Goals for 2013

February 05, 2013

Yes, while it is already February 2013, I decided that I should provide myself a commitment device for the year.

Reading List

Let's start with what I plan on reading for the year.  My list of books is long, but it is exciting.

Blackboard

Plain and simple...kill it.  I love this job and all the opportunities it presents.  I love the work environment and everybody who is there.  There are some great challenges and a fast paced environment.  No metrics that I can use to track my progress come to mind, other than my happiness.

Blogging

When 2012 ended and I tallied up all my blog posts, I had to say I was quiet disappointed with the number of posts.  20!  That's it.  Well, for 2013, I plan on pushing myself.  1 blog entry a week.  That's 52 entries.  Now I know what you are saying, "Mike, it's February and this is only your second post".  Well, I am going to post as much as possible to catch up.

DC Continuous Integration Meetup

I am proud of the progress we have made on the DC Continuous Integration, Delivery and Deployment Meetup.  This group has had some great meetings and we have some great ones coming up.

My goal is to continue the success the group has had before.  I plan on alternating meeting locations between Blackboard in Chinatown, DC and Excella in Arlington, VA.  I also want to continue to find speakers that want to share their real experiences implementing continuous integration, continuous delivery or even continuous deployment.  I will try my best to turn away speakers who want to push corporate agendas.

Regarding metrics, here we go:

  • Increase membership to 250 members (currently 179)
  • 12 meetings for the year (1 per month)
  • At least one meeting is a hands on workshop

Public Speaking

By the end of 2012, I have two good presentations in my bag of tricks and I would like to ideally develop two more.  I would like to continue speaking at user groups and conferences throughout the year.  My goal is to have at least 4 talks this year, 2 of which are new talks.

Chef

My goal plain and simple where is to learn Chef.  I have familiarity with Puppet and how it works but right now we are leaning towards using Chef.  By the end of 2013 I want to have extensive knowledge of building Chef based solutions.

Jenkins Plugins

I have extensive knowledge of Jenkins and how to install and utilize it.  I would like to learn more of is Jenkins' plugin architecture.  My goal is to contribute to an open source Jenkins plugin.  Additionally, I would love to start my plugin.

Learn Ruby

This is a simple enough task.  I have spent most of my career on the JVM and I feel it is time to branch out a bit.  Yes, I could learn Ruby on JRuby, but I might as well take the full-on plunge.  My goal is to be able to be able to hold my own in a Ruby environment.  Pretty simple.  This dovetails nicely with my Chef goal.

In Summary

So, to tally up my goals for 2013, I have to:

  • Read 10 books
  • Post 52 blog entries
  • Host 12 meetup meetings (DCCI)
  • Increase membership to 250+ members (DCCI)
  • Host a hands-on workshop meeting (DCCI)
  • Give 4 talks (2 new presentations)
  • Learn Chef
  • Learn Ruby
  • Contribute to Jenkins open source plugin

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