Status

2010 is going great for me!

2009, on the other hand, was the sort of year I wouldn't wish on anybody  - and that I wouldn't give up for anything. The amount I learned about myself, why I do things the way I do, and what I could do about it - and what I have done about it - is directly responsible for this year going so well.

These changes have had ramifications in both my personal and professional lives. The personal changes have involved decisions I never expected to make, decisions I may talk about someday. Professionally, I realized how much I was taking advantage of work rather than respecting it, and how much I wasn't doing what my team needed me to do. I also realized how poor the communication between my management and me had been.

I turned all that around by remembering to ask "What are you expecting to see from this?", paraphrasing the answers I hear, and then actively updating my management of my progress against said work. As a result, I've completed an incredible amount of work, my features are looking good, I have our Windows functional, stress, and performance tests running against Macs, and - I'm leaving.

Not Microsoft (although I seriously considered that). Later this month I join the Windows Phone Communications Test Design Team, which is a fancy way of saying I’ll be helping them test new and revised ways to test WP’s messaging stack. I'll be mentoring some great testers, defining architectures to solve some interesting problems, and spinning up on devices - a brand new world for me. Woot!

I've been ignoring the blogosphere until recently, including answering mail. If you emailed me and haven't received a response - and still want one <g/> - email me again. Or find me at CAST - I'll be attending this year, and I'm looking forward to catching up with y'all!

Does this post mean I'm blogging regularly again? Not necessarily - let's see what happens, shall we? <g/>