Last week I presented the idea of improving how we develop and deploy database changes to the Microsoft Maniacs group down in Sterling, VA. There were a ton of fantastic questions and the group recorded the event, so if you missed out or are curious, here’s the recorded presentation:
This is also a teaser for an upcoming course I’m producing for Pluralsight.
Some have speculated that a significant part of the existence of software professionals is to rewrite existing systems. Kind of like every 5 or 10 years, or more frequently, a family will toss out the old car and buy a new one. After a while a car shows its age, and perhaps that is some of the reason why software…
In a past post I referred to some podcasts on value, value pricing and software development. Michael had a few questions about the podcast. These are deep questions so I thought it would be fun to answer them in a video format where I can talk through the considerations and my response.
The second question from Michael:
What kind of results can you put in your proposals in a way that lets you put your guarantee under it and be 99% sure you will hit the results?
What if there are factors contributing to the the results that are not under your control? Do you usually measure the results in units like hours saved, new customers aquired etc. or more like “employees are able to do X with an effort no more that Y per week while processing Z number/percent of widgets more than before”.
Here’s my response:
In a past post I referred to some podcasts on value, value pricing and software development. Michael had a few questions about the podcast. These are deep questions so I thought it would be fun to answer them in a video format where I can talk through the considerations and my response.
The first question from Michael:
How and when do you recommend charging for a value conversation like in a payed discovery phase?
I am afraid that in the beginning with little practice, conversations digging for the value will lead to repeated long meetings (noooo!) and potentially a big loss of time/money. Sure qualification of prospects is a key factor but still I feel that DISCORVERING the value brings a lot of value in itself for the prospect.
Here’s my response:
I’ve never read a book about RFPs (requests for proposals), at least not that I remember, and I don’t think it would ever be worth it to read a book about RFPs. Judging by just about every RFP I’ve ever seen, most of the books must advise people to create excessive check lists of the things they want done. The…
Why overcoming weaknesses that stand in the way of strengths is a good idea:
At least once a week, we all have something come across our inbox (whether a voice mail, text message, email or otherwise) that triggers a visceral reaction. The reaction could lead to responding in ways that will not only be unproductive, but could make us regretful. The trick is to find a way to put enough space between the initial…
Businesses constantly talk about things they want to be doing, people do this too. I refer to these as potential projects, perhaps it would be better to think of them as prospective investments. Occasionally organizations and individuals are thoughtful enough to at least identify a problem they would like to solve. But that’s usually the extent of justifying why the…
I had a great question come up in the comments of my post about how Handoff erodes trust: You have a team of developers, and a large project, and you need to break up responsibility. Instead of a “hand-off” strategy for development, does each developer take responsibility for a set of features beginning-to-end? Are there other alternatives? Even if you…
When work is partitioned into intermediate results, results that may or may not lead to a desired outcome, responsibility fractures. In a chain of intermediate results, individuals do their part, like working an assembly line to produce a desired outcome. When the desired outcome involves the application of knowledge in a creative fashion, quality is no longer objective. The work…