First I get podcasted on CFWeekly, now TeraTech has published the audio of one of my sessions from CFUNITED 2006 as a promotion for CFUNITED 2007.

I had previously contacted TeraTech to get a copy of this for my personal curriculum vitae, but for whatever reason it couldn't be found. I'm glad they did find it, because I ran over my one hour slot and as a result the video camera I set up to tape myself ran out of tape (damn 60 minute DV tapes).

I really wanted the full session's audio since some of the more interesting questions came up after I ran out of tape. Plus, the recording they got from the lavalier was much better than my DV cam did at the back of the echoey conference room.

I listened through the presentation so I could grade myself; I think this is definitely one of my better performances. The thing I like about it the best is that it encompasses all the things I passionately feel need to take place in a development shop. When I delivered this talk, it was a packed-room session, and lots of people came to me afterwards to say they enjoyed it (and to ask if we were hiring!). Michael Smith invited me to repeat the session at the end of last year for the Maryland CFUG over Breeze, which was really cool and very flattering.

I'm sad to say that I don't think I'm living up to all of my advice right now for our department. It's been a lot more difficult pulling off all of these items now that I've got almost 40 people under me instead of 15-20, especially when most of my current reports aren't doing software development (which means I can't roll some of the tasks I need to do in as part of my day-to-day work). The biggest problem I've had is just making the time to document all the great stuff our teams have been doing/discovering, and putting the effort in to making them standards and providing the right training materials so we can live up to the all-important "clear expectations" part of my pitch. I go home every week right now feeling guilty about what I haven't done yet.

I'm coming off of my role in our PCI compliance intiative this year, so I'm all about the standards now. I thought I was done a week or two back, but I had a few more tweaks to our credit card processing app that I had to get done. I finished them off yesterday, so all I have left is some documentation on Monday and then I'm (hopefully...) home free for the stuff that really matters.

The other item that has been time consuming was building relationships with all the new reports I acquired in January, and trying to help them get on the path to reaching their career goals. Now that everybody is humming along nicely, I'm getting to the point where I can do the things I'm supposed to be doing. I can usually tell when things are getting better, since I don't find myself constantly pushing iCal To-Dos over to the next week without them being finished.

To the team at CFI, I'll say this: bear with me, guys - I know it's all important, and I will get it done for you. And if I ever forget what's important, you can now tie me to my desk and play my session to me at ear-splitting volume. :)