DEV Community: Dominick Bruno

My So-Called Agile Life 2

Dominick Bruno — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 20:32:04 +0000

Scrum & Community Organizations

The Summer of 2002 found me homeless in New Brunswick, NJ. There's plenty to be written about all that, but in the interest of focus and brevity, I'll be touching on points only relevant to the immediate topic: the homeless organization HEP/CAT (Homeless Empowerment Project / Community Action Team) I co-founded, and how we inadvertently introduced principles of Agile and Scrum roles into our praxis. Happy to tell those other stories in another venue though!

It was election time and I'd heard of an upstart community group with offices downtown. Some distant associates were managing their campaigns and my intent was to trade my work for whatever I could: a place to sleep, dinner, tobacco, a few drinks at the bar, who knows. I walked out of the office as an office manager, intern supervisor, and investigator. In exchange, I got the freedom to sleep in the office at night. We did some cool stuff, but there was a more important outgrowth. John E. Burns and I teamed up.

John and I hit it off for a number of reasons but a key one was dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs of community organizations in New Brunswick. We started brainstorming key issues and possible solutions. HEP/CAT's first relief was held that night. John and I handed out sweaters in the middle of a summer heatwave.

Sweaters in a Heatwave?

The keys to understanding how that happened actually lay in Agile principles. Central to HEP/CAT's model was the concept that members of the affected community are more knowledgeable about their needs than others and they need to be empowered to meet them. As we grew, we eventually had de-facto "Product Owners" for different communities. These would propose programs providing the highest value to their communities, while the others would discuss how they could support the program as well as any areas of conflict or mutual interest. The requirements for these projects were then passed down into our network who had relative autonomy in how the requirements were met. But for now, it was just John and I. And I was the "Product Owner" for the homeless community.

Soooo, sweaters in a heatwave?

Pretty anti-climactically simple, really. It gets cold at night, even in the summer. As a homeless person in that heatwave, I'd spend the days trying to cool off and the nights trying to stay warm. The sweater idea came from an old fellow that had slept on the bench over from me a few nights earlier. The established groups actually mocked us at first, but it was a clear sign to the homeless community that HEP/CAT understood. With the support of the homeless community, and by empowering them to lead their own programs, within a month we were literally redefining the relationship between the homeless and student communities - not just organizationally, but socially. By getting inside the OODA Loop of the status quo, we were able to drive innovative changes in how people organized with the homeless community - improving value to the homeless community, making more efficient use of resources, while responding quicker to community needs. This can only be achieved consistently by having a "Product Owner" who is in touch with their respective community and also able to effectively transmit that vision to others.

That's the rosy view of one of the parts that went right. In the next installment, I'll address some of the bottlenecks and issues we encountered. Who knows, maybe there's even a way Scrum could have helped us mitigate or remove them?

For more information, check out the Agile Manifesto and the Scrum Guide. The first part of this story can be found here.

Where's Dylan Beattie when you need him?

Dominick Bruno — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 14:52:41 +0000

One thing I enjoy is writing filks after a couple drinks. I probably have to credit the Free Software Song for that. Anyways, I recently had the opportunity to pick up a signed copy of "The Power of Scrum" on the used book market. It's surprisingly good and useful (I had doubts about a Scrum-oriented melodrama) and definitely worth the read.

Unfortunately, every time I looked at the cover, Huey Lewis's "The Power of Love" played in my mind. This demon needed to be exorcised. Further, it's the 25th anniversary of Scrum and to my knowledge there's not been any songs in honor of it. And so....with apologies to the greater Agile community, Huey Lewis, and everyone involved with Scrum, I present:

The Power of Scrum

[tune: The Power of Love by Huey Lewis]

The power of Scrum is a curious thing
Remove an impediment, make a kaizen
Change a loss, to a big fat win
More than a feeling, that's the power of Scrum
Got the SM, got the Team
Velocity faster and better than a PO's dream
Make a bad Sprint good, mmh make a defect right
Power of Scrum will keep you home at night
Don't need big docs, keep it lean
Don't need no Gantt chart to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes
But it might just save your job
That's the power of Scrum
That's the power of Scrum
First time you feel it might make you sad
Next time you feel it might make you mad
But you'll be glad baby when you've found
That's the power that makes the world go 'round

My So-Called Agile Life

Dominick Bruno — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 02:36:49 +0000

Cover Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

Introit

My formal introduction to Agile, as it were, was as a new student at Lambda School. We were broken into teams, our curriculum was measured in sprints, with retrospectives and reviews. Daily standup meetings. Product Vision Documents. We weren't taught much about the theories, just given the explanation that we were using an "Agile methodology" and that we'd encounter these terms a lot in the development industry. Sometimes they'd differentiate and point out that Agile is a methodology with different implementations like Kanban & Scrum. That was the depth of it, however.

