Nearly Skunked
Tuesday night I decided to take the dogs for a walk. I stepped out the door and froze. The smell of skunk was very strong. The dogs were sniffing the air but fortunately didn’t see anything.
After pausing for what seemed like several minutes, but was likely a few seconds, I quietly turned on my flashlight and looked around. Sure enough, there were eyes looking back at me about 50 feet out, beside a bush.
I don’t actually know what the range of a skunk is but I assumed it was less than 50 feet so I took the dogs out along a route that would […]
The 5 Stages of Evolution: People and Computing
I was thinking about the evolution in computing over the past few years. Computers have been used to make sense of information, find answers, for entertainment and to connect with other people. We used to find someone with perceived expertise in a subject and get advice from them.
Some things change and some things never really change. It turns out it is not really about the evolution of computers so much as it is about the evolution of people using computers.
The 5 Stages of Evolution: People and Computing
Clueless Computing
We all know someone who is just not computer savvy. Maybe you bought […]
Using Social Media for Business
Over the past few weeks, I've read a couple of books on how to market your business or product using social media. I am not discounting the power of social media by any stretch, after all, I am blogging.
However, there seems to be an overtone of "using" social media in the books and consulting around this subject. Start a blog, write amazing content, promote yourself and company in LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Follow people who have lots of followers and tag along on their success. Post comments on popular blogs, etc. Get better ranking in Google by getting quality inbound links. You […]
KISS Your Software: Core versus Cool
In the software development realm we all succumb to this at some point. We lose site of what is core (what absolutely needs to be there) in favour of what would be cool or only used by a few.
What is the essential set of functionality that defines your software? Really?
What would happen if you removed it? What percentage of application users would notice it missing?
When you define the core, you can focus on the core.
Get this right and spend 80% of your effort on this for version 1. Otherwise you will spend 80% of your time on the things […]
New Website – Less is Now, More is Later
The shoemaker's kids finally have new shoes. We've always been so busy doing the technical stuff for our clients, we've been ignoring our own marketing. Well that is changing.
Today we launched version 3 of our corporate website. It is using a Content Management System (CMS) behind the scenes so we can keep the site current.
I was inspired recently by several good books. Essentially, the message was pick a date, set a budget and vary the scope. This avoids it is never good enough syndrome and allows you to ship; on time and on budget.
This also follows the agile principle […]
“They” Are Right
They are the people who can be used to explain everything or cinch any argument.
"They say you should eat right and exercise."
"They say you should look out for yourself because everyone is out to get you."
"They say you should look out for others, especially those who are less fortunate."
They are not always right. They are just a convenient way to prove a point. The best part is that no further proof is required if you use "they".
"They say we need to refresh our corporate website."
On the last point, THEY are quite right this time.
And it is time to do […]
Now Available Via Twitter
My blog is now being shared via Twitter (@Doug_Sunwapta).
Useful Software – From Drums to Real Collaboration
Way back during the Greek and Roman empires, if you were part of the forced labour (slave) on a galley ship the business rules and communication structure was pretty simple. The drum would beat and you would row. If you didn't bad things happened to you.
Since then we've moved from farming, to factories to information workers. Ships have moved from human propulsion to sails and now diesel engines.
When you move past one person on a project, the number of communication paths (links between people) grow quickly. With two people there is one bidirectional path, with three there are three, but with 4 […]
Employee Slotting Tools
Your company has just announced it is merging with another company. This isn’t just a small acquisition, it is big.
The problem is:
- You have to merge two or more data sources,
- You have to slot all the employees into the new organizational structure and pay scales,
- Both companies have different performance measurement metrics,
- The review means sharing data and slotting decisions across an international HR and management team,
And it has to be done in a very short time frame (yesterday usually).
Someone is likely to suggest using Excel.
But splitting data in Excel and merging it later is a big headache. But […]
Optimizing Developer Productivity
In my last post I made light of the constant desire of (some) developers to want the latest and greatest in hardware; it can never be good enough. Smart managers know there is a balancing point between having the right tools to increase developer productivity and throwing money in the wind.
So exactly how do you justify and quantify the benefits of using faster tools in development?
The Business Case
Part of a manager’s role is to make the most profit for the company as possible while keeping customers happy. The other part of their role is keeping developers as productive as […]