I’ve written before about the multitude of ways that teams end up failing themselves. In The Math of Mediocrity, I explored how we temper our expectations of excellence when our wildest ideas and imagination meet the molasses of reality. In...
Over the weekend, I listened to a TED Radio Hour podcast titled The Meaning of Work. The whole thing is worth a listen, but there was something in the first segment by Margaret Heffernan which really caught my attention: Social...
We just wrapped up our first hire through LinkedIn Recruiter. Prior to this, every engineering resource at InnovoCommerce has been sourced through Stack Talent (formerly Stack Careers) directly or indirectly. We had great success with Stack and I hired two...
I recently conducted an interview for a managerial position and one question I wish I had asked was “Describe a day in the life of this role”. I thought of this later as I was driving, but I really like...
Poorly Controlled Scope Scope is enemy number 1; it is the amorphous blob that threatens to consume and grow until it is an uncontrollable monster, swallowing all of your carefully planned man hours. Increases in scope are often the result...
Eric Brechner came up with one of my favorite acronyms of all time in software development: FOCKED. I want to add an alternate: Failure to Orchestrate Collective Knowledge Effectively for Delivery. Successful delivery of software requires that different members of...
One of the lessons I’ve been mulling about the past few weeks is the importance of scope when delivering software. Delivery of software can be thought of as a balancing act between three buckets: Time – this is the schedule...
From Peopleware, 3rd Edition: The propensity to lead without being given the authority to do so is what, in organizations, distinguishes people that can innovate and break free of the constraints that limit their competitors. Innovation is all about leadership,...
Reflecting on the past year and a half, I’ve come to some conclusions on how development teams can be successful in delivering software. I don’t think any of them are major or relevatory, but I think each team and each...
One of the things I’ve had to do quite often in the last few years is conduct technical interviews. It’s always a challenge as of course, if you want to make sure that a resource is technically competent in specific...