Timing: 60 minutes (can be extended to 90 minutes by running more iterations). Setup/explanation takes 10 minutes; we’ll run 4-5 iterations of [3-minutes of execution, 3-4 minutes debrief, and 3 minutes of planning].

snowflakes

Materials:

Pretend money (unit bills [euro/dollar], approx 100 units); ream of paper; 2 pairs of scissors for every 4 participants; audible timer; markers and flipchart for each table or dry erase board; optional gum or tape to attach snowflakes to the wall

Room needs tables that seat 4-8 people; for each table set up 1 pair of scissors, $5, and 5 blank sheets of paper. In a prominent location, add a label that says “Paper: 2 for $1; Scissors: $3″. Set up a big visible chart for each team either on dry erase or flip chart; set up these column headers:

Iteration, Cash on hand; WIP; Scissors Count; Sales Qty; Paper on hand

Instructions:If you’ve got more than 20 people, you’ll need an assistant–it’s fine to pull someone from the audience.  Start a 3-minute timer countdown and say: “Your objective is to run a profitable business by creating and selling paper snowflakes. I’ll demonstrate making one for you right now to prove it can be done in under 3 minutes. First we fold a triangle, then fold that in half and in half again to ensure we have at least 3 axes. We give the triangles a rounded edge as so; then cut out shapes along the folds, and unfold it to produce a snowflake like this. You’ll have a limited amount of time to cut–since we’re not really here to make snowflakes–we’re here to experiment with running a business. After a 3-minute iteration, we’ll do a de-brief, then you can have 3 minutes to coordinate with your team (sprint planning) followed by the next iteration. If you run out of supplies, you can buy them at any time from the front of the room here. Paper is 2 for $1; Scissors are $3.  Your table can self-organize around how to build the snowflakes. Any questions?” If they ask anything about acceptance criteria, say we can discuss when they come to sell you a snowflake.

Assistant/Customer Instructions (SPOILER–do not share this with audience):

Minimum acceptance criteria: snowflake must have a general sense of being round, it must have 3 axes of symmetry, and must have even, precise cuts. Torn paper, squares/rectangles, lots of overcuts on the snowflake, paper that the audience supplied–will all be rejected. Every time a snowflake is presented to you, give simple and direct feedback, e.g., I can’t buy this because these edges are torn–the quality isn’t high enough; this one doesn’t say “round” to me, can’t buy it; this is beautiful–I’ll give you $1 for it! Don’t haggle, just move on to the next vendor.

Valuation of snowflakes: Intricate, unique, symmetrical, beautiful snowflakes will be bought for $1-$5. In the first round, I never see anything worth more than $1. I rarely pay as much as $3. Encourage innovation by telling people “this is the first time I’ve seen a signed snowflake! $2!” or some such comment. Encourage intricacy–”wow–lots of space cut out, I like that”.  Size matters–small snowflakes often can be purchased only two for a dollar unless they’re particularly ornate. As you buy snowflakes, either attach them to the wall or arrange them on the table in order of low value to high value. We’re not stating it in an obvious way, but hint at the valuation scheme every once in a while by hovering a new snowflake over the spectrum and say that this one “fits right about here, ok, $2″.

Debrief Instructions:

Observe what the teams are doing, and help them think like a lean startup. Give only one hint per debrief, then let them try it out for the next sprint. Some teams ignore what you say; that’s fine. Hints are like the following:

Do you have to cut out a snowflake to get customer feedback?

Is your team making a profit?

Do you know what the customer wants?

Have you followed the customer around a bit to see what he wants to buy?

What happens when you make clone snowflakes?

Do you have to use the whole sheet of paper?

Learning Points:

• customer discovery is a whole team activity (product owners can give developers a false sense of security)
• you’ve got to get out of the building (or in this case, away from the table) to find out what customers are willing to pay for
• delivery pressure with creative work makes people forget the big picture
• business & learning communities work better when we collaborate and share with more people (tables don’t have to remain isolated islands)
• waste comes from the assumption that we’ve got to use the whole sheet, and that volume is more important than customer discovery
• we don’t have to make anything at all to learn the acceptance criteria: simply go up to the facilitator and ask– what are you looking for? Response: beauty, symmetry, intricacy, round shape.
• a good customers’ time is limited and precious–use it wisely

In the common analogy the trip is planned in great detail: the route, stopping points (restaurants, hotels, etc.), expected speeds, arrival time, etc.  Shortly into the trip, a relative calls requesting a favor.  Since the relative is close to your planned route you make a detour to help.  Alternatively, a newly discovered point of interest causes an unplanned stop.

