PhilStubbington

Phil is an AYE virgin in 2003, so please be gentle!

I am (it did say "actually quite" here, but that's not true and smacks of English reserve!) excited at the prospect of attending AYE - and looking forward to finally meeting Jerry (and other people of a similar frame of mind).

I work for Exel in the Technology and Global Freight Management division as a Service Delivery Manager. I manage (hopefully in a congruent fashion) several IT suppliers including Wipro and Scandent in India. These companies provide software development and support services.

In my spare time, I'm a Husband and Dad to Susan and Eddie respectively. Eddie (who'll be 5 shortly after AYE) was named after the dog in Frasier, but don't tell him - he'll only get a complex <g>. I also enjoy racket sports (Badminton and Tennis - AnyoneForTennis?, but NOT Squash), cycling (or, to be more accurate, I like the idea of cycling to keep fit), music (an exlectic mix including Coldplay, Stereophonics and Norah Jones), films (especially Kevin Spacey, but also Monty Python - Life of Brian being a particular favourite and some 'odd' films like Being John Malcovitch).

I also run a one-man consultancy and web hosting company called Ambitus which in turn maintains a number of web sites including the Software Community, and Open Source Hosting.

I very occasionally write articles for magazines, and have an ambition to write a book or two (one fiction, one non-fiction).

In fact, I started writing my most recent article in 1999 and still haven't finished it!

Hi Phil. It's nice to meet you online. I look forward to meeting you in person. (There, was that gentle? :-) -- JohannaRothman 2003.08.07

Phil, there are some nice tennis courts at the EmbassySuites, so maybe you want to organize some doubles to practice your teamwork. (I don't play myself - as a former ball boy, I had enough of tennis to last a lifetime. The dogs like to play with tennis balls, though.) I'm glad I'll finally be meeting you. I hope you're staying for Shape Day on Thursday (see last year's ShapeDayNotes. - JerryWeinberg 2003.08.07

Phil, we are also working with Wipro and I would be interested in talking with you about some of your successes and struggles.

AlanSmith 2003.08.08

Hi, Phil! Welcome to AYE. I look forward to meeting you in person. - BeckyWinant 2003.08.10

Thanks for all your kind comments........ if anyone is up for a game of tennis (apart from Jerry!) I'll dust off my racquet.

If there's enough interest from the likes of AlanSmith perhaps we could do a session on offshore development - threat or opportunity, cultural differences, etc?

PhilStubbington 2008-09-15

I'm becoming increasingly aware that I am in my cranky old age (37) developing a number of BugBears(lovely word, isn't it? You'll notice that the definition at dictionary.com is even better - it refers you to bugaboo!!!

Anyway, I thought I'd let you know what some of my BugBears are (in no particular order) and would be interested to hear yours too!

Non-functional requirements

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It's bad enough that people don't understand what they are, but even worse when they don't know how to elicit them or the risks of not discovering them. How can I help people find them?

Requirements
Cost benefit analysis and measurement of benefits generally

The zeroth business requirement is value (to somebody, as JerryWeinberg tells us). Why is it so difficult to measure benefit? What can we do to make it easier?

Business analysis

Why do so few people make a good job of it?

Ceremonial titles

Project managers who can't manage projects. Business analysts who can't analyse business. Risk logs that mustn't contain risks

Calling a business requirements specification a functional specification

So where do the non-functional requirements go in a functional specification? See all the above. You'll notice a theme here!

Hands off technical architects

TA's who take no reponsibility for the technical design of the solution.

At long last got around to getting some of the ClosingCeremonyPictures from the conference burnt onto CD and uploaded to a website.

2003.12.12 PhilStubbington

Hoping to get along to AYE again this year - and maybe drag some colleagues along with me (with the way the dollar is going at the moment, it'll be cheaper to work in Arizona and commute back to the UK before long!).

In the meantime, trying to get my head around two specific problems - what on earth SoftwareArchitects should be doing and secondly how to prise them away from doing LegacyStuff to enable them to do the former. Suggestions gratefully received.

2004.03.07 PhilStubbington

Not sure whether I'll be able to make it to AYE this year (2004) - but if I don't I hope you all have a great time and look forward to seeing you in 2005!

2004.10.13

Just a couple of weeks to go, Phil. Give it your best push! It was great to have you here last year, and we'd love to have you here with us again. - JerryWeinberg 2004.10.13

Thanks Jerry. AYE 2003 was a monumental event for me. It was great to finally meet you, Becky, Esther and Naomi. I feel like part of a much larger, happier and more functional family than my own family of origin. The session with JeanMcLendon was genuinely a life changing event. Incidentally, you may like to know that I'm working with Jean, NynkeFokma and various other people in Europe to see how we can spread the word (SatirEurope) with respect to VirginiaSatir - in personal and professional contexts. If any AYE folk are interested in helping please join us at Yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/satir-europe/) where we're trying to work out quite how to achieve this.

PhilStubbington 2004.10.15

Sadly, I won't be making it to AYE this year (2004). Maybe next year I'll have more luck. Hope you all have a great time.

PhilStubbington 2004.10.31

We'll miss you, Phil. Start working on next year right away! - JerryWeinberg 2004.10.31

I also hope to see you next year too! - CharlesAdams 2004.11.01

Hoorah! See you in Phoenix..... hopefully with a colleague or two in tow.

PhilStubbington 2005.07.13

As a few of you already know, I'm now not coming to AYE this year. To say I'm dissapointed would be a classic example of British understatement.

I will however be in Phoenix/Scottsdale (staying at the Comfort Inn) from late on the 6th, leaving lunchtime on the 12th. As I'm not sure of my schedule yet, I've given my contact details to Lynne Azpeitia and hoping we can meet up at some point?

PhilStubbington 2005.11.03

Updated: Thursday, November 3, 2005