depthq - ccm|mac

Two and a half years. That is how long I've been in Exoweb. That is also how long I've lived in Beijing and China. During this period I've been constantly surprised by the interesting characters I've met and interacted with while living in China and working in Exoweb.

While in Exoweb, I was given a lot of opportunities to learn and grow. Even though I had prior working experience there were lots of new things and problems that I encountered, which made my job quite fun and challenging. It is in Exoweb that I learned a lot more about open source, python, linux and apple products. Exomates are quite enthusiastic about Apple products like iPod, iPhone and Macbooks.

It is in Exoweb that I witnessed, for the first time, how software is made using agile methods. There are definitely lots of areas where things can be done better in Exoweb but I have to say that there are few companies that would give so much room for experimentation and because of that the engineering discipline in Exoweb is well developed and mature.

Exoweb is not only about work. Exomates enjoy as much as they possibly can as well. When we're not coding or banging our heads into the beautiful dual 22 inch monitors because of some weird bug, we are having fun eating, chatting and playing in the numerous parties and get togethers that are organised ever so often.

I remember what Dominic told me on my first day, if you feel sleepy, don't be afraid to go to the couch and take a short nap. Sleep during work hours? This is blasphemy. And that is just a glimpse of how the culture is like in Exoweb: open, experimental and dynamic.

I'll definitely miss the people in Exoweb. You guys are really a unique bunch. My memory isn't that great, but I know for sure I won't forget what a blast I had here!

I'll have to thank Dominic, Bjorn, Ken and Greg for allowing me to enter into Exoweb, because they interviewed me for the job. During the course of my work life in Exoweb, a lot of people have helped me along the way, nudging me in the right direction or sharing with me their point of view. I would like to extend my gratitude to (including some that have already left):

• Ken, for his trust and support for my work in Exoweb
• Bjorn & Mike, for their optimism and fresh ideas
• Dominic, for his enthusiasm and energy
• Cindy, for her 能干-ness ("neng gan")
  
• Sabrina, for being a friendly PM and having a nice smile
• Greg, for his mentoring and pursuit of technical brilliance
• Ada, for her smiley face when she arrives in the office, minutes before 11am
• June, for her support when there was none
• Jacky, for his playfulness
• YJPark, for making geeks look cool
• Ella, for being 矫情 ("jiao qing")
• Darren, for my first dinner in China at the yellow dirty
• Ben, for his objective views and good coffee
• Fantix, for his speed & thoroughness and absolute comical behaviour
• Ionut, for his out of the box thinking
• Jacob, for his idealisms
• Xiao Feng, for her chinese science fiction
• Cai Yan, for his tough to understand Mandarin
• Phyllis and Ryan, for all the bug finding and last minute testing requests
• Lina, for her patience for all HR troubles
• Wilson, for all the sysadmin troubles
• TC, for his photography tips and Jacky Cheung songs
• Admin girls: Emily, Grace, Kelly, Miya, for their never ending yeses
• Rena, for her fuzzy and warm Christmas SMS text message
• Ayi, for her never ending advice on living

Not only that I've come to like working with Exomates. I am honoured to work along side our clients who have been really good to me. Many thanks to Ken Ronny, Tobias, Torgrim, Tomas and Kristian for their kindness and cooperation.

One interesting data that I have compiled of the people in Exoweb in the current state. The girls are truly overtaking us, guys, atleast in Exoweb! Why do I say this? Let the data speak for itself:

• 25% of the developers are girls
• 40% of the testers are girls
• 100% of the PMs are girls
• 100% of the Admin, HR, Finance are girls

Although only 25% of the developers are girls, but programming isn't the only skill you need to run a successful company, or even a project and the girls, seem to be more multi-talented than guys! In fact, I wonder how an all-girl software company would be like .

Okay, enough of a digression, as for Beijing, I'll miss the great concrete forest that is filled with people from all corners of China. Actually I love big cities but I wish for Beijing to be more walkable. Although I think I'll be happy to be away from the pollution but when the skies are blue, it makes it almost worth it to breath all that sand into my lungs, almost but not really. I'll also miss amazing the traffic and driving behaviours here.

I hope that my future endeavours will be as exciting and as memorable as my times in Exoweb and China. Hopefully I'll be able to spread some of the Exoweb goodness that I have absorbed in these 2 and a half years in my next venture.

To everyone that I have worked with in Exoweb:
谢谢. Do jeh. Thank you. Terima Kasih. Domo arigato. Merci.

NOTE:
PM = Project Manager
HR = Human Resource

NITPICK:
For the stats I presented, I didn't include the bosses

November and December, so far, has been a bit off my normal programming: a quick trip back to Malaysia and a small side trip to Singapore, part-timing in Exoweb, getting kicked out of my apartment (many thanks for Exoweb in allowing me to live in the office apartment temporarily) and hacking in cafes with free-wifi.

I haven't been blogging much due to my self-imposed time constraints, more along the lines of I am busy, but with what I wonder, or possibly laziness. However, I've been reading a bit more, mostly tech stuff, from my already overflowing feeds. Its nice to have the mark all as read in google reader, to make myself feel better at times.

Actually I am not sure what to write these days. Everything is happening so fast I don't have time to think and reflect. Just going with the flow without much braking, hopefully in the right direction.

Its the end of the year again, time to reflect I suppose and think about what has happened in this whole year. Its been quite a hectic ride this year. Bouncing around quite a bit and doing a lot of stuff that I never did before. Hope I can write it up in a more detailed blog later.

I mainly blog for myself. Because it helps me remember. It helps me to stop a bit and think a bit more. Hopefully learn something from this. If it ever helps someone, I would be so happy.

The one and a half week trip back to Malaysia was a quick learning trip about the malaysian VC world. There is only so much you can read about. Its so much clearer when you can see it and feel it happening. I wish I did what Paul Graham preached during my college/university days.

There is so much I want to do for the work in Exoweb, but we're constrained by our natural limits. I always wished for 48 hour days, but I wonder if that ever comes true if it will change anything. Maybe I'll just waste more time in the end. I suppose the closest thing we have on that is the polyphasic sleep but I don't think I would ever do that though.

While learning and using agile practices and writing code in Exoweb, I have always thought about writing a tool or system to make project management and software development slightly simpler so that we can concentrate on the task at hand but I never found a good answer or never got to it. Here are some of the things that bug me in some way or the other:

• Inoffensive time tracking
• Easier tracking and management of tasks, from requirements and design to it being live in production systems
• More accurate estimation of tasks
• Simpler deployment, like one-click deployment
• Less time in administration, automate like crazy when useful, but more time in management instead
• More effective coaching, documentation and communication of project goals

What bugs you? Or maybe you've found a slightly better way to deal with the following issues? It would be good if we can discuss more about them.

I think my blogging time is up for now, I don't really know what else to write. Maybe I'll have more ideas later.

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