Tower of Hats

A few days ago I started thinking about all the different things I do at work. I have a main job, but in addition I do bunch of other things too. (This post is not about any Agile practices or management. If you are mostly interested in those posts, please feel free to stop reading now. But if you are interested to read how tall my pile of hats is, please continue.)

My main job is Manager, Software Releases. All the software that goes out goes through me. At least in theory. With 10+ teams it's sometimes a challenge. :)

I'm the Chief Scrum Master, owner of the Scrum framework (and how it's implemented in the company) and somewhat coach of our Scrum Masters. Fortunately I have another person who has recently started to assist me in this.

I'm the owner of the Release Process. How we package the software and use version control. This also means that I arrange release activities like planning, demo & retrospectives for all our products.

I'm the owner of Software Development Process and company wide Definition of Done. I try to come up with common conventions that allow us to have top notch code while still having creative freedom.

I'm the head of Release Team. We keep the infra structure in place and make sure build machines and version control work. Also we maintain other tools like JIRA and Confluence. I also pitch into this work, but I admit my team mates are more capable for doing that. And I'm actually really, really proud of that.

In addition to the supervisory duties I'm the Product Owner of the team. So I also get to prioritize the customer needs and bugs in the Backlog. With so many internal and external customers to serve I think it's a real handful.

I'm the owner of the Software Product Creation value chain. This means all the activities between having a customer need and actually filling those needs. SW Development and Release Processes are part of this value chain, but it also includes Issue & Configuration Management Processes and testing & development practices.

I'm a member of the Technology Unit's management team. We discuss unit's different matters with other Product Owners and country managers. Mostly the bigger decisions concerning the unit are done here. Actually I'm also the secretary of these meetings.

I'm an Internal Auditor. This isn't really a big burden since we don't have internal audits but couple of times a year. But it's interesting and offers a chance to examine other parts of the organization than just R&D.

During last strategy update I worked as the internal strategy facilitator. Mostly this meant making sure all work groups progressed. In a way it was really really educational. I learned tons of new things about the company and opened my eyes more to the business and long term goals.

I'm the substitute for Technology Unit head & also for the Quality Manager. Usually these things don't require any actions from me because the actual people are mostly present.

I'm a project manager for a Tekes funded research project DD-SCALE. Mostly I interact with researchers from Helsinki Univeristy or attend steering group meetings with all participants.

I think I'm still the vice shop steward. Haven't done anything regarding this in ages.

I'm a member of the company's leisure team. We arrange different activities for the employees in Finland.

I'm rather interested in the social media. I actually created the twitter account for the company and have been rooting for more external communication. How can the customers know about the cool new stuff if we don't let them know about them?

There. If I counted correctly, it's about 10+ hats or so. At least my head shouldn't get cold. Sometimes it just gets a bit dizzy for all the different responsibilities. But maybe this explains why I like to simply call myself the Jack of All Trades

Things I do on my spare time are out of scope. And too numerous to fit here. ;)