I recently read an article “Ted Talks are all Lying to You” wherein the author was opining that our standard literature around creativity and innovation in the business domain is complete rubbish. The article is an interesting read, but at the end of the day, creativity is not what most people in business do –…
Quality Beyond “Working”
When you think of the term “Software Quality”, what comes to your mind. Let me propose that how you think of quality depends heavily on your “relationship” to the software product. If you are a user of that software product – quality relates to the following qualities in order: Operational Correctness – It produces the…
IT Staffing Strategy and Procurement
In between IT managers and the vendors they use for staff sourcing, there is an administrative organization. This organization is responsible for contracts and policies that support the hiring of contract staff. Some organizations house this inside of human resources, others inside of what would be a traditional purchasing or procurement department.
Design Philosophy And Coding Style
Caution, Rant Alert! In my career, I have been some kind of leader on about a dozen new application projects. It is interesting to me that the only time I have ever heard about “design philosophy” or “coding style” is when some new developer comes on a project and gets his butt handed to him…
A New Aspect of Talent
Seth Godin’s Post: Your Alphabet is a reminder to me about something that I thought while writing these two posts describing the aspects of talent IT Staffing Talent and IT Staffing Strategy Considerations. These two posts talk about talent and about the impact of talent on IT Staffing Strategy. Seth’s post reminded me of one…
IT Staffing Sources and Process
In the application delivery domain, there are four basic sourcing models or patterns: Permanent – the team is composed of permanent employees Contract Staff Augmentation (onshore) – the team is composed of some mix of permanent employees and local contract staff hired by our managers. Outsourcing (onshore) – the team is composed of contractors from…
A Quick Planning Primer
This post is for those of you who are having to plan your own activities, or the activities of others for the first time. Or maybe you just want an easier faster way to think about creating a plan. Maybe you want something simple – because all the complex project management body of knowledge ideas…
Developer Interview Thoughts
Recent interviews with developers have caused me to evaluate and devise questions that help assess behavior motivators… While a more technical interviewer is responsible for questions related to technical competence, I am responsible for questions related to work ethic and value systems – in other words cultural fit.
Top Six Estimating Tips for Programmers
Every programmer struggles with providing estimates. It is a universal truth of software development. Most of the time we go way too deep, try to be more precise than we have any reason to be. Many times we have fear driving our estimates – what if they are too big (will they cancel the project?…
IT Staffing Talent
Skill – The ability to execute a practice, process, or procedure successfully; the ability to accomplish. Competence – The ability to increase or acquire skill over time; the ability to grow in capacity. Talent – The ability to decide which skill is best to apply, and/or invent and execute practice, process, or procedure, where no…