"Delivering uncommon results in software culture"

Specialization and Consequences

I was in a meeting recently with some other senior level developers. We were joking about what passes today for “full-stack”.   By senior, I mean that the experience in the room was 30 years minimum, and all of us are still coding.    Full...
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Innovation in People Terms

Innovation in any system is the tension between Talent and Change Resistance. In tech circles, we tend to see innovation as new exciting ways to solve problems and make lives easier. We embrace change and view it mostly, as positive forward progress.  However, we often...
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What Developers Want – Part 2

Authors note: This is a multi-part blog series covering a number of topics discussed in our mini-summit. Part 1 can be found here.  Management Methods and Developers Our discussion revealed that heavy production-line management methods factor into low developer...
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What Developers Want – Part 1

Recently, we hosted a mini-summit (definition: beer and pizza) for mid to senior level developers to get their take on workplace culture through the lens of software development. We found a number of things in common, and a few interesting variations that help to describe the...
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KMBZ Movers and Shakers Radio Interview

Here is a radio podcast I did back in September at the KMBZ studios on software.   
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Turning Away Work… Compromising Values?

As a business owner, it's not easy to turn away work.  You have a fiscal responsibility to the growth of your company – certainly one measure of employee well-being. But if the well-being of your employees could be jeopardized by a potentially toxic...
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Developer Shortages in Kansas City

Do you know what the current ratio of open software developer positions to developers is here in Kansas City?   It's roughly 4:1   Ask any recruiter. In fact, ask any developer who is polled 3 times a week by those same recruiters.    The...
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Software Mentoring: A Special Case?

I've been very lucky to have had some great mentors in my life – and didn't know it at the time. That's the funny thing about mentors – they're measured by the historical influence they had on you – the things you remember, repeat and recount...
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Where Culture meets Software

(This is a four-part blog addressing Process and Tools within Software Culture. This fourth part discusses our misunderstanding of Culture.. Part 3 can be found here.)   There seems to be this thoughtful, slowly growing community of IT folks who believe that the future...
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Our IT Process Wars

proc·ess, pro·cess/ˈpräˌses/, /prəˈses/   Noun: A series of actions or steps taken to achieve an end.    (This is a four-part blog addressing Process and Tools within Software Culture. This third part discusses our misuse of process. Part 2 can...
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Processes and Tools – IT’s Motherboard complex?

(This is Part 2 of a four-part blog addressing Processes and Tools within Software Culture. This second part discusses the misuse and limits of Tools & Processes. Part 1 can be found here. Part 3 can be found here.) We provide solutions – it's what we do....
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Agile called out

(This is a four part blog addressing Processes and Tools within Software Culture. This first part discusses our past and its relationship to the Agile Manifesto. Part II can be found here.)  Are we still trying to fix Individuals & Interactions with Processes &...
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