So much to look back on, as I think about the new year.
Goodbye 2025. You were a busy year. So much happened and changed. So much more travelling than I expected too.
Looks of good things, but also some stress too. Things might be pretty, but sometimes you have to pay attention.
Looking back brings lessons
I say stress, but more because some things didn’t go as planned. Some work took longer than expected, which has delayed some things. This means some issues which I’d hoped to be resolved more clearly, are still unclear. Time to wait. Still. Longer. Oh yeah. Not so much fun.
I realised that in my new way of doing things, it looks like I don’t have time to revise Teaching Team Collaboration, which I want to do. There are lots of little ideas that I’ve gathered from writing these posts that I’d like to put into a newer version. Maybe it will happen next year. We’ll see.
I also remembered why I like software development: the thrill and fun of creative problem solving. You take a challenge and create a solution that works within your constraints. Yes, it is also frustrating, and almost always slower than you expect, but it is still fun and thrilling at the same time. I’m glad that this is what I’m mostly doing these days.
As noted previously, I’ve also stepped away from Code the City. That will provide more breathing space for other things this coming year. Ideally more thinking and recharging time, as I say ‘no’ to things instead.
Looking forward brings new things
I am still a co-organiser of Play4Agile, which will kick back into gear next month. That is another fun adventure too. I look forward to doing this annual gathering to see old friends, learn new things, and be reminded of things I’d forgotten. As my role changes this time, I look forward to seeing what I can learn this time around.
The main change for me will be a more formal role as a chief technology slash product officer type of person for a small startup focusing on an app in the women’s health space. I have been building this mobile app, and the related websites this last year. In the coming weeks this should move to public testing of the app, followed by launching in the app stores.
This change means I want to adjust the focus of these posts. I want to discuss how the issues of team collaboration look from inside the team. I will have a team: me and a former student at the start. Hopefully adding one, or two more by the end of the year.
That means I’ll be able to write about how I apply the collaboration rules to our little team, and highlight how we do things. Tell you about our experience.
I want to keep writing going forward. Writing clears my head as I sort out my thoughts and type them down. This makes space for new ideas to emerge as I stop thinking about the previous one that I wrote about… Until of course, new thoughts on that topic bubble up to bug me again.
This new year will interesting. See you in 2026.
This post is part of a project pulling together my materials and ideas about Teaching Team Collaboration: the Human-Side of Software Development for software development to students.
If you’d like to be notified of future posts, then please sign up for more using the adjacent form. When you sign up, then I’ll send you a free copy of the collaboration rules as a PDF from the book. You can also follow me on LinkedIn
The ideas above are from my book 101+ Ideas to Improve Team Collaboration, which covers all of these little things that students can do to improve their collaboration. Also available via Kindle.