typically the ones 50+ mile ones)
11. Long distance swim events (not familiar with them, so not sure what distance)
12. Speed walking (if you are into it...it's an olympic sport...and they go crazy far AND fast for walking...sway those hips!)
13. The insane mud, gladiator, zombie, and whatever other similar events
14. Any others I missed

Time

The main issue is time. For anyone who works full time or is a full-time stay-at-home parent with many kids, you know how hard it is to find time to get in your long training sessions. It's even worse when you need to get in your multiple sessions in the same day (yay for us triathletes!). So, how does someone make the time? The same way they have made time for everything else they deem important in their lives; JUST DO IT! Or, "Git 'er dun!" If you really want to complete or compete, you need to put in the time. You will usually be making some sort of sacrifice; be it losing your movie/show time on the couch, or those multiple bar nights each week...or some of your quality time with your spouse or kids, or whatever else.

Money

Except for running, and swimming only events I guess, multi-sport is crazy expensive. At the bare minimum, you need running shoes, a bike, bike helmet, and goggles. I guess that's not too bad...but you get what you pay for, and trying to get away with the bare minimum you are going to struggle and possibly not enjoy yourself too much. Cycling by itself can be a very expensive sport. Plus, you typically need a gym membership so you can have access to strength and cardio equipment, as well as a pool, or you need to have this stuff at home or if you are lucky, maybe you live somewhere that has these things available for free (let me know, you will be getting a new neighbor soon).

Mind & Body

For most people, they can sacrifice for the time and can part with the money. However, the biggest problems are your brain and your body. You are putting so much stress on your body and are training so frequently that fatigue, especially mental fatigue, are a killer. All I can say is find a good support group, whether online or local. The good news is that there are tons of local running, cycling, and multisport groups near most major cities and suburbs, or areas that are typically home to these events. Personally, I am in it for the glory and the high I get from achievement, and I usually train alone because I have enough competition against myself and the clock.

Additionally, you are putting a huge strain on your body. Although it's awesome to complete a marathon, you weren't technically designed to run at whatever speed for 26.2 miles, non-stop. Or, you weren't designed to swim 1.5km, then cycle 24.8 miles, and then run a 10k. You get the idea. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean your body is going to play nice. Hence why there is such a time commitment. You need to put in the time to help train your mind and body to handle the event. You also need to make sure you are getting the proper nutrition.

As always, I have to toss in this disclaimer. If you are training for ANY event, you should always get cleared by your doctor first. Good luck!

The Athlete's (Runner's) High

Yeah yeah, everyone calls it Runner's High, but it doesn't happen to just runners. It can happen to almost anyone. Also, since I used to fall for the endorphin myth, I need to set the record straight to anyone who doesn't know; endorphins have NOTHING to do with a runner's high. It has been scientifically proven. So, what causes a runner's high? The more recent theory deals with Anandamide. To be completely non-scientific, this is a drug-like chemical (it's actually a fatty acid) your body creates that has a very short shelf-life. It commonly occurs from long endurance activities in which you are supporting your body weight. This is why runner's seem to experience it more than any other athlete. If you really care about the science and medical aspects, check out some government and medical sites to get more info...fun reads.

For anyone not used to this athlete's high, you basically feel all happy and that the world is just great; you have no cares in the world and pain and exhaustion are not part of your vocabulary. For most people, this high does not last very long; a few hours at most. The longest I ever had a high was after a recent 10 mile run; I was doing awesome for over half a day.


I am no stranger to the Runner's High. However, I don't just get it from running, but also during cycling and swimming. I write cycling and not biking because I used to bike a lot, but never at higher intensities and for long durations with no stops. Also, I have never gotten this feeling when biking inside on a spin bike (guess I'll have to try this out on my newly purchased trainer).

I have never gotten a high from any running distance under 10 miles. Many articles say 10k or more, but that has never happened for me. With that said, I did get a high after a 5k run...except it was the final leg of a Sprint Triathlon. Maybe I am not in good enough shape yet, but after my Olympic distance triathlons I have done, I have yet to get a runner's high...I am psyched that I finished but completely exhausted...but no high. The only times I have gotten highs from swimming are when I have swam at a steady pace for longer than 1 hour 15 minutes. I can say this with certainty because EVERY swim of this duration or longer I get the high.