Both cases put the plan at risk. After the side trip or stop, you can try to somehow return to your original plan but that might involve risking speeding tickets, potential backtracking, etc. It is more flexible to fall back to the high-level details—major milestones—and re-plan the rest as the need arises. The analogy further suggests starting with a high-level plan and adding details when needed is generally more effective and less stressful.

This analogy can be extended to talk about distributed teams. Consider planning the same trip with two vehicles. To help make the point, imagine it is the 1960s. The two cars of travelers would need to stay pretty close to each other.  Significant contingency plans would have to be made in case of separation. If a change to the overall plan were needed, the car wanting to deviate would need to wait for or catch up to the other car to tell them about the change. Then they have to update the plans on where to meet should they get separated.

In the 1970s, the two vehicles would be able to communicate with each other using CB radios. Should one want to deviate or if they are separated, they could coordinate over the radio—as long as they stayed within a few miles of each other.  They would still need a backup plan should they get out of CB range.

Today, we have mobile phones and text messaging with which we can stay in near-constant communication.  The cars would not need to stay in proximity and could still get in touch at a moment’s notice to ensure they ended up in the same place at the end of each day’s travels.  Contingency plans would be made in case one or both car’s lost their phones or lost cell coverage.  However, effective communication would be possible at any other time.

Similar advances have been made which allow distributed development teams to communicate. Years ago it might not have been possible for geographically-diverse teams to communicate on a regular basis.  Later, communication was possible but cost prohibitive.  Today, there are numerous tools (cheap intra-U.S. phone rates, IM, texting, VOIP, etc.).  Some contingencies are made in case the normal means of communications are interrupted however, there is no reason why a distributed team cannot communicate effectively and often to ensure they arrive at the same destination day-over-day, at the end of the sprint, and at the end of a project.

Teams will form and share their favourite techniques and methods, with examples of where they have been successful.

Teams will then pair off against other teams and present their favourite methods and challenge the other team with counter examples or questions.

The rest of the room vote on the winner. We repeat this in a series of four to five rounds until a winner is found.

Along the way we hear lots of examples of where analysts have deployed successful techniques and hear what situations they may not work in as well.

Learning Objectives
This is a fun interactive way to review a broad range of methods and techniques, to talk about them, and hear stories of when they have been successful in the field.

You bring
Your variety of experiences, an inquisitive mind and a pen and paper. Post it notes would also be good.

Equipment
Pens, blue tac, index cards

Audience level
All levels of experience are welcome. Diversity of the whole room is what is most important.

Mechanics
Teams or individuals are briefed to write down their favourite method or technique in a specific domain (eg testing) and to talk about the technique’s strengths and how it is useful.

Then teams are paired off against each other and in turns have a short debate as to which technique is better. Give each side only 30 seconds or so to explain their technique to keep the adrenaline up and focus on.

Each team then gets to nominate one place where the technique will not work and then restate why their technique is superior.

All up the topic debate should last about 3 minutes.

Then you ask the audience to vote and the loser gets posted to the wall of death.

Round 1 continues until everyone has had a turn and half the cards are now on the wall.

Round 2 begins by having the opponents of the previous round now join together to form a larger team around the winner of their round. (up to team sizes of 4) and asked to briefly reiterate among themselevs the strengths and weaknesses of their technique.

Round 2 the proceeds in the same form as round 1 but with slightly more time to rebut and challenge to accommodate the larger team size. Target 4-5 minutes per round now.

The next round of losers are posted to a new section of wall (perhaps above round 1 losers in a pyramid structure.)

Round 3 and subsequent rounds follow the same pattern until you get to the last round and the ultimate battle is played.

With large groups you may pool them into multiple leagues and then bring them together for the last 2 rounds in a series of finals.

Here is RSAT for Windows 7 and RSAT for Windows 8 Preview.  Now I can manage Hyper-V from my desktop instead of logging into the server or even a dedicated admin console machine.