It wasn't until I neared the end of my term at Lambda that I rediscovered Agile and was introduced to Scrum. I'd gotten into the habit of doing LinkedIn skill assessments here and there to kill time. I was exploring more than anything - I wasn't prepping or planning for them at all. Since I wasn't taking them seriously, I hadn't been having a good run of it. I came across "Agile Methodologies" one day and figured I'd give it a shot.

I passed the assessment. Some of the vocabulary took a minute to figure out, but much of it seemed common sense. I liked how many of the principles and values echoed what years of working with community organizations had taught me. My interest was piqued.

I took a look around at various certifications, and while some were pretty reasonable (for professional certifications, at least), I was forced to deal with the circumstance that my job is getting phased out in January and even a reasonable fee would be a hard sell to my family.

So I had to consider the unreasonable. I knew a fellow student at Lambda was a CSM, so I asked him if he knew of any inexpensive courses or ways to self study and just take an exam. He directed me to another student and through their generosity, I found myself in a Scrum, Inc. Scrum Master training.

I enjoyed every minute of the two day class and came to a shocking realization: I'd been practicing elements of Agile and Scrum for years without realizing it! What Scrum adds, however, is invaluable - consistency and measurability. Without the guidance of the Agile Principles and the framework of Scrum, my work was well-intentioned but haphazard, with no real way of measuring improvement without metrics like velocity.

I also realized that I was given a potentially once in a lifetime opportunity to network with these folx. At the same time, I was also aware that I was well outside my typical milieu and wasn't sure how to proceed. I figured the coach assigned to my Scrum Team during training, Renee Tsielepi of Transcendence, Ltd. was a reasonable start. I quickly scheduled a follow up meeting on Zoom after getting my Scrum Master certification. I also scheduled a meeting with the ever helpful Noah Sarucia, who provided valuable insight and encouragement.

The meeting with Renee was pivotal in a very important sense. As I bubbled over with enthusiasm about Agility and Scrum, she asked a number of times what my past experience was, since it seemed I had an exceptional grasp of the principles for someone so new. Repeatedly I demurred, stating my only experience was working in an Agile environment as a Team Lead at Lambda School and having done the pre-course "Scrum Startup for Teams" material provided to prepare for the Scrum Master training. I did not want to come across arrogant by saying, "Well, this is pretty much how I have been doing things - but better."

Eventually, I relented and Renee immediately encouraged me to start writing about my experiences and thoughts on the topic. Such was the birth of "My So-Called Agile Life".

The next installment, "Scrum and Community Organizations", will discuss how we unknowingly implemented Agile principles and Scrum practices into the Homeless Empowerment Project / Community Action Team (HEPCAT for short) in New Brunswick, NJ to serve the local community more efficiently. I hope you you will join me in further exploring the topics of Agility and Scrum.

I'm always looking for more educational opportunities as well as opportunities to gain experience working with Scrum Teams in the workplace. Reach out to me if you can help!

Cracking Voter Fraud (2002)

Dominick Bruno — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 20:28:53 +0000

This is from 2600 issue 19:4 (Winter 2002). I wrote it under an old, old handle I used to use when I sent news to Parse Hack/Phreak. I edited out the email address mentioned in the article as I no longer use it and made some other notes for clarification.

I'm releasing it here despite its age for a number of reasons. The primary reason is that outside of a pastebin here and there, it has not been properly rendered from ink to pixel. The secondary reason is that I am strongly considering revisiting this article utilizing more modern technologies, changes in regulations, and address inefficiencies in the original process. The last major reason is that given the hullaballoo over voter fraud in the United States, all sorts of counter-productive or irrelevant measures are being discussed, while actual methods concerned individuals could utilize to combat it are left unused.

