Revamped Blog for 2014

I’ve spent some time during the winter holidays on updating my blog. I hope the updates will make my blog better for the readers. An image is probably the best way to show you what I mean.

Source: Owned by the author

The first post on this blog, from left to right: 2014, 2012 and 2010. Archived versions are from archive.org.

Looking Back

I started this blog back 2010 because I wanted to be a part of the “agile conversation”. That is still my goal and why I keep running the blog. The hard part about being part of the conversation is being heard. That’s not just about writing unique and valuable content. It is also about being noticed.
These are my top three pages, according to Google Analytics:

1. Extroverted programmers?
2. Agile change requests.
3. Requirements and the agile backlog.

All those posts are slightly “controversial”. Most people seem to think that programmers are introverted. When I pointed out that a Cuban study showed that they are more likely to be extroverted that sparked a lot of interest. Agile is about not doing change requests so when I pointed out that there might still be a need for them, that caused some interest. Same thing with requirements. A lot of people seem to think that they are not needed in agile.

What are the Changes?

Source: Owned by the author

A flat responsive design.

• I have changed the theme (obviously) to a flat responsive design. There are many themes to choose from, but I decided to go with the WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme.
• I have reviewed and replaced some of my plugins. Some of my most helpful plugins are papercite, WordPress SEO by Yoast and YARPP.
• I have beefed up security a bit but I won’t go into detail on what I’ve done.
• I’ve started being more active on social media – note the links to my profile pages in the menu.

What’s next?

What’s next for my blog? Here are my “new blog year resolutions”:

• I’ll post more often.
• I’ll broaden my scope to cover more of what I do at work including e-health and m-health.
• I’ll write better posts. (This long and rambling post not counted.)