Goal: to practice the relative estimation technique by comparing user stories

Preparation:

• Backlog items written or printed on index cards
• Items should describe activities, which are well known to the team members and can be quickly estimated. You can play the game either with the real backlog or you can use one of the tasty backlogs provided below.
• About 5-7 index cards of a different color to mark columns.
• You need a room with a table big enough to fit all team members and all cards

Execution/Directions:

• Put the cards on one deck and mix them
• The first team member takes the card and puts it on an arbitrary place on a table
• The next team member takes the next card. If it seems to him smaller that the first one, he puts it left to the first card. If it seems to him bigger that the first one, he puts it right to the first card. If it seems to him of roughly the same size, he puts it under the first card.
• The next team member can
  • Take the next card from the deck and do the same decision as the previous team member.
  • Move and card lying on the table to a different column (with appropriate reasoning).
• The other team members continue these steps until:
  • They run out of cards and
  • All team members are satisfied with the placement of the cards
• At the end of the game it is possible to assign labels for the columns, e.g. XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL or Fibonacci numbers.

Discussion:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of this estimation technique?
• Do you know any other estimation techniques?
• Is an estimation uncertainty taken into account?
• What is your personal experience with estimation?
• What happened to backlog items with insufficient amount of information?

Although we may never know why we didn’t get chosen for a job interview, a recent study is shedding some light on recruiters’ decision-making behavior. According to TheLadders research, recruiters spend an average of “six seconds before they make the initial ‘fit or no fit’ decision” on candidates. The study used a scientific technique called “eye tracking” on 30 professional recruiters and examined their eye movements during a 10-week period to “record and analyze where and how long someone focuses when digesting a piece of information or completing a task.” In the short time that they spend with your resume, the study showed recruiters will look at your name, current title and company, current position start and end dates, previous title and company, previous position start and end dates, and education. The two resumes below include a heat map of recruiters’ eye movements. The one on the right was looked at more thoroughly than the one of the left because of its clear and concise format: TheLadders With such critical time constraints, you should make it easier for recruiters to find pertinent information by creating a resume with a clear visual hierarchy and don’t include distracting visuals since “such visual elements reduced recruiters’ analytical capability and hampered decision-making” and kept them from “locating the most relevant information, like skills and experience.”

Read more here

TheLadders

Outsourcing is risky business. A large part of creating a company is building a set of values, organizing a team around a cause, creating and sharing a vibe with like-minded people. Hiring an outside vendor to do part of your company’s work is about sharing values and being on the same team with the people outside. Trying to share a vibe with people from afar, who belong to different cultures, can be extremely difficult and often leads to lots of great anecdotes, and many failed projects.

I recently came across an interesting blog post by Inna Kuznetsova, a CCO of a truly global company CEVA Logistics. Inna is no stranger to working with people from different cultures: she first made a career at IBM, where she originally joined Russian IBM headquarters, and later moved to a US-based post. Inna shared a few insights she’s discussed with a friend, an expert on understanding different cultures, on doing business in a global community:

• In some cultures, including American, once goals and milestones are set, the vendor is responsible for the execution. The customer expects to be notified of problems, and perceives lack of news as good news.
• In many other cultures, in particular, in India, the vendor expects the client to maintain tight control of the project. If the customer isn’t closely involved throughout the project, the vendor is genuinely surprised to learn at the end that the client has expected the work to follow agreed-upon schedule and quality standards, and is upset now.
• In Russia, a good boss is expected to take care of his people, both professionally and personally. In America, there are rules of the game which bosses and their subordinates follow: good corporate things happen to those who do their jobs well. In Holland, people want to feel equal across the corporate hierarchy, and thus the boss is expected to make suggestions, rather than final decisions, to the team.

When building a truly global business, learning and taking into account these differences is vital. However, cost savings on a typical software project for the American market rarely justifies the risk and the difficulties of managing a global, multicultural team.

Outsourcing across the globe brings drastically different expectations and experiences to the project, and almost never allows for the team members to build close enough relationships to discover and mitigate their differences for the benefit of the project.

Hiring a local vendor doesn’t guarantee success of a project, but it does make the project much less vulnerable to adverse business conditions.

Crossroads offers a couple of ministries geared toward helping you find a job or enhancing your current occupational life. Even better, both ministries are mindful of a career-person’s schedule.

Career Transition Workshop

When it started, Crossroads Bible Church’s Career Transition Network was one of the Dallas area’s first church-based groups to help people searching for employment. The network now hosts a free Career Transition Workshop eight months out of the year. Human Resource professionals specialized in recruitment and staffing teach advanced skills, techniques and secrets for job-hunting strategies:

• Utilizing the Internet in your job search
• Job search strategies
• Resume writing
• Networking
• Interviewing
• Negotiating techniques

The workshop is for those who are unemployed, under-employed or just seeking new employment. We open the workshop with a time of prayerful support and encouragement from the Bible. People get to know one another and exchange information about possible employment. We also connect people via the Internet to a wide variety of local job leads.

