RFC Weekly - 13th March 2017

Where am I

Ok, the past week has been hectic busy. I been in London for 2 days on behalf of a client - between that and some fairly terrible traffic, I've not been very productive outside of work.

So, I thought it might be useful for me to take a bit of step back and look at what I want to achieve over the coming months.

More ROI articles

I'd like to get back to weekly a cadence with my ROI article series. I'd got one and a half articles drafted so hopefully back to it this week.

www.red-folder.com redesign

Ok, I've managed to completely break the home page - CSS just doesn’t seem to be triggering properly for some reason. Only noticed today – I assume it has been like this for a week or so. So that needs fixing (hopefully fixed by the time anyone reads this).

And of course I still need to get something resembling a coherent design across the site.

I'd hope to have that all done by the end of March.

Blog redevelopment

I still need to split the blog out from the main code base (to be based in Github, similar to the Microsoft Docs).

This I'd like to complete by the end of April - to have it follow on after the website redesign.

Software Development Healthcheck product

I'm really quite keen on developing a Software Development Healthcheck product. Think consultancy style review of your current Software Development practices and processes with a report at the end - aimed to highlight that next set of improvements.

This would be my first foray into selling a "product" rather than just my time. I would expect it to be an interesting exercise.

I'd like to get this up and available by the 10th April along with being marketed out (probably via LinkedIn). Any advice greatly received.

Learning

In line with the www.red-folder.com redesign, I'm focusing the rest of the month (possible longer) on refreshing & improving my CSS skills.

I'll then like to take a proper look at TypeScript. I'd expect that to take me up to end of May.

Then a deeper look at either Angular 2 or React. That will likely take me to the end of June (timed to end with my current contract).

In the second half of the year, I'll be looking at renewing my MCSD: App Builder certification. I'm currently trying to find the elective exams that will allow me to do this (Microsoft appear to have hidden them). I'll probably look at something in Azure as it is such a fascinating and fast moving environment.

Reading

When I took stock of my learning back last year, I was very aware that my reading is just as much as I'd like. I've been working my way through Crucial Conversations for what feels like forever. The books content is actually very good - but for some reason I'm struggling to focus time on it. I'd like to get this read by the end of April. No idea at this stage to what I'd follow it with - but I am aware that books aren't the most convenient method for me at the moment.

And finally

I'd like to upgrade my .Net Core to work with the 1.0 tooling and Visual Studio 2017. I suspect I'll do this after the Blog redesign. By that point I'd expect there will be considerable experience floating around to make for a "relatively" easy switch over.

Hopefully by making these targets public - I'll actually keep myself to them. I'll keep you updated.

About the author:

Mark Taylor is an experience IT Consultant passionate about helping his clients get better ROI from their Software Development.

He has over 20 years Software Development experience - over 15 of those leading teams. He has experience in a wide variety of technologies and holds certification in Microsoft Development and Scrum.

He operates through Red Folder Consultancy Ltd.