Author: Gareth Saunders

I’m Gareth J M Saunders, 47 years old, 6′ 4″, father of 3 boys (including twins). Scrum master at Vision Ltd, Dundee. Latterly, web architect and agile project manager at the University of St Andrews and former warden at Agnes Blackadder Hall. Enneagram type FOUR and introvert, I am a non-stipendiary priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church, I sing with the NYCGB alumni choir, play guitar, write, draw and laugh… a lot.

How I start my weekly review

A white mug of coffee with the word begin written on it sits on a wooden table.

Above: photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

Every Sunday evening I sit down to review the previous week and plan the week ahead. This is my weekly review, a discipline that I adopted after reading Sally McGhee’s book Take Back Your Life in 2003.

One of the first things I do during my weekly review is read a document I wrote in October 2017 that I called The Discipline™. Occasionally, I update it to keep it fresh and relevant; it’s a living document.

It’s a reminder of what is important to me right now, what I should be focusing on. It’s like a little manifesto for my life—something to give me direction, to help me prioritise.

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We are all immigrants

I’ve been meaning to post for a while about the DNA test I took late last year. This tweet from James Melville prompted me to do it.

Ever since I read Alistair Moffat’s book Scotland’s DNA in 2011, I’ve wanted to have my own DNA analysed to find out where my DNA comes from. So I did.

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Scottish Engineering Leaders Award 2019

On Saturday, Reuben, Joshua, Isaac and I travelled to the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow to visit the Scottish Engineering Leaders Award 2019 exhibition.

We went to see Joshua’s design on display. His idea had been judged as “highly commended” putting him in the top 42 of 17,500 Scottish entries.

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Business process modelling at Lean Agile Dundee

Last Thursday evening, I gave a presentation entitled ‘Using business process modelling for creating a definition of ready and definition of done’ at the second Lean Agile Dundee meet-up at SolarWinds.

Continue reading Business process modelling at Lean Agile Dundee