The Next Workshop Will Be April 14, 2012 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. E-mail ctw@crossroadsbible.org to RSVP

The Small & Medium Business Edition.
Can be adapted to teach other iteration-based Agile frameworks.

It is proven that the game can be adapted to fit the particular needs of trainers and serve different sizes of audience.

A “standard” game is described below, but you are encouraged to adopt it to fit your particular needs.

Timing: 100-120 minutes

• 100 minutes – when using fast team estimation techniques
• 120 minutes – when using planning poker or other estimation tools

Group Size: 4-25 people

• Ideal is 2-3 teams of 4-6 people (gives 8-18 people)
• Can be extended with Scrum Masters

LEGO Boxes: a LEGO box for a team of 4-6 people

• I use “Basic Brick Set #6177”
• It takes four boxes for 20 people

Well formed, well understood stories move freely and easily. Poorly defined or misunderstood stories stay in the centre of the table – when this occurs the facilitator invites the team to break their silence and discuss before trying again.

Dominant team members will be revealed by their white knuckles, or by putting two fingers on the card instead of just one. Facilitators should be aware of this and highlight that to the team.

Great fun and a really fun alternative to planning poker. You can see this in action by viewing Ouija Board Estimation via YouTube

To register, go to www.agiledotnet.com

Improving Enterprises in conjunction with Microsoft will once again bring together the world of .NET development with the world of Agile methods for an exciting one-day experience of discovery, learning and exchange.

Attendees can expect informative presentations based on real-world experience from some of the industry’s leading Developers, Project Managers, and Executives who have embraced Agile principles within .NET development environments.

Come see how both the experts and the beginners apply Agile concepts using the Microsoft .NET framework, Visual Studio, and Visual Studio Team System.

This year will be a unique experience; so don’t miss out – REGISTER NOW!  Click for more information — AgileDotNet Detailed Information and Coupon Code

Dead easy to set up, quick and very fun. Even more fun over beers. Sit team in a circle. Ask the team for a boy or girl’s name, a household object and a location. Write down somewhere visible if required.

The team must then make a story by only speaking one word at a time, and going around the circle.

Rules:

• The story must “flow”
• Players can add the words “full stop” to indicate a new sentence
• The story elements the team chose must be used

Learning points:

Collaboration & Emergence. Players must be able to build on the previous word successfully. Nobody knows what the story will look like at the start, and it changes based on peoples own input. Some players will throw in “bad” words which are difficult to build on. These are BLOCKS. A good collaborator can turn a BLOCK into an OFFER which allows the next players to build the story more easily and create flow.

You can read more about offers and blocks in collaboration on my blog.

(this exercise was co-created as part of a collaboration day between myself and Geoff Watts)

Play the game:
one hour, including prep and debrief
(The first time this will be too short, but it’s enough to get started and get some value. Add a half hour the first time if you want to play to the end)

Optional / after the game:
an action-planning activity, as you would do at the end of a retrospective.

Overview:
—————

• This card game highlights your Team’s hard-to-reach Big Goal.
• Players write cards with Obstacles outside their control, stopping them from reaching the Goal.
• Then together they use Fearless Change++ patterns to design influence Strategies to go over, around & thru obstacles respectfully & boldly.

++ game uses the 48 patterns from the book Fearless Change (c) (Manns & Rising) used with permission

Conceived by a group at Play4Agile 2011 and designed by Deborah & Ilja Preuss. Download and use it FREE of charge, under a CreativeCommons 3.0 license

Learning Points:
————————

• Shift a group from “but we can’t…” to “but we could try…”
• This is a gut-level shift, and comes simply from putting objections aside for an hour and playing a “yes-and” game with real obstacles. Typically, optimism increases, mood lightens. Can also teach consensus decision making (using thumb-voting, for example), collaboration and appreciation.

* Note: the game is designed for **a real team**, not just a group. To play with a non-team, add time and facilitation to help them find common interests and a common goal. In this case, roleplaying may be required by some to form a “team”.

Discussion and facilitation guidance:
————————————————-
See download site for game instructions, link to public feedback document and contact form.