Unknown to me until months after the article was published, I had the honor to discover that this essay was presented to a Board meeting of the NJ ACLU during a debate about online privacy.

Cracking Voter Fraud with MS Access and Internet Databases (or how to bust a corrupt machine)

Some NY 2600 readers may have seen the recent 3 minute report on ABC's Eyewitness News (10/25/02) on the discovery of suspected fraudulent voters in New Brunswick, NJ. Since I've been a long time 2600 fan, and played a major part in the investigation, I figured I'd outline how we did it. After speaking with the people at the local Board of Elections, and realizing how easy it is to commit voter fraud, I also felt it may be of use to others in general. Oh, and if you saw the special, there's a brief shot of my back while I'm at the computer wearing a H2K shirt ;-)

The technique outlined here was developed by the New Brunswick United Antifraud Division, headed by attorney Flavio L. Komuves. I was lead investigator in charge of isolating possible cases of voter fraud, and was ably assisted a number of Rutgers University student interns.

I should preface this with the disclaimer that the resources and procedures I am outlining are legally available in NJ, and there is no need to obtain any information illegally. Check with your local authorities for your area. Also, a new law regarding voting was recently signed and certain new provisions will take effect in the 2006 elections. Always take any information you gather to a reputable lawyer and get advice before releasing it publicly - voter fraud is a serious charge and falsely accusing someone (even unintentionally) could probably result in charges against you! Also keep in mind, any information we determined via this method of database searching was later verified by actual field visits to the properties in question.

It's actually rather similar to profiling a system. The first step was to gather all the information possible about your target. Your first stop should be your county Board of Elections. You will have to fill out certain forms - being part of a political organization helps out here, as they reserve the right to ask why you are requesting the information. There are two databases that they maintain that you will need to request on CD-ROM: the current Active Voter Registration database ("walking list") and the current Actual Voter Database ("voting history"). There will probably be a fee involved - excessive fees for preparation and other "costs" is yet another way the government restricts your access to information (while insisting on greater access to YOUR information). I believe it should come to approximately $60 for both CD-ROMs and it may take a week or so for them to prepare.

2020 note: services such as NationBuilder offer aggregated voter data, which has it's own set of concerns.

Second stop is your local Municipal Clerk's office. Here you request a listing of all paid city employees ("Municipal Employee List"), specifying the following information: salary, whether or not he or she is a city resident, years of service, job title, and of course name. They must release this information to any city resident as it is considered public information (your tax money pays their salary). Again, they may charge you for costs. In our instance, the City Clerk's office tried throwing us off by refusing to provide us with a CD-ROM version, and instead provided us with a printout of the database. Luckily, volunteers created an Access database and entered the information into it within a day or so. You may also request a listing of all rental properties (and landlord owners) from your city's Rent-Leveling Board or similar body.

OK, so now you have your base documents. You've gathered your information. Now to poke for weaknesses. What next? Well, first look at the Active Voter Registration and sort it by birthday. Any 172 year olds still registered? Probably not. If so, check their names on the Actual Voter Database. In our investigation, we immediately noticed an enormous number of people born on 01/01/1901. According to the Board of Elections, this is their standard procedure for dealing with illegible entries and/or people who registered to vote before NJ required birthdate to be added to the Voter Registration form. Sorry, strike 2. Next, run a query to isolate everyone from like age 99 and up. If you feel there's an overabundance, check the names against the Social Security Death Index. Don't get too excited if you find matches though - Americans have the funny habit of naming their kids after themselves. Go to Property Tax Records and make sure it isn't their son or grandson (in one instance we originally thought for sure was voter fraud, there was a son named after his father, who inherited the house his parents had lived in, and then married a woman with the same first name as his mother - eew, creepy!!). Be thorough, but don't waste too much time on this - we had a team spend over a month on this and turned up only a handful of "possibles". It might also be helpful to have someone working with you who has access to credit card histories/databases, but I'm not sure if that is legal or how useful it would be in this instance.

