You are a great software engineer with years of experience under your belt. You've seen too many technologies come and go to easily fall for the next hyped framework. You choose the tools which get the job done and have a good chance to keep working for the years to come. Despite growing experience, your … Continue reading Three things you need to stop doing when becoming an engineering manager
Category: General
Growing Pains: Adding Web Services to Legacy Desktop Applications
As a desktop application business, you decide to take a chance and jump onto the "Web" bandwagon. Sure, this whole Internet thing has been hyped for a decade, but maybe there's something to it after all? Your first idea is to tackle that old workhorse called E-Mail. Pictures are only getting bigger and you just … Continue reading Growing Pains: Adding Web Services to Legacy Desktop Applications
Good Communication as the Starting Point of Change
I'm an OK speaker and a better listener. I tend to passively engage in regularly scheduled meetings (you know which ones I mean). When some interesting points arise, my radar lights up and I lean forward. When some of those points turn into horrifying half-truths, I gasp inside my head and wonder what in the … Continue reading Good Communication as the Starting Point of Change
Agile Web Development & Operations: What do YOU want it to be?
For nearly four years Dan and I have shared our experiences and ideas about agile development and DevOps. We would like to ask you, our dear readers, how we could help you to become even more agile and have more fun doing your job. Please help us to understand your needs better by taking our … Continue reading Agile Web Development & Operations: What do YOU want it to be?
The 5 Biggest Mistakes When Hiring
Sad but true - it's pretty rare for managers to hire the right people. If there are too many candidates, effective filtering is critical. Too few candidates, and it's hard to get applications at all, much less the right ones. I want to describe the top five errors you make when trying to hire the … Continue reading The 5 Biggest Mistakes When Hiring
Do Annual Budgets Hurt Agility?
Desktop application development is traditionally done in waterfall development mode. Specifications and requirements are gathered over a period of months before being unleashed upon a "pool" of developers for implementation. Development times run into thousands of man days after which a "beta" product is released to the QA team (or perhaps some very brave customers). … Continue reading Do Annual Budgets Hurt Agility?
Stabilizing Application Architectures Through Simplification
Consider the following: People are complicated and companies are run by a lot of people. A relationship between two people is complicated. Relationships between companies? Well, you see where I'm going. Outsource a software development project requiring 10 developers, an on-site team of 3 managers and 4 developers, involving a total of 4 external companies. … Continue reading Stabilizing Application Architectures Through Simplification
Top Three Traits of Successful Engineers
You know it within an hour of working with them. A special kind of sysadmin or developer that not only knows how to do their job, but really cares about doing it right. This is the person that makes you refactor that duplicate method or add that one last test. The kind of engineer that … Continue reading Top Three Traits of Successful Engineers
Protected: [Question] What’s the difference between TDD and BDD?
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Agile Web Operations: What do YOU want it to be?
For nearly two years Dan and I have shared our experiences and ideas about agile development and system administration. With every post we hoped to be helpful, and maybe some of them even were... Now, as we approach 500 subscribers, we would like to ask you, our dear readers, how we could help you to … Continue reading Agile Web Operations: What do YOU want it to be?
Agile Web Operations 