Ala' Yasin Abuhijleh

PERSPECTIVE: Importance of Sprint Retrospective

One of the four items in Agile Manifesto is: value individuals and interactions over processes and tools And one of the twelve principles induced from the manifesto is: Build projects around motivated individuals, give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done Unfortunately, in practice, most of Scrum … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Projects Failure Countermeasures – no templates

Very often, in training session and discussions, I am ask ed to share project management templates. Requesters believe by using templates project management will be easier and projects will succeed! My consistent response is: I won’t share any! Don’t judge me! I am not mean. I am just against anti-patterns1; relying on

PERSPECTIVE: ITIL where to start

Do you expect us to implement all of this? this needs years and years! How can we master all of this? this is huge!Where should we start? Typical questions I hear as an ITIL Trainer and consultant. Before tackling them, I admit that ITIL scope is huge. It covers the complete life-cycle of any IT … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Projects Failure – Countermeasure 1: Is it really a project!

Projects failure is contextual! it differs from project to another depending on tolerances, limitations and conditions. a project is usually considered a failure if : It exceeded the allocated time, budget along with the tolerances. It failed to deliver the expected outputs. Hence outcomes are not achieved and expected benefits cannot be realized. This is … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: projects and benefits realisation trap

As a project manager working in a customer/vendor environment, and if you’re experienced enough, I believe you faced a situation where the customer shifted the discussing of a change request into a concern about the final benefits of the project. You start hearing statements like “I don’t want to discuss a change here or there…”, … Continue reading →

REPHRASE: Kanban and Scrum – making the most of both

“Kanban and Scrum – Making the most of both” is a very nice lightweight reading – thanks InfoQ – that discusses how Kanban and Scrum are related to each other, how they are different and how to make the best out of both! Yes, The best out of both! Yes, they can be applied together! … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Magento, the awesome slow eCommerce Platform!

Magento is cool! it’s getting a lot of traction and popularity. It is getting better with every release, and it’s definitely empowering thousands of on-line stores world-wide. No question about that! However, I believe there is something intrinsically wrong with Magento! Magento, from my experience, is most of the time is below customers and technologist … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Improvement, The Tricky Part

I rarely meet a business or technology executive who is satisfied with the effectiveness and efficiency of IT processes and activities. Common complains are response time, things falling in the cracks, under estimating, incomplete solutions….etc. Complains usually come with complete despair! we tried multiple processes, best practices….etc but nothing works!

ANNOUNCEMENT: ITIL Expert Certification

Finally I got my ITIL V3 expert accreditation after 2.5 years of study, practice and training. The journey started on December 2009 when I sat for the foundation exam. Since then, I have delivered ITIL foundation training , studying, practicing and passing the intermediate exams. Why it took me all that time? because I did … Continue reading →

REVIEW: Web Operations – Keep Data on Time

If you’re a technician or technical manager working on a large-scale web site reading this book is not an option. This is a must-read book. However,if you don’t work in such environment, don’t bother reading the book! It will be very hard to related and understand. The book is composed of 17 chapters collected … Continue reading →

Review: Enabling IT FInancial Transparency

The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate how to calculate IT costs in a scientific way and not guessing. IT financial management is one of the most complicated subjects to address. From a business perspective IT financial transparency is usually a pain. The start of the presentation was a bit boring and I was … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Dispelling some Myths about ITIL

Occasionally, I find people surprised of my interest in ITIL, knowing that the industry I work in is Internet. With curiosity: “How do you apply ITIL on website and internet!” people ask. In other occasions I found people surprised that I am implementing this gradually without having this as part of a formal and official … Continue reading →

REPHRASE: You’re a PMP, why PRINCE2 then?

In a region where PMP certification is assumed all-what-you-need for project management, occasionally, I have to answer the question “Why PRINCE2, you’re already a PMP?”. PRINCE2 stands for PRojects In Controlled Environment. PRINCE2 is a project management methodology,that is mainly concerned with establishing, maintaining and controlling the project environment.

TIP: Market your mistakes!

