The Mindset

In yet another great article J. Timothy King describes the importance of passion at work, how it motivates people and make them do great things. The last section in this article is titled Don’t take it for granted:

“When we take passion for granted, we discourage the best motivator we have.”
No one should stay indifferent when […]

Last night I saw an amazing show. It was like nothing I have ever seen.
Imagine ten people on one stage dancing, moving, creating music, singing and even making you laugh while doing so.
With every move they made, they created music. Every note they played, was part of a magical choreography. They used common artifacts […]

I read a lot of articles and blog postings about software development, management and quality. My “favorite” articles are characterized by their ability to present some idea or concept with a sound voice, while blurring other important aspects of the subject. Most of them are not doing that on purpose. But the innocent reader might still get a wrong […]

Is there one? Well, that depends of course on where you work and who you work for.
Sometimes, what you and I might define as professionalism is far from being appreciated. If the organizational subtext does not promote professionalism, you might find yourself being tagged as a trouble maker just for trying to do things […]

I was working on my book yesterday. I read one of the chapters I had written and I wasn’t happy with it. It wasn’t the grammar, nor was it the phrasing. It just didn’t feel right. Something in its flow was awkward, although I couldn’t just put my finger on it.
So I started working […]

Michael Webb wrote a great article about the barriers to effective listening. No matter what your job is, if it involves communicating with people (customers, employees, managers, etc.) you must read this article!
One issue needs to be emphasized, though: listener and speaker are not separate roles.
When you act as a speaker, you should also be […]

A Coding Standard is a common document defining a set of simple, mainly structural, rules for writing code. Software companies tend to sanctify this document and see it as the ultimate answer to their quality problems.
In 1990, the Software Coding Standards Consortium (SCSC) has decided that words in the name of software-related consortiums should be […]

Everybody seems to be looking for professionals. At least that’s what everybody is saying. With the ever-growing development costs and the increasing complexity of projects, you cannot afford settling for less.
Some organizations seem to start realizing that the way they are currently developing software will not meet these increasing needs for long. They know they […]

Do you know the game “Rush Hour”? It is a great thinking game. Your goal is to navigate your car through the traffic jam and gridlock in order to successfully leave the game board. Of course this is not as simple as it might sound as you can see in this picture.
Looking at this picture, I […]

In a recent article James Shore describes Software Design as context sensitive. He rightfully claims that every practice and guideline should be questioned and adapted to the specific context we are currently working in.
This is more than true. Design is context sensitive. Context sensitivity, however, is not unique to the design domain. Many other software development activities […]