Doug's Blog Archives – Page 34 of 58

6 Apr 2010

Employee Slotting Tools

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:53:57-06:00April 6th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership|

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 […]

4 Apr 2010

Optimizing Developer Productivity

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:52:05-06:00April 4th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Software Development|

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 […]

1 Apr 2010

New Developer Computers

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:56:39-06:00April 1st, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Software Development|

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.

Notes: See TopNew.in for the […]

29 Mar 2010

Using the Last Roll of Toilet Paper

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:56:43-06:00March 29th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Software Development|

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 […]

26 Mar 2010

Good Code Today, Legacy Code Tomorrow

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:56:53-06:00March 26th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Software Development|

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 […]

24 Mar 2010

“Do What I Did and Get Rich” Books

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:56:57-06:00March 24th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

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 […]

22 Mar 2010

Agile Landscape (and Garden) Development

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:57:03-06:00March 22nd, 2010|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Software 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 […]

20 Mar 2010

Spring Is In The Air?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:57:08-06:00March 20th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

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 […]

17 Mar 2010

Jogger Killed by Plane

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:57:12-06:00March 17th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

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.)

12 Mar 2010

Is Your Business Encouraging Inefficiency?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:57:16-06:00March 12th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership|

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 […]

Doug’s Blog

The Business Case