Usually, when one make a mistake at work, the first thing s/he thinks about is how s/he can hide this from his/her manager. right? From my humble experience, I usually think about it differently: How can I tell my manager about this. Strange? Not really, telling your manager about your mistakes is the best thing … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Portfolio Management, Resource Allocation and Morale

In ITIL, Portfolio management is part of the service strategy, which reflects the importance of the process. Portfolio Management is very important to have a centralized place where all services starting from conceptualization till retirement are listed. Most importantly, through the service pipeline, we study the services business cases, decide on what services to offer, and charter … Continue reading →

REVIEW: Scaling Lean and Agile Development

A very interesting, vivid and beneficial presentation! The purpose of the presentation is to illustrate “how” to scale lean and Agile across multisite. It presents practices and tips related to adoption of offshore, multisite development and coordination within large scrum teams. I liked that fact that was presented at the beginning: “big projects” can be … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Protect your Strategic Assets

Why does a client reach you or choose you to provide him with an IT solution or service? Definitely because of the value he believes you’ll be delivering to him. In return of value, he pays you money and, supposedly, enjoys the value you’ve delivered to him. The value is delivered to the client, by deploying your assets (capabilities and resources) … Continue reading →

TIP: Capture The Real Value

Most of the time, we compare the work we perform with our salary, and we limit our effort, dedication to excellence and learning to salary, assuming that doing more or better is really a waste of time, effort and resources. After all you do not want your employer to get advantage of you. Is this … Continue reading →

DevOps: the right team structure!

While working with customers on DevOps, one of the most repeated questions is: “How should we structure our teams to achieve the benefits of DevOps?”. The answer, for DevOps practitioner, is no-brainer! It should be Feature Teams or Squads. However, in enterprises the situation is usually more complex. While feature teams resemble the ideal setup … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: DevSecOps 101

Needless to say, the DevOps movement evolved to enhance collaboration between development and operation teams and to overcome the continuous destructive tension; development strives to push changes to production fast, while operations focuses on production stability. By focusing on creating value to the customer, remove any activity that adds no value to the customer (waste)1 … Continue reading →

TIP: Live with rejection

How do you feel when you hear “No”? Most of us feel upset with “No”. We usually take “No” as a humiliation or at least feel bad for getting ourselves in such situations. However, successful people receive “No” differently,but how? Before getting more into this, you need to realize the fact that leads them to … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Just Listen, Always!

“I came to your shop 3 times asking about a spare part for my food processor. Every-time you tell me you’ll call me later, but you never did. What’s wrong with you people?”. I started the conversation at the electronics shop store. “Sir, please check the system log, we’ve called you 3 times, but you … Continue reading →

TIP: Who to blame?

If the first thing you hear when something goes wrong is “Who did that?”, then you should know there is something wrong! No I don’t mean what happened, but what is going to happen and how the situation will be handled. Good leaders know that things go wrong, some times for no reason. They know … Continue reading →

What to change? How to change? or, Why to change?

A question I get over and over, in different formats such as: “We trained our resources on PMP, ITIL, PRINCE2 , we bought the tools, and guess what nothings works! do they ever work?”. “How did you manage to get Agile implemented? we tried, never worked”. “Are you telling me that any of this can … Continue reading →

QUOTATION: Motivation

One way to motivate action, then, is to make people feel as thought they’re already closer to finish line than they might have thought from Switch

REVIEW: Poke the Box

This is not my first reading for Seth Godin. I have before read Linchpin and planning to read The Purple Cow. The book is about being an initiator, it’s about doing something, not giving up early, getting feedback and keep trying. It’s about starting things very often, with dedication and perseverance. The book highlights very inspiring thoughts … Continue reading →

REVIEW: Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone

One of the best books I’ve ever read or listened to. Just Listen is really amazing and inspiring. If you’re a manager you definitely should read this piece of art. I liked Just Listen much for the following reasons: 1. Very simple and straight to the point language

GUIDE: Facebook Login with CodeIgniter

I’ve tried to add Facebook Login button to my CodeIgniter application. Since I’m new to both CodeIgniter and Facebook Connect, at least from development aspect, I have looked for existing tutorials. After research I found that Danny Herrarn tutorial is the best one. However, I faced a couple of issues, to which, I found no … Continue reading →

REVIEWS: How the Mighty Fall

Just finished listening to the audio version of “How the Mighty Fall”. Another interesting study by Jim Collins. The main idea behind the book is that decline can be avoided, detected and reversed. In this book Jim Collins illustrates how big companies fall; which happens through 5 stages of decline: Stage 1: Hubris Born of … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Why SaaS?

