Whether you’re pushing your organization in an Agile direction and needing some outside leadership, looking to replace a long-time employee, or hoping to make some promotions within, determining who will make a good scrum master is a difficult and important task.

Image Credit

It’s impossible to give specific advice because who will perform is down to your corporate culture as much as anything else, but here are five questions that will help determine if your interviewee is the sort of person you want leading your agile teams.

1. Has anything changed the way you approach Agile development?

This question gives you information about two important aspects of your candidate. First, it shows whether they take the initiative regarding their own professional development, which the vast majority of people find beneficial in their careers.

Second, it gives you a sense of whether the individual can bring experience from their broader life to bear in the business world or if they are stuck in the training course material.

Image Credit

2. What traits would you prioritise if you were hiring for an Agile scrum?

A confident answer here can give you a lot of information about the individual’s experience. A scrum master who cannot identify the sort of people who are effective is not a good sign.

This also gives you a sense of whether the candidate will fit in with your current environment. Are the individuals they describe as being ideal the sort of people you have working for you?

3. When have you had to compromise to succeed in Agile development?

Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to Agile development, so compromise will be a fact of life. You will want an individual who is not afraid to make reasonable compromises to move development forward.

4. When have you removed a barrier to development success?

Most Scrum Master Training Dublin and elsewhere, such as https://www.althris.com/courses/scrum-master/, will focus on problem solving and removing impediments, as that really is the role.

If an individual does not have a healthy number of anecdotes here, they probably don’t have the experience you want.

5. How does Agile development contribute to creating quality software?

A scrum master needs to enable their team, so they need to have a strong understanding of how agile works, in practice, to create a quality end product.

Wear and tear is one of the areas that is a major cause of conflict between landlords and tenants. Tenants often complain that they have no idea what fair usage really means and frequently dispute landlords’ claims of damage, countering that the supposed damage is instead acceptable wear and tear.

Image Credit

It appears that landlords are likely to be on the losing end of these arguments, with some reports stating that tenants are successful in nine out of ten disputes about wear and tear that are independently adjudicated. It must be said that some landlords do attempt to classify standard wear and tear as tenant-caused damage without providing any evidence in the form of a written statement or photographs; indeed, a former chair of the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC) has commented that landlords tend to have unrealistic expectations of the definition of wear and tear.

House of Lords fails to define ‘reasonable’

The House of Lords gave a ruling that wear and tear consists of ‘reasonable use of the premises by the tenant’; however, the lordships failed to specify the length of this particular piece of string. What is reasonable use? Needless to say, there are very differing viewpoints between tenants and landlords.

Image Credit

Letting agents in Gloucester such as http://www.alexclarkglos.co.uk do their best to avoid these disputes by recommending to both landlords and tenants that they carry out check-in and check-out inventories. There are also some guidelines that are useful in assessing fair usage.

Guidelines when assessing wear and tear

The whole point of the wear and tear calculation is to decide whether the tenant should have the deposit back in whole or should have all or some part deducted. The National Landlords Association deals with many letters from landlords on this subject.

The time the tenants have been in the property will affect the calculation; similarly, the type of tenants can affect it – you would expect a young family to be somewhat harder on a house than a single person. The areas of the house that are heavily used, such as the kitchen, will be expected to show more wear and tear than areas such as bedrooms.

Carpets can reasonably show signs of wear, but not stains or burns – these are definitely damage.

Kids all grown up and flown the nest? Whatever your reason for downsizing, it doesn’t have to be considered as a step backwards. For many people, a smaller home brings much greater freedom and here are a few reasons why:

1. Saving Money

The biggest reason for reducing your living space is saving money. The bigger space you have, the more you feel the need to fill it with furniture and expensive appliances. If you don’t have masses of available space then there’s no temptation to buy unnecessary furniture. Most of the items bought for a large home are only purchased to fill space and serve very little function. The great thing about downsizing is you can prioritise what’s important and dispose of the rest. For all that waste, you’ll probably need a skip. For Swansea Skip Hire, visit pendragon Carmarthenshire.

Image credit

2. Less Stress

Having a large home means lots of effort in maintenance and upkeep. The costs soon spiral when you factor in keeping it clean, exterior upkeep, gardening and furnishing. Reduce your space and reduce your stress levels. Without so many chores to do, you’ll have loads more time for leisure and hobbies. Learn to love your home and not see it as a burden. Cleaning and maintaining a smaller home might actually become enjoyable!

3. Less Energy

Of course, a smaller home won’t need as much heating and cooling as a large home, meaning lower energy bills for you. If you only have one bathroom as opposed to several then your water bills will reduce too. You’ll be leaving a much smaller carbon footprint and have more money in your pocket. It’s a win-win!

4. Luxury Furnishings

Whereas before you might not have been able to afford the top-end luxury furniture you always wanted, with all the savings being made after downsizing, you could splash out on some high-quality furnishings. Live smaller but more luxuriously as you choose a few key pieces of furniture that offer top quality and craftsmanship. You may have filled a large home with cheaper furniture because you had to but now is the time to treat yourself with what you’ve always had your eye on!

Image credit

5. No More Debt

Downsizing could be a path to a debt-free lifestyle. If you’re keen to escape the shackles of mortgages, credit cards and loans then shifting to a more minimalist and compact way of life could free you up financially as well as emotionally. There will be less temptation to overspend and more incentive to stick to a budget.

6. More Bonding

It is generally agreed that smaller homes help families bond better. In a smaller living space, people have to be more organized, compromise and share space but it’s a good way to feel close to people and not separated by a huge floor plan and various flights of stairs. Small homes are often very happy places so try to think of a downsizing as less of a downgrade but more of an upgrade to a happier home life.

Does your home have an over-cluttered garage or a sleek and uncluttered carport? If it is the latter, you have Frank Lloyd Wright – the genius of American architecture – to thank.

Image Credit

Taking its name from the French ‘porte cochere’, meaning a covering or shed, the carport was first popularised by Walter Burley Griffith back in 1909. It was Griffith who first incorporated an ‘auto space’ into his design for the WB Sloan House, but it was Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s who popularised the term carport and built his unique and iconic Usonian homes with an oak carport attached.

Protection and style

The reasoning was twofold. First, as Lloyd Wright correctly identified, the American automobile was now made of sterner stuff than the first cars back in the day. No longer did they need their own barn with integral fuel and maintenance equipment because now there were gas stations to provide this. More importantly, the sleekly integrated carport was part of Lloyd Wright’s vision for a modern American architecture that embraced clean lines and kept the overall look of the property clutter-free.

Image Credit

A carport for every car

Throughout the 1950s, the carport became increasingly popular. It was relatively cheap to construct because of the lack of walls, yet provided more than adequate shelter against the elements and enabled airflow around a vehicle so that it would not rust in the confines of a garage. Anyone could keep their car in excellent condition without all the expense of building a garage, and a carport could look considerably more stylish.

The benefits of the modern carport

The carport has never really gone out of fashion. Today, it is seen as a more ecologically-friendly alternative to a garage that requires lighting, ventilation and electric doors. Suitable for any vehicle, the minimal elegance of a carport can blend seamlessly with your property. An oak carport from a reputable company such as www.bespoaktimberframes.co.uk will add value in addition to aesthetic appeal.

The modern carport has come a long way since its origins as an auto space, since modern carports often double as chic entertaining spaces for summer barbecues or as an oversized porch. However you use yours, the carport is a great way to protect your vehicle and a very stylish addition to your home.