Although I get highs from running, swimming, cycling, and triathlons, I do have to note that the duration and intensity of the high differs greatly. Nothing beats a runner's high; although the swimming one is the closest I have gotten so far. If I used a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the runner's high, I would say the swimming high was around a 7, and lasted me for a maximum of 1 hour. The cycling ones are around a 4-5, and don't usually last longer than 20-30 minutes. My only triathlon high was the sprint distance, and that lasted me about the same as cycling.

When I was younger, I used to think I could bring on a runner's high by just thinking about running. It turns out that it was just my heart rate increasing due to excitement, causing more oxygen to be pumped through my veins and giving me a sense of euphoria. Not even close to the same thing...but I was a kid...that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.

If you are trying to get your runner's high, then get ready for longer distance cardio and typically you won't experience it until you have some sort of decent conditioning, as exercising to the point exhaustion typically will never trigger the high; it's the tempo runs or workouts where you are working out and pushing yourself, but at a comfortable level that isn't pushing yourself to the max. Good luck!

Heat versus Humidity

I want to start off by saying I love running in heat. My wife says I am part tortoise, as when I get into the bright and hot sun, I get energized and am ready to go. Last summer, for example, some of my best runs were on 90+ degree days. I personally hate cold weather. An upper 40's race is just insanely uncomfortable for me and my muscles get tight quickly despite my warm-up efforts. But more than the cold, I loathe humidity. It is my achilles heal.

So, why is it that my body seems to stop working properly when there is extreme humidity? And yes, extreme humidity is typically joined with the upper ends of warm to extremely hot temperatures as well.

As you run, your internal body temperature increases. Your body needs to release this heat, and what better way than to sweat and give off heat. The three technical ways your body cools are by thermal radiation (your body giving off heat), evaporation of perspiration (the cooling sensation you get when you are sweating), and heat convection (for non-scientific purposes, this is the same as giving off heat as well). I will analyze how each of these plays a role on hot with low to no humidity, hot with moderate to high humidity, and warm with moderate to high humidify days.

Hot with Low to No Humidity

If you turn on a heater that goes to 70 degrees in a room that is already 70 degrees, assuming the heater is not expelling higher heat to get "up to temperate", there will be no affect from the heater, as the surrounding air is the same temperature. The body is like this in that if your internal temperature rises, it will try to dispel the heat into the outside environment surrounding your body. This basically means through your skin, your body lets out heat that is absorbed into the surrounding air. However, on really hot days, the temperature outside may be equal or greater to your interval temperature. This means your body has basically lost 2 methods of cooling itself. I am not going to touch on the medical implications, because that is not what I am concerned about; but you can look up things like body overheating, heat stroke, etc. So, that means your body will be perspiring a lot more in order to try and cool itself.

For me, this works like a charm. But I am constantly keeping hydrated before, during, and after my run. This is imperative, otherwise, your body will be losing too much water too quickly, and you will get dehydrated even quicker.

Hot with Moderate to High Humidity

With the heat part in mind from the prior section, you now run into the next issue; there is a high level of moisture in the air. So guess what folks, you are out of luck. Not only are the two cooling methods form the heat not able to occur, but with the high humidity, the perspiration on your body cannot evaporate and cool you since the moisture level is the same or greater in the surrounding air. For swimmers, this is an issue, as you can easily overheat while swimming in many gym pools, such as ones that keep their pools around 82 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. One of the few solutions to this is cold hydration. I stress cold hydration because if you can't cool from the outside, you need to cool from the inside.

For me, this is a major issue, as my water bottles on my hydration belt usually have the ice melted by mile 3, so when I really start needing water, I am drinking warm to almost hot water. For any product designers, I am tired of sending recommendations to you about how to insulate small bottles without compromising weight. So, how do I stay cool? I try to plan my outside runs based on "water stations". I will fill up a few larger bottles with ice and cold water. When I come back for a loop in my run I'll stop for a minute, have some ice cold (hopefully) water, and then I am invigorated and ready to go until my next loop.

Warm with Moderate to High Humidity

This is a really tricky condition; if you are not used to running in weather like this, then your body and mind will be in for a shock. First off, warm is defined as a cooler temperature than your internal body temperature. With the high humidity, you lose the ability for the sweat to evaporate in order to cool your body, however, you will be sweating a lot. This can create a false sense of cooling. The false sense is that you may think you are getting cooled due to the amount of sweat being generated and the coolish feeling since the temperature isn't excessively hot, but your body will actually be starving for cooling. With the temperature being warm, your body will still be able to dissipate heat to the surrounding environment, but at fairly low amounts. This means you are still having issues cooling. The solution here is to just stay hydrated with cool to cold liquid. Having a hydration belt, pack, or just having a bottle you can get to when you need it during your run should do the trick.

