A Side Show: Back from the Power Lab at Cape Cod, MA

So I have been incommunicado for a while, though for a specific reason. I was out for a week, at Cape Code, Massachusetts attending the Power Lab – an executive development program. The program is organized as a fully immersive societal experience. The society has a class hierarchy – Elites you own almost all of the resources and jobs, Middles who manage the jobs for the Elites, and Immigrants who practically own nothing. I was “born” as an immigrant in the society, and it was an absolutely incredible experience. Mind you, this is not a regular gig where the program runs from 8 to 5 and you have nice cocktail dinners in the evenings. In this program you truly live your role 24 hours a day and for multiple days at a stretch! It was a great learning experience – literally living through the many experiences around issues of power and leadership, and confronting several situations which I’d normally consider off-limits for me. During the week I had no access to my laptop or cell phone, and hence was completely cut-off from work and my real-life society.

You can find out more about the Power Lab at www.powerandsystems.com.

This post was just a side-show. I will get back to the “center ring” and continue with the series on testing soon.

Next week is also TechEd2009 week – the main conference is in Los Angeles from May 11-15. There will be several sessions on Visual Studio Test Systems, Team Test, and the Lab Management products. In India, the main event will be in Hyderabad on those same dates. I will once again present the “Next Generation ALM Tools from Microsoft – A Lap around Visual Studio Team System 2010” session. We will also have a “Technology Tent” to show-off all of the cool stuff that the Test and Lab Management teams have been working on. Hope to see some of you there …