Version 6 of Jira has been released

Atlassian has released Version 6 of its great Jira tool. I must admit to being a big fan of Jira from its infancy and have installed Jira in a number of organisations in New Zealand, the UK, Australia, and Germany.

See my previous post on a much earlier version of Jira - Tools for the Development Team - JIRA.

Atlassian has released a number of versions since that early review and its long overdue to do another review, but that's for another article.

So what's so different about Version 6?

There's a new user interface. Atlassian have recognised that while its second nature for long time users to make their way around Jira, it can sometimes be a learning curve for new users. This new user interface is designed to allow new users to get to know and use Jira that much faster and easier.

Delphi, why won't it just die?

Over the years, I've programmed in a lot of different languages. Along the way, languages have come and gone in typical "Flavour of the Month" style, while others that have been predicted to be flavour of the month, have become very mainstream;  Java being one of them.

I used to do a lot of work in FoxPro and it was used extensively in almost every company and government department in New Zealand, but then Microsoft bought it and firmly placed its boot over its head knee deep in water and it slowly, desperately, died.  Even then it was flailing about so hard that Microsoft was forced to simply state, "No More FoxPro! Last version ever!"  in about 2007 despite having millions of followers.

New Post in Leadingtechnicalteams.com

Come over to leadingtechnicalteams.com to see new posts.

leadingtechnicalteams.com talks about the five skills you will need as a new Team Leader of technical teams.

leadingtechnicalteams.com recognises that many technical experts are promoted into a position of leadership, often on little more than their technical abilities. This is a place where all team leaders can come for advice and to learn from each other.

Please contact me if you would like to contribute with your own post. I would like leadingtechncialteams.com to be a community of technical leaders.

New Blog Leading Technical Teams

Good day to all readers. I have been pleasantly surprised to see that this blog has a readership that is still quite large despite the length of time since I last posted. 

I've also noted that the blog, and the people searching for answers here, have been towards posts that relate to team leadership. 

I realised that I do like writing and learning and the interaction that a blog can give to me and others. To this end, realising that the current blog is a little more technical focussed, I have started a new blog. 

LeadingTechnicalTeams.com is designed to be a place where everyone can come and learn and contribute. I'm working on a suitable forums section as well. 

It is my real hope that some of you can also contribute with posts of your own and questions and answers. 

I know the difficulties that a team leader faces, often put there due to little more than being the best technician. Leadership is a different skill that needs to be learned. Much more often than not the team leader is also not really a team member and suddenly finds they have no one to discuss and get advice from. 

Join me at LeadingTechnicalTeams.com and contact me. Lets make it a place we can contribute to and learn from, and where we can find that we are not alone.

I welcome you to my new blog at LeadingTechnicalTeams.com.

The upcoming Skills Shortage

There has been some talk in the news recently of an upcoming IT skills shortage in the country when we still have a high unemployment rate.  I have noticed that every time there is a period of great unemployment, this is followed by what is perceived as a skills shortage.

During the employment and financial crisis of the last few years, those companies who were able to hire got very used to the idea that they could get exact fits to their needs. While there was high unemployment through these times, companies and employment agencies became comfortable with the knowledge that every job advertised would have a hundred or more applicants. They could then be extremely picky about their exact needs. In other words, if they wanted, say, a senior Java developer to assist them in programming plugins for Atlassian's Jira, then they could easily expect to find amongst the applicants, some who have 3-4 years exerience specifically programming jira plugins in Java.

This is no longer the case and employees and agencies are crying "Skills Shortage" to the government. Too bad if there are 120 others within a 10 mile radius who are very well qualified and capable and have enough experience to quickly pick up the industry and product knowledge - heaven forbid but they may even be 10 years younger or older than all of the others in the team. Who know's they may even bring some diversity to the team, especially if they are originally from another country or have a different accent and skin color.

While we do need those highly qualified and experienced people, employing good people willing to work their guts out for opportunity might resolve some of the issues.

Your thoughts?