To build great software you only need two things – trust and honesty. If you have that, you can build anything, absolutely anything. It might sound cliched or overdone, but it’s the absolute truth. I have worked with the good and the bad of software teams and what sets both apart in both cases areContinue reading “Software Built On Trust”
Author Archives: Greg Thomas
Understanding Software Developer Growth
That’s how it looks, a bunch of erratic lines, one overlapping the other where you are supposed to be doing each and every one all the time and excelling at each and every one all the time. No matter your skill level or where you are at in your career – Junior, Intermediate, Senior, TeamContinue reading “Understanding Software Developer Growth”
The Leadership Exit
Making the decision to leave is never easy. It’s easily doubled when you’re the Leader of a team because not only are you now leaving an organization, you’re now leaving a group of people that you have invested an incredible amount of energy into their own personal and team growth and development that to leaveContinue reading “The Leadership Exit”
How do you Measure your Team?
When you think of the work your team does, what metrics are important to you? How often they are in the office? How many bugs originate from code they are writing? What their overall contribution to releases are? What their bug return rate from QA is? How many unit tests they create with their code?Continue reading “How do you Measure your Team?”
Collaboration’s Biggest Challenge
A few years ago, SLACK was the messaging darling, enabling quick, simplified messaging with minimal setup and management for administrators. In addition, it boasted a robust API/Integration framework which let it do what so many collaboration applications to date had struggled with – get inside everything you work with. Or rather, you get inside SLACKContinue reading “Collaboration’s Biggest Challenge”
Finding your Non-Leadership Style
Leadership Styles are a tricky conversation primarily because no one wants to be pigeonholed being “that” type of Leader (when no one cares for having “that” type of Leader in their organization). But it gets worse, as you start to work with other leaders (maybe you have a group of Team Leads you are mentoring)Continue reading “Finding your Non-Leadership Style”
Bad Renovations in Software
Recently, while doing some work in my basement, I had to remove a vertical bulkhead. Actually, I didn’t have to remove but wanted to see what was behind it after staring at it for so many years. When I opened it up, it was empty, there was nothing of use behind it – no vents,Continue reading “Bad Renovations in Software”
Conference Season is Upon Us
We’re in the thick of it now – Conference aka “Drinking from the Firehose” Season is upon us. From now until October, the conversation around the water cooler and SLACK channel’s are going to be focused on one thing. What conference are you going to this year? And if you didn’t get your first pickContinue reading “Conference Season is Upon Us”
Choosing between the Rewrite or Fix It
It’s easier to rewrite something than to figure out what is going wrong. It’s easier to start from scratch, ignore the history and do it your way. It’s easier to ignore, then engage. The decision to rewrite versus fixing a code problem is always rooted in emotion and not the code. We Can Do ItContinue reading “Choosing between the Rewrite or Fix It”
Lead them in the Middle
Your First Team Meeting is critical to getting things underway with either a new team or project. How you start will set the tone for how the project will kick-off and where your team will look to focus their energies. In the beginning, like the song, “Everything Is Awesome” in the beginning, simple because it’s allContinue reading “Lead them in the Middle”
