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IT

Featured Job Post: Rock Star Scrum Master – Reston, VA

by Althea Stellato on June 24, 2010

If you feel like this position is for you, please respond ASAP. If you know anyone who might be interested, please forward.

Our customer is looking for a true Scrum Master. This is a full time consultant position with Navstar, Inc. You will fall under my division of Enterprise 2.0. If you would like to apply, please send your resume to abaker@navstar-inc.com.

Duties: Provides a total systems perspective including a technical understanding of relationships, dependencies and requirements of hardware and software components for a project. Must be knowledgeable in computer systems and gathering/identifying requirements. Must be knowledgeable in life-cycle support, including maintenance, administration, and management. Creates, drafts and/or reviews program documentation, generates formal review documentation, and participates in system and program reviews. Reviews program plans, identifies inconsistencies. Coordinates, supports and participates in program meetings and reviews.

Assists in the evaluation of software and associated documentation. Participates in formal and informal reviews to determine quality. Must be able to track project studies, plans, actions items, take minutes, etc. Provides frequent contact with customers, trace ability within program documents, and the overall computing environment and architecture. Manages/updates the master schedule. Ensures coordination and information flow occur between all programs and organizational managers.

Description of On-site duties: Passionate SI/Scrum Master/Development Manager needed to serve as Scrum Master to provide collaboration, facilitation, and leadership skills supporting the development of innovative software application. Individual will be responsible for enforcing the rules of Scrum, removing impediments from their team while promoting self-management and constantly improving standards of work. Must be “self-motivated” and capable of managing multiple priorities and tasks as delegated. Serve as liaison between technical and non-technical departments. Communicate with other management, developers, product managers and technical support specialists on product issues.

Must be a “team-player” with the ability to work within a collaborative environments. Support the product development process. Organize and facilitate project planning, daily stand-up meetings, reviews, retrospectives, sprint and release planning, demos and other Scrum-related meetings. Track and communicate team velocity and sprint/release progress. Maintain process documentation. Ensure the development teams are practicing the core agile principles of collaboration, prioritization, team accountability, and visibility. Support the Product Owner. Assist as needed with backlog maintenance. Assist with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information. Assist with prioritization and resolution of defects/bugs. Support the Product Team. Assist team with making appropriate commitments through story selection, task definition. Participate proactively in developing and maintaining team standards, tools, and best practices. Identify and remove impediments, prevents distractions. Facilitate discussion and conflict resolution. Empower the team to self-organize.

Pager Duty = NO!

Weekend or Shift work = Possible.

Strong project management background, interpersonal skills, communications skills, and experience with full system development life-cycle. Familiarity with Agile methodologies, particularly Scrum. Demonstrated ability to provide innovative ideas and solutions to project management and team building in order to get the job done. Must have a positive and proactive attitude with demonstrated initiative.

Location: Reston, VA with travel to Mclean, VA

Navstar is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, disability, age, military or veteran status, and other characteristics protected under federal, state and local law.

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Cloud Computing (aka Internet based Services)

by Navstar Admin on January 3, 2010

…and that Cloud looks like a highly redundant, geographically dispersed computer cluster…

Technology marches forward and the paradigm changes. The latest new paradigm – Cloud Computing! Cloud Computing is going to completely change the way we design our computing infrastructures, again.

Cloud Computing is the concept of using Internet services to support users. In general the term is applied more toward business users, but I would say that we all use Internet (or cloud) based services. One of the best and most successful cloud computing services is web-based email or webmail. Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail are all examples of webmail services – and these services are examples of Cloud Computing.

There are also some specific types of cloud computing models.  These are basic subsets of cloud services and are different in the sense that they are usually purchased and have SLA (Service Level Agreements) associated with them.  The models are Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platforms as a Service (PaaS).

SaaS

Why do it in the Cloud?

In general cloud based services are more robust than similar in-house solutions. Yes, cloud services fail, but probably less often than similar services a business could deploy. Gmail for example has very high availability numbers. In fact, Gmail claims 99.9% availability, which is about an hour of down time per year,  less than 5 minutes a month.

Cloud computing is also less expensive.  Using cloud based services can save a lot of money in terms of capital investments and labor. Consider the costs of running an internal email server – hardware, software, system administration, networking, spam management, and so on. The costs of cloud based solution, the cost of the service and maybe a system administrator to help the users.

Why not to do it in the Cloud…

There are some very serious risks associated with Cloud usage. First and foremost is security. Cloud computing require you to rely on the cloud provider to address security.  Add to this the fact that the service is Internet accessible and security becomes a challenge. Recently Twitter felt the effects of failed security in its usage of cloud service. Without the benefits of hiding behind a firewall, cloud based services are more susceptible to hacking simply due to accessibility. It is critical to educate your users of these new challenges.

Another potential issue is data portability. Can you get your data out of the cloud? Unluckily, the answer is usually no. The ability to extract your data for archiving or backups is an important consideration when deciding whether or not to use cloud services and when selecting a provider. A recent move by Google to address data portability is a move in the right direction and will hopefully encourage others to follow suit. But the standard answer for most cloud computing solutions is “all your data are belong to us.

Welcome to the Future…

And Cloud Computing is there. The use of cloud computing is almost completely ubiquitous. Most Internet user take advantage of cloud services daily.  In fact, I suspect that most web usage is primarily focused on the use of cloud service; email, work-related activities, blogs, etc. The Cloud is the Internet and Cloud Computing is its new purpose.

What is next? More Cloud Computing power! Google Chrome OS? Maybe…

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Network Management – The Art of Enterprise Monitoring

November 30, 2009

“That which is not monitored is not managed.” – A wise System Administrator Failure is a part of life. This is especially true in the world of IT. It is not a question of if, but when. The key to successful enterprise management is to know when things fail. This can only be accomplished through [...]

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What is Enterprise Architecture?

November 18, 2009

I typically try to avoid “buzz” terms like Enterprise Architecture, but sometimes you just need a term. This is one such case. It is either use a term, or paragraphs of explanations. This is intended to be the paragraphs to define the term, Enterprise Architecture. The term Enterprise Architecture (EA) is not well defined. A [...]

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Green IT Solutions at Navstar

November 9, 2009

Navstar is introducing its new Green IT program and it’s ambitious as it is serious. Our mission is to partner with the Federal Government to create: Sustainable Green IT Solutions This includes supporting sustainable purchasing, responsible e-cycling, and greening IT operations. As we begin this program its important that we honor the work already being [...]

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