That takes care of the infamous "dead vote". The next "weakness" to probe is the Municipal Employee List. Hopefully, you know your town pretty well, because how effective your work here will be will be in direct proportion to how well you know your town. The first test is to query all non-city resident employees and run their names on both the Active Voter Registration & Actual Voter databases. Note down any instances, but keep in mind that the individual MAY have lived in town at one time, and showing up on the Active Registration Database isn't a crime in and of itself - voting (i.e. being on the Actual Voter Database) is. Follow this up by running a query with all employees making over, say $65,000/year. Run their names on both the voter databases and pay attention to what their registration address is. You may discover some rather well-off individuals living in really shady neighborhoods.

In our investigation, we caught the city's Chief of Operations for Urban Renewal voting out of the same run-down apartment, in an impoverished high-crime area, as a small immigrant family. On investigation of the Property Tax Records, we discovered he lived in a nice home a few towns away! Most of our results came from this method.

If you managed to get a copy of the landlord listings, be sure to check all those names thoroughly, as well. A common form of voter fraud is for landlords to register at a property they are renting out. A good portion of our leads were also generated this way by checking landlords we knew had broken the rent-control laws.

The last method we used that had results was to start running names of business owners who operated in town. Much like the landlords, some unscrupulous business owners will register to vote at their place of business.

Well, that's basically it in a nutshell. Hopefully, this short article was informative and useful, as well as a contribution showing that 2600 readers are often more concerned about protecting and maintaining the democratic process than the politicians who scapegoat us as evil hackers. For questions or comments, email [2020 note: email redacted] with "2600" in the subject line.

Many of the people involved are now working with the Community Empowerment Project.

Hacktoberfest Comes to Lambda School

Dominick Bruno — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 01:11:35 +0000

Coding academies and open source software aren't typically a first connection in people's minds. The common perceptions of both are polar opposites: one sees coding academy students as superficially educated on the one hand, and open source software as the arcane realm of super hackers on the other. The reality of both, of course, is something quite different.

As a long time supporter of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), I love to see the enthusiasm of new contributors and the sense of community in developing software. Heck, if not for the fact that I snuck into a presentation by Bradley Kuhn of the Free Software Foundation to the Rutgers University Student Linux User Group years ago while I was homeless, I might be dead (that's another story for another time, though). Even when I edited the first edition of "Programming from the Ground Up", I traded any claim to royalties or proceeds for it to be released under the Gnu Free Documentation License. To put it mildly, I'm a believer.

I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, when my fellow Lambda School Team Lead Zac Smith mentioned that he was planning to implement a program to support FOSS at Lambda School using Hacktoberfest as a vehicle. How would we bridge the perceived knowledge gap? Would there even be interest?

Zac anticipated much of this, though. With repos such as lambda-react he laid the ground work for n00bs as well as more advanced folx. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I jumped in on his efforts. This is the spirit of Open Source - seeing a need and doing what you can to fulfill it. Someone else might do it better later, but they aren't here, now, and it needs done, so let's handle it.

Even as a seasoned friend of Open Source, I learned much from reviewing the existing code in lambda-react, for example. Despite all my backend work, shell.js was new to me and even though I was only working on templating pull requests and issues, I was exposed to new technology and did a little bit of a dive into it.

I shouldn't have been surprised though - Nadia Eghbal's excellent publication, "Working In Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software" was such an overwhelming hit at Lambda, that Stripe scheduled a special brownbag lunch session for her to speak with Lambda students. Our orientation to Hactoberfest itself drew over 20 participants across a number of cohorts despite the hectic schedule of full time Lambda students. Recordings of the session were even more popular.

Dev students are often eager to contribute in meaningful ways not only out of ethical considerations but to make their names more known. Zac's efforts, though one might say are overly focused on Lambda School, demonstrate nevertheless an important and essential aspect: open source is about devs coming together to make meaningful apps to make their lives and jobs easier. If that means a community-sourced rendition of create-react-app, then so be it, the community decided this was worthwhile. There's no imposter syndrome to be had, no need to compare to anything else. A dev thought this project would be cool & potentially make their lives easier and they contributed in the best way they know how.

And that my friend, above all the t shirts and rules and regulations about PRs, is the most important thing: devs as a community working together on something cool. Everything else is just gloss and ego. Happy hacking to all this Hacktoberfest!