Sometimes, helping is hard work. Especially in software development. Occasionally, I feel like this chicken, and I suspect many of you do as well! I absolutely do not mind feeling like this, just not every week please. However, I detest feeling this way when I have no perspective on how my work impacted your organization. I thrive on knowing that…
Category: Contemplations
How to decide?
A couple of years ago I was on vacation in New Zealand. Jonathan and I had the opportunity to go bungy jumping from the Kawarau Bridge. When we arrived, the first thing I noticed was how much it cost. Well over one hundred dollars! The first thing that came to mind, that’s way too expensive! I was ready to say…
Rules are irrelevant
I have a friend who writes about breaking news. He crafts meaningful stories about newsworthy events. Occasionally, when he posts an article, he’ll find a coworker has hurriedly thrown up a post, just seconds before. Out of respect for their work and an obligation to avoid overlapping content, he pulls his own article. Even though he started first, and labored…
Marco Polo And Software Development
The game of Marco Polo comes back to me from my childhood. I remember being blindfolded and reliant on auditory cues to catch another player. I’d run around shouting “Marco” and then chase the obligatory “Polo”. Given enough time I’d catch someone and they would take their turn being Marco. The game is entertaining because everyone is constantly moving, by…
Features Don’t Need To Be Forever
I recently purchased a kitchen timer. I smirked as I read a description of the last feature: Calendar displays day and date to the year 2099 This has to be the boldest display of a limitation I’ve encountered. Immediately the following questions came to mind: Will I be alive in 2100? Probably not. Will the timer survive 85 years? Probably…
Why We Should Know Our Customer’s Customer
Customer interactions are often kept far away from IT staff. Demand for IT to deliver value directly to customers is changing that. As our staff begins to interact with our customers they’ll start building rapport. Over enough time this rapport can mature into a profound trust. Customers will open up to having staff interact directly with their customers. This new…
Empower Engineers To Decide
I kid you not this is how almost all software development plans are created. Watch the video… The Expert, A Hilarious Sketch About the Pain of Being the Only Engineer in a Business Meeting Ask yourself: Are you developing software this way? Then, ask yourself: What’s the desired impact on the organization and how will 7 red lines accomplish it?…
Ditch the flashy portfolio
A portfolio by definition is “a large, thin, flat case for loose sheets of paper such as drawings or maps.” I see lots of these when evaluting the merits of leveraging someone’s expertise, especially graphic design expertise. It seems like the goal is to cram in as many images as possible as some tribute of quantity to indicate expertise. Many…
Ax Vestigial Features
I routinely observe projects where developers and users are busy safeguarding countless features that provide absolutely no value to anybody. In many situations people are aware but nobody will do anything about it. In other situations, they may not even know. Vestigial features sap the efficacy of systems. Take the time to curate metrics to effectively monitor the features of…