For me, this is not usually much of an issue, because I can't get myself up early enough or out late enough where the heat has gone down but the humidity is still up. I still make sure to train in this condition though, since you never know when you are going to have to race the day after a good rain and it's summer time (or whatever time of year depending on where you live).

Other Cooling Methods

I am not really going to dive too much into this, but it's important to know that you can drastically aid your body in cooling by wearing the right type of clothing. Cotton is not very good when it comes to heat, humidity, and sweat. You tend to become a soppy mess and overheat easily. You honestly get what you pay for. Good sweat wicking material is key; Under Armour and Nike Dry Fit are my two favorites. Nike's gear is usually loose fitting enough without being baggy, and allows for a full range of movement in all conditions and positions. Under Armour makes ridiculously great compression style clothing that really gets the sweat off of your skin and helps with cooling. It's also very breathable and there are many benefits to compression-wear. I'll have to do an article at some point on compression gear, as there is a lot of hype and confusion behind it. Also, don't forget to have sweat wicking running socks...man do they help. I use Nike and Puma (Puma is my favorite). Sorry, not a real fan of the other brands...I have tried them and have not been impressed.

Orthotics and me

As I have noted before, I was a sprinter when I was younger. Therefore, I never really put in too much mileage. Even when I first started training to do 10 mile and under races, I wasn't putting in any real high mileage. To top it off, I was also a lot stronger then; more specifically, my leg strength and leg muscles. Training for my first Olympic triathlon last year, I tossed aside all strength training. In addition, I hadn't been doing much leg workouts prior to that. In addition, after my triathlon, I only did running for my following races. During the running leg of my triathlon my knees had been in worlds of pain; I ignored this because after the race I was fine and I assumed it was just from the fact I had just swam almost a mile and biked 24.8 miles. So, when my Philly Half arrived, BOOM! Collapsed three times because it felt like my knees were exploding; yes, both knees. Other than that, I can't really think of any way to describe the pain.

I was at an expo and came across a sports medicine doctor and he did a quick analysis on me; his conclusion, I had a collapsing arch and I needed orthotics. First off, what do you mean I have a collapsing arch...my feet look flat and normal! And what the heck are orthotics? I scheduled an appointment with a very renowned sports medicine doctor in my area (he handles most of the pro sports teams in the area).

The X-Ray was fascinating. It looked like I was wearing super high heals. And watching a video of my foot striking, you could see the high arch, and then my foot collapse and then look like a flat and normal foot. So, the doctor said I needed orthotics, which he made molds of my feet and got custom orthotics made for me.

So, I inserted them into my shoes, and off I went. To my surprise, my knees were still doing awful and I didn't really feel the orthotics were working at all. Back to the doctors I went. Sadly, I was so frustrated that I basically accused him of giving me a bogus (and insanely expensive) shoe insert. I guess he was used to this, so back on the treadmill I went and out came his video recorder (he was using an iPad). Within 10 minutes of me running at various speeds, he said he knew the problem. My running form had become awful due to the overcompensation from the knee injury.

Okay, no worries, I just had to relearn proper running form. Thankfully that task was not too daunting, as my track and running experience was heavily weighted in proper form. About three months later I was back to doing upper-middle distance mileage (6-8 miles) without any knee trouble at all.

So, there are a few takeaways I want to share, as this was a very humbling learning experience.

1. Go to a sports medicine doctor or someone who is trained to analyze your feet (most employees at actual running stores...not necessarily chain places). Have them observe you walking and/or running so they can fit you properly for a running shoe.
2. If you find that you are still having trouble, then definitely see a sports medicine doctor about orthotics or maybe a generic insert will do the trick (generics aren't made that work for my feet unfortunately).
3. If you are running long distances or a multi-sport athlete, I cannot stress enough how much effort you need to devote to leg strength and flexibility. Make sure you don't ever forget about leg strength training...more leg muscle means more impact absorption from your muscles and less impact on your knees.

Good luck and always run smart!