3000 new companies a day are signing up world wide. More than 10 million active users in more than 500,000 companies are currently using it. For only $50/individual/annum, it gives you the ability to handle e-mail, Web hosting, calendars, instant messaging, and standard business applications like word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. It is Google apps. … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Jordan and the World Economic Crisis

It is clear; the largest economy in the world is in the ICU. The American government has been trying everything possible to revive the economy. Nevertheless, more banks have bankrupted and more jobs are lost every day. Dubai as well, has been severely and negatively affected. Real estate prices have dropped at least by 40%, … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Another Hard Start

I agree it is always hard to start with anything new. That is natural, whenever you start with anything that is out of your comfort zone. It is even harder because of having a limited time to finish. In software development, we have new starts, almost every day. Every ticket, task or assignment is usually … Continue reading →

PERSPECTIVE: Hammering with a scissor!

How many times you tried to hammer a nail with a scissor? screwdriver? or maybe a shoe!! I have done this a lot, ironically, sometimes it works! I might have faced some difficulties; the nail got bent, I harmed my self, or it took longer than expected. If it was one of my “Unlucky Days”, … Continue reading →

TRAINING: Code Institute DevOps and Agile Curriculum

Over the last 4 month, I worked with Code Institute on developing their curriculum for Agile and DevOps modules to be part of their Diploma program. It was a very rich experience working with such a great team and to learn the comprehensive process of developing high quality and engaging online content. I believe Code … Continue reading →

ANNOUNCEMENT: Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification

I am very please to announce that I have acquired the Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification. The highest level certification for Microsoft Azure. It was really a very rewarding experience and I learned a lot. Next I am planning to get the Kubernetes Administrator Certificate and learn more about Data Science and Big Data. Regards

EVENT: Kuwait Azure Group – Introduction to Kubernetes and Azure Kubernetes Services

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to run a webinar illustrating Kubernetes and Azure Kubernetes Services capabilities to Kuwait Azure Group. Over 2 hours, I covered multiple topics including main concepts behind Kubernetes , resource(object) types, Package management with Helm, Role Based Access Control and I concluded with an illustration for the Azure Kubernetes Services capabilities. … Continue reading →

DevOps 101 – a brief introduction

Understanding DevOps might be a challenging journey, especially for newcomers. There are many definitions, practices, values, and practices originating from different sources. Luckily, there are 3 main principles that were initially mentioned in the famous book, the Phoenix Project that all DevOps practices and patterns are derived from. Understanding these 3 principles – usually referred … Continue reading →

Public DevOps Foundation Course – Dubai – July 2019

Last week, I had the pleasure to work with a group of enthusiastic IT professionals who aspire to make a real change in their organizations. DevOps Foundation is definitely the first step in that journey, thus I believe they made the right choice. Over the 2 days we went over the main concepts of DevOps … Continue reading →

AgilePM week in Qatar – 2 Training – June 2019

Last week, in Cooperation with Global Knowledge, I had the pleasure to deliver 2 AgilePM for both Foundation and Practitioner level to 2 customer in Qatar. Delivering in the morning and the evening is not an easy endeavor. Thanks to the great audience I have in both sessions. They made it an unforgettable experience. … Continue reading →

Agile Scrum Master – April 2019 – Doha Qatar

It was a real pleasure to conduct another course in Doha in coordination with Global Knowledge. Agile Scrum Master course is one of the closest topics to my heart and I really deliver it with great passion.

TRAINING: ITIL FOUNDATION – VODAFONE – QATER – DECEMBER 2018

This week I delivered 3 days ITIL foundation workshop in VODAFONE Qatar to a group of experienced and professional IT and Telecoms Engineer. This course was one of the best courses with regard to the depth of discussions and reflecting or real life examples and challenges. I honestly hope to work with this same group … Continue reading →