After about a week of playing around with Zen, I finally dropped the hammer and pulled out my credit card. Somewhere in all of this, I learned that having a tool like Zen really simplifies my life. I know that sounds cheesy but it’s true. I can stop trying to remember everything that is going on. If the woman has an infrastructure request like “I need a new mouse.” She can add it to the infrastructure project in Zen. The next time I log into Zen, I’ll see the new request and respond accordingly. The same for bugs. And when she comes up with a new feature, it too can be added to the list. If I think of a new feature or want to force time to refactor my codebase, I just add it to the mix. And when I sit down to start working on stuff, the priorities are defined. I know what she cares about the most because it is on the top of the screen. Simple. Well worth the $9/month that I’m paying at the moment. That may climb as my project list grows, but 3 is a good place to start.
Recently, I got turned on to Zen by Nate Kohari. Having used a Kanban-style feature management system (poorly). I can see a real need for what Nate has written. I’ve signed up for the free demo to see if I could really use it. If it does work out for me, I know the $9/month would fit into my budgets. Just allowing the product manager (the significate other) to update the item queue from anywhere would be worth the subscription. 90% of her new feature requests come about during the day, when she’s actually using the application (we are only using one app/Kanban to see if this style works for both of us). As it is, we have to gather and stare at the board in our home office. Remote, anytime updates… Nice.
The frame sliders showed up last night. After reading the instructions, they were a breeze to install. There was a warning about cross threading so I took my time. The only “difficulty” was torquing down the lower slider. The slider assembly replaces the stock lower engine mount with a new rod that fits through the engine case. So far, so good? Well, my arms aren’t long enough to tighten a nut on one side of the bike while holding a similar nut on the other side of the bike. I hadn’t thought about this issue… After waiting for the woman to return from walking the dogs, the problem was solved.
Bonus: She learned how to use a torque wrench and that the Craftsman 1/2″ torque wrench I bought a couple months ago does have a real purpose.
