New Developer Computers
Productivity is frequently an argument made by developers to get the latest and greatest computers.
This is what our developers tell me we are using now.
This is what they want (a supercomputer and monitors for every window they might want open). Everyone else is using this and it even supports pair programming.
I suspect we will have to compromise; and balance productivity gains with cost. Sorry guys.
Using the Last Roll of Toilet Paper
Have you ever gone into the washroom to do your business and been surprised at the end to find out someone used the last of the toilet paper (and there are no extras in the washroom)?
Surely someone must of noticed that the roll was at the end. Why didn't they go get more (reactionary)?
Even better, why didn't someone notice that they were loading the last roll and go get more (proactive) before it was all gone?
How many areas of your business are like this?
Do you wait until the customer notices something or do you deal with it just before the […]
Good Code Today, Legacy Code Tomorrow
We recently came across a few potential clients with applications built around the turn of the millennium. These are business applications so presumably they have a team that is also supporting them.
We are talking Visual Basic 6 and Active Server Pages with DCOM.
Back in their day, these applications may have been well written code.
Now they want to migrate these applications to the latest .NET Framework, etc.
Back when we first moved to .NET Framework 1.1 coding best practices were quite a bit different than they are in .NET Framework 3.5 and soon, Framework 4.0.
Moving from VB and ASP to .NET put […]
“Do What I Did and Get Rich” Books
I picked up a book recently about how now is the time to cash in on your passion; how to use social media to promote your personal brand.
Essentially the premise of the book is:
- Pretty much everyone should quit their job,
- Discover your passion and blog (text, video or audio) about it, no matter what the passion is,
- Build your personal brand through social networking site,
- Work hard and hustle,
- Opportunities and cash will start rolling in due to the magic of the Internet, and
- If I did it, so can you, "I guarantee it".
Everyone can make a great living doing this? Guaranteed? What a […]
Agile Landscape (and Garden) Development
There are two main approaches to building out a nicely landscaped yard:
- Waterfall – Large up front design and implementation by a contractor (whether or not an actual waterfall feature is included in the garden),
- Agile – Iterative, incremental and continuous improvement of a design and implementation.
The "Waterfall" approach is typically taken by people who:
- Like having a garden but don't want to be a gardener (insta-garden),
- Have a significant amount of money and want the work done quickly,
- Like to plan everything out on paper beforehand, and
- People starting with essentially a blank slate (new home).
Planning out the hardscape (structural) parts of the landscape requires some […]
Spring Is In The Air?
Today, Saturday the 20th of March was the first day of spring. It was a beautiful sunny day; warm with a light breeze; just what you picture when you think of spring.
When you are living in Calgary (or most of Canada), winter is usually cold and dark with the sun much lower on the horizon. Some people suffer from depression in winter caused by the reduced sunlight. However, I suspect much of the depression is actually caused by realizing your favourite hockey team might not make the playoffs.
So spring brings optimism. (Football will be starting up soon; maybe they will do […]
Jogger Killed by Plane
I read in the paper today that a jogger listening to an iPod while jogging on a beach was hit from behind and killed by a small plane making an emergency landing.
What are the odds of that happening?
A year ago I read about someone jogging with an iPod and getting hit by lightning through the ear buds.
Obviously iPods attract danger and we should all stop jogging just to be safe.
(Or maybe safety is an illusion and we should all listen to iPods while jogging on the beach during a thunderstorm.)
Is Your Business Encouraging Inefficiency?
I was recently taking the LRT (train) here in Calgary and noticed a repair crew working on the train platform.
There were three people: one with a hoe, one with a chipper shovel and one with a corn broom.
Two watched while one person worked. The guy with the hoe would pull off a loose tile, the guy with the chipper would chip out the mortar and the guy with the broom would sweep up the debris. The two not currently busy would carry on a conversation.
While it is easy to pick on these kinds of industries, it is more valuable […]
Fe Fi Fo Scrum – I Smell the Blood of a Best Practices Man
It is the time of year when gardeners start seeding plants indoors. Beans, Jack and giants suddenly popped into my head. (BTW, if you hire a landscaper, gardening is a waterfall process. If you do it yourself it is more an agile and iterative process. Things are always changing and you are never done.)
In "Succeeding with Agile" by Mike Cohn he states:
"Although team members should always look to share with one another their newly discovered good ways of working, they should resist the urge to codify them into a set of best practices."
Best practices imply perfection; a destination. Agile […]
Who is Keeping Score?
In order for you to hire the right (A) people, you need to build a scorecard defining their mission, expected outcomes and key competencies (reference is Who). This serves two benefits:
- It allows you to objectively compare candidates,
- It makes it clear to the new hire, what you want them to do.
This flows from your corporate strategy which when compared to your current staffing levels will determine who you need to hire to achieve your vision.
So really, you should have a scorecard for all of your key employees. For us and the way we are set up, all our employees are […]