Link to Game:
——————–

http://fearlessjourney.info

FearlessJourney_v1.0_WhereToGetTheGame.pdf (406 KB)

Hugely insightful, entertaining, and inspiring. It’s not often that you get to read an authorized biography of such an accomplished person, let alone so open and honest.

View all my reviews

• 1 hour

Players (5..8 recommended):

• You and your colleagues

Ingredients:

• Internet access

Directions:
In this game, players share their hobbies, tedious chores, and what they like or dislike about work. This enhances your understanding of the participants while uncovering ways to make work more fun. Clicking on the image to the right will take you to an “instant play” game at innovationgames.com. Here, this image will be used as the “game board,” which categorizes the four different types of activities you and your coworkers do.

• Quadrant 1: Joy – work activities that people enjoy (ex. conferences)
• Quadrant 2: Hobbies – activities outside of work that people enjoy (ex. reading, biking, cooking)
• Quadrant 3: Chores – activities outside of work that people don’t enjoy (ex. cleaning)
• Quadrant 4: Job – work activities that people don’t enjoy (ex. mundane office meetings)

You will also see two icons in the top left corner:

• Happy face: what you like to do
• Frown face: what you don’t like to do

To add the icons, simply drag them to the board and describe what they represent. Everyone can collaborate and edit the placement and description of each image, which can be seen in real time. The results will be organized into a spreadsheet at the end to optimize the benefits of the game.

Key Points:
When people enjoy what they are doing and become engaged through self-motivation, they can push themselves to form innovative ideas and breakthroughs. Their participation is catalyzed by the activity they are involved in and they channel their personal commitment toward achieving the goal. Play Job or Joy to discover what your colleagues like/dislike to do in order to better understand who they are and how you can all maximize your joy and productivity — both during and outside of work.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/03/15/free-ebook-introducing-microsoft-sql-server-2012.aspx

Today my Outlook got stuck on top of all other windows.  It looks like a problem with a plug-in.  Here’s how to fix that:

http://pcmusings.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/does-your-outlook-window-stay-on-top-of-all-other-open-windows/

No one will argue that having an Agile team all in the same place, on the same schedule, and 100% dedicated to the Agile project is the most ideal and most productive.  The immediacy and richness of the communications and interactions cannot be beat by any other method.  There are some whom say that even having a distributed team means you are not Agile.

However, unfortunately, that is not always the most cost effective for a business.  Businesses need to look at the tradeoffs between collocation and the possible delays using a distributed team.  The “Agile” in Agile Methodology is capitalized for a reason.  It has been changed from a verb, and the meaning has changed with it.  However, using the Webster Dictionary original agile definitions

• “marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace”
• “having a quick resourceful and adaptable character”

can be more appropriate for what businesses need from a development team today.  A(a)gile adoption should consider the business needs in the true meaning of the word agile.

That being said, there will be little argument that multiple changes in the way the Agile Methodology is implemented will create a totally different “SDLC” environment in which the risks outweigh the benefits.  If having a distributed team is the only variance in the Agile philosophy then time is the only risk which will likely not be obviated.  The other potential risk, quality, can be assured by ensuring that all other Agile values and principles are observed.  Throwing any other Agile guideline by the way side could create more of a cargo cult and the risks start to grow exponentially.

I worked with one distributed team whom thought that the Agile Principle to “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development” meant that they didn’t have to create as many user stories as could possibly be known up front.  They opted to start with a subset of user stories and intentionally wait to write the rest.  Then to compound the challenge, they grouped remaining areas into epics with large story points and then provided a fixed schedule and cost estimate based on a different team’s velocity.  It didn’t take long to show, in this example, how the risks compounded.  It didn’t take long in the life of that project for them to compound as well.

I’ve seen some companies implement the Agile methodology with teams that have resources whom are only part time on that Agile project.  Again, compounding this with a distributed team environment increases the risk of failure exponentially.  All team members must be able to focus on the project at hand to avoid the time costs of context switching.  Likewise, each team member must be available for all other members at all times. This is even more important on a distributed team.

Obviously, as with any distributed team, there need to be tools and protocols in place at the beginning of the project to help the team communicate and mitigate that risk the distributed team incurs.  (This is discussed in two previous RuralSourceIT blog “POCs” and “Time Zones”.)  In today’s technological world there is no reason for distributed team members to not be able to communicate immediately with each other.

If having a distributed-team environment is the only deviation from the Agile Methodology then the risks can be minimized and a project can be successful.

