This week has been busier than most as Chris and I prepare to head up to New York next week for the Web 2.0 Expo. While we’re  both looking forward to the keynotes from speakers such as Anil Dash and Caterina Fake, we’re really excited to get to spend some time on the Expo floor seeing what new and intersting things technology businesses are doing.  It’s easy to get caught up in the immediacy of day to day tasks and getting to attend a conference like this is a great way to get our creative juices flowing and find ways to inject more value for our clients.

The other reason for our trip is to meet one of our newest clients who happens to be based out of New York and get to know them better. Establishing strong personal and professional relationships with each and every one of our clients is an ongoing goal for Flatsourcing, so if you are going to be in New York, whether for the conference or something else, and would like to catch up with us, just drop us a line, we’d love to get to know you regardless of whether you are a client or not.

If you’re someone who manages a lot of Basecamp accounts and has a hard time remembering passwords, this post is for you.

There are a lot of authentication systems emerging, Facebook, Twitter, and Google all allow apps to let users login using their credentials.  Open ID is an open authentication system that a variety of providers operate.  It’s a godsend if you “can’t remember your passwords? tired of filling out registration forms?”

I have a lot (12, precisely) of Basecamp accounts.  We run it for Flatsourcing, and I’m pulled into a lot of client’s accounts.  I used to have to remember the URL, username, & password for each one.  That’s 36 things to remember, and countless combination of things.

Now I just remember a single URL and password with OpenID.  It’s awesome.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Create an Open ID.  I use myOpenID.  There are a lot of providers.
• Log into Basecamp and click “my info” in the upper right.
• In the area for your username & password, click “Use OpenID” and enter yours
• When you land on the login screen, click “Login using an OpenID instead” and enter yours
• You’ll be taken to your Open ID provider to enter your password and then voilà, you’re in
• HUGE BONUS - Basecamp has an “Open Bar” that is a drop down of all your Basecamp accounts (actually all your 37 Signal product accounts).  These are all now connected and easy to switch back and forth between.  This feature alone makes switching to OpenID for authentication well worth it.  That and you have 36 memory slots freed up.

Enjoy!

The other night I was having a discussion with a few folks about Flatsourcing and how we work. After my brief spiel about working in an agile way with technically proficient clients we started discussing how user stories fit into the process.

One of the less technical people in the conversation wasn’t familiar with user stories, so we spent a few minutes explaining the benefit of the user story versus a full blown specification doc. My favorite moment was when I got to share what I think is the best quote about the downside of large specification documents:

“Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen.”
- Edward V. Berard

Once we were all on the same page again the conversation turned to what makes a good user story. Is it better to be brief and vague or slightly less brief with more detail? Do they need to be written out on a card or can you just create a quick text doc with a bunch of stories laid out in it?

It got me thinking and after doing a little searching this weekend I found this article, Writing Good User Stories, that I thought had some great insights to help me resolve my dilemma.

User stories should ultimately be short and sweet, but they can often begin as bulky and clunky…that’s the process. In the end, they should be reflective of the vision they are meant to break down. They should help a developer who may not “get” the larger picture build the blocks upon which an application is going to be based on without needing to “get” the big picture.