Short coming as feature

I visited Kyoto lately and during my research for my trip, I learnt about Kailado, who specialized in making container for tea leaf from copper, brass and stainless steel.

It required some skillful hand to make those perfectly shaped, air tight container but one "feature" they highlight is, the container will change in color over time.

The change in color is due to the material getting anodized, in layman term, it gets rusted.

Some will treat this as a short coming but it is indeed packaged as a feature, where each identical item will become different, with our own personality. Thinking further, it is a natural occurrence. Instead of getting rid of it, we embrace it.

But how does this translate to our technology?

System is not likely to be perfect, but the main function should be very well polished and user will find their way in using it.

We need to be both specialist and generalist

Dynamic is one of the nature of Agile - priority varies as needed, team member can take up different kind of tasks as the project sees fit. And to achieve this, everyone should possess a wide range of skills so that they are able to cover up one another.

For instance, during the initial stage where most of the time are spent on design, env setup, etc. This demand the team to functions like an architectural and engineering team.

When the foundation is up, dev begins and the team is becoming a development factory. Coding becomes the number one thing.

When it is approaching launch date, everyone is focusing more on polishing the deliverable - intense testing, user training are the job of focus.

I agree that in each sprint, these tasks should all be covered. We need to design stuff before we can code and test but what I am trying to say is. The proportion of such work shall never be constant. It's natural to spend more time on design initially instead of towards the launch day.

And by doing so, this brings benefits to the next activities - debug and support.

In the old days, when team are focused in a single area and communicate with others through API. When things went wrong, the issue will need to pass from one team to the other. What makes it worst is, each team member will focus on a particular part of the system and not knowing the rest. Identifying the right person to ask and awaiting the reply becomes a challenge. It us not surprising when this has to be repeated for a number of times before the cause is found.

But in the agile team, if everyone is able to do go through the system and perform initial inspection. This enable a much better response time.

Also, by knowing how the system works, this enable the team to think through while they code. They can identify what is possible to happen more easily.

Sounds too good to be true. The drawback of this is the difficulty in finding the right person and the cost of hiring them. But if u have a team like that, you can move on and endeavor much flexibly.

Masterpiece Japan

Masterpiece is a company who specialized in making bags. Ranging from backpack, to messenger bag or tote bag. All the bags are hand made in Japan, by master in the industry and using material of very high quality. They do cross over with other brand but all the product are focused highly in functionality.

I've lately acquired a backpack, as well as a small shoulder bag from them. Both of them are using the Harris Tweed as the material. At spots which might get regular tearing, such as the bottom of the bag, it is reinforced by some leather. The leather is dyed naturally, without using harmful chemicals. The touch of the leather is very buttery and soft. This matches nicely with the tweed.

All the edges are nicely sew and the tweed they use are nicely presented. Resulted in a bag which has a "winterly" feel. The zipper is silky smooth which you can open and close with ease. The top outer pocket of the backpack has a short grip, it helps you to pull the zipper straight so you can pull easily.

I like the size of the bags. Both are not intent to bring extensive amount of stuff but definitely sufficient for daily commue. And since it is thin, it stay close to yourself and won'tmake you looking bulky.

The smaller shoulder us also amazing. I am getting thus as I usually need to take something with me, especially when I am going out with my daughter. There aren't a lot but not as little that can dump them all into pockets of shirts and pants. This serve the purpose nicely and I can still managed to take my D80 together with the essential with me.

Craftsmanship

Before the establishment of factory, all things are produced by individuals. Nowadays, quantity dominates quality. Number of pieces got sold is what concerned most.

Luckily, there are still people who dares to invest the time and effort in building things that they are proud of. Looking into the minute details.

So here I am, sharing with you on the different thing that I spot, or owned. It could be clothing, bag or anything I can use in my day-to-day life.

I am seeing the embrace of craftsmanship not only a matter of taste, but a living attitude. I could share the story behind the bag I am using; like the canvas it is using, or how the cotton of my jeans get dyed, all natural without giving harm to the environment.

It is no longer me and my belongs but also getting connected to the people behind it.