When you apply to a position or hear about a position, keep track of your opportunities in a Spreadsheet. I would track the date you applied along with the job title and Req ID #.
It is really helplful for any agency recruiters to know where you have applied as well. If you have applied to a position on your own, there is nothing a recruiter can do to help you. Companies are not going to allow for a candidate to be submitted to a job if they have already applied on their own. As most people know, their resume gets lost in the “black hole” applicant tracking system.

Additionally, you can look back at your track sheet and do your research through LinkedIn and see who you may know at those companies for another way in.

Just imagine you are on the Daily Standup meeting. Each player brings his issues to the team and also trying to solve issues that are already open.

You will be surprised by patterns of collaborative work and the power of solving issues together with the team.

Timing:
40-60 minutes.
If you use timeboxed iterations, this could run faster, otherwise game ends when there are no cards left.

Materials:
Deck of playing cards (option, take the deck from 6 to A). Table for each group of 4-8 participants.

Nobody’s Perfct – instructor’s cheat sheet

Nobody”s Perfct – hands out

Nobody’s Perfct – Presentation

Instructions:

Draw the rule- and mindset on a flipchart paper (or spread the Handout, see attached)

Let the audience play in groups of 4 – 8 people per group

• If you have more than 4 people, let them play in pairs or as singles.
• If you have a larger audience, get a facilitator from each group (ScrumMaster?) who has to watch out that rules are followed and a discussion happens. If you apply timeboxing he’s to take care of it as well.

Every player gets a set of 4 cards.

• Every card type represents an Issue/Failure (blacks) or a Solution (reds), which could be Technical (Cross & Diamonds) or Social (Clubs & Hearts). See the attached handout for details.

In his/her turn each player can

1. Start with the heaviest problem. Play the card. Explain the problem.
2. If you have a solution or a small step in the right direction: play the card, explain your approach.
3. If you are not able to do anything more you’re done.
4. Fill up to 4 cards from the stack. It’s the next players turn.

Play in iterations (10 Minutes / Iteration). That allows you to extend the rules stepwise.

• Start with closed hands.
• Extension: introduce the pile of wisdom.
• Extension: play openly
• Extension: if a group is missing something valuable for them, allow them to introduce another rule given by themselves

The pile of wisdom is a stack of best practices and “proved” solutions:

• If you face a problem on the desk and you are not able to cover it with a card on your hand you are allowed to take a card from the pile of wisdom. Take the first card on top and try to solve a given problem with it.
• Once a problem is solved put it to the pile of resolved problems and put the solutions to the pile of wisdom (on top if solved out of hand, on bottom if solved from pile of wisdom). Only the last solution is visible.

This game makes people comfortable with bringing their failures to the team and solving them together. Make a good debriefing with learning from different aspects of the game (playing open, having a “pile of wisdom” and etc.)

Cards are used only as a medium – make sure people bring examples each time they play a card. Discussion is a most valuable part of the game.

Creadits:

Ellen Grove, Martin Heider, Holger Koschek, Timofey Yevgrashyn

… with a lot of help from Antti Kirjavainen, Nancy van Schooenderwoert and Björn Jensen

If you are searching for a new position or testing the market, make sure you have your LinkedIn Profile up to date. As you may or may not know, there is a feature called INMAIL that recruiters can use if they have paid a monthly fee
for upgraded service. However, if you want to be found, follow these tips.

1. Fill out the SUMMARY section with your career highlights and specialties.
2. If you are out of work, put something like “Searching for next Software Development position” in your headline
3. Under SPECIALTIES, make sure you list your tools, technologies, etc
4. Under each job, list your keywords, technologies, and tools AGAIN – we use these keywords to find you.
5. Make sure your latest employer is on the profile along with job duties
6. There is now a new section called “Skills and Expertise” that you can add to your profile. This allows you a choice of keywords.
7. Ask your network for recommendations from previous jobs.
8. Most importantly, under CONTACT –  list your contact email and make sure it is up to date if you would like employers or recruiters to find you. So often I see that email addresses are listed from previous employers and not up to date. If you don’t mind phone calls, list your number there too.
9. Post presentations, talks, or powerpoint slides using BOX.NET to show prospective employers your skills and abilities.
10. JOIN as many relevant GROUPS as you can, participant in industry discussions as much as possible.

HERE is another article that helps you utilize LinkedIn in the right way on the Recruiter’s Lounge