Latest Posts - Page 132 of 205

March 25, 2019March 16, 2019 Lessons Learned From Consulting

Consulting Intangibles – Building Relationships

An excellent measure of long-term success is how much your customers like you. Thus, building relationships are a critical part of your job. You may have the skills to be able to stay busy without the “personal touch.” However, life will be simpler when you create some advocates along the way. Building Relationships Organically Your primary focus should be solving problems. When you do this, it is hard for people to not be positively biased towards you. We have a hard time disliking those that remove our pain points. On the other hand, a doctor with a bad bedside manner may end up being an alternative decision rather than a primary physician. The good news is that your normal schedule... Read more

March 22, 2019March 10, 2019 Lessons Learned From Consulting

Explicit and Implicit Project Deliverables

We have touched on the idea that there are explicit and implicit project deliverables in most cases. These may be due to our customer simplifying a solution or general prerequisites and best practices. Some common implicit project deliverables include documentation, test scripts, demonstrations and the like. We need to take all of these into account for our estimates and risk calculation. A Complete List I have found that one of the most significant contributors to bad estimation in software is missing requirements. We spend time on designing the explicit features and let the implicit ones fall through the cracks. Then those missed items pop up during the project and add a little (or a lot of time) to the schedule. These “oops”... Read more

March 20, 2019March 10, 2019 Lessons Learned From Consulting

Deliverable Packaging and Creating a Customer Experience.

When we complete a project for a customer or employer, we give them a product. Thus, there is a form of deliverable packaging that we need to consider for that hand-off. This concept may be confusing, but it is not complicated. You do not need to shrinkwrap a box with a USB drive in it or anything like that. Instead, we are focused on documentation, scripts, and how you hand over the final product. The Simple Stuff When your deliverables are source code or a single document, then little packaging is needed. It is either the file sent via email or committed to source control. No installation is required. However, you should provide comments or some sort of notes, so... Read more

March 19, 2019March 17, 2019 Become a Better Developer

Personal Project Management – Small Scale, Big Value

I have met more than a few developers that see project management as an unnecessary overhead for software development. On the one hand, I have experiences where PM was done wrong and slowed down progress. However, I have also seen where it can be a critical factor in the success of a solution. That leaves us to consider where personal project management can bring value to or small or side projects. Finding A Balance We need to look at personal project management as many other things in life. Moderation is required and a determination of the value of balance. Any project management is an overhead to the implementation process. Unfortunately, that is not arguable. We are making lists or adding... Read more

March 18, 2019March 10, 2019 Lessons Learned From Consulting

Project Deliverables, Quality, Guidelines and Best Practices

Sooner or later, every developer is asked for project deliverables. This may be source code, binary files, or full-blown documents. No matter which of these is required, the best approach is to make sure these are complete. Thus, let’s look at some guidelines, suggestions, and best practices to help you nail this part of your job. Follow The Instructions First and foremost, follow directions. We should have learned this in grade school. Just as in those educational exercises, project deliverables should directly come from the requirements. Do not add deliverables unless they are implied. More importantly, do not skip on any of the project deliverables. The best way to look at these is to see them as what you will be... Read more

March 15, 2019March 1, 2019 Lessons Learned From Consulting

Communicating Progress and Status – Consulting Tips

No matter how good you are at your job, sooner or later communicating status will be required. A helpful hint is to avoid waiting until this becomes a requirement. Instead, get in the habit of regularly reporting your progress and status to your boss. Since this is a regular task, you should find the proper balance between keeping it short and providing enough detail. A Weekly Status Template First and foremost, try to keep your status report to a single page. The commonly accepted parts of this communication are, list what you did, list what you plan to do, list any issues or questions. Your weekly report should be able to capture these items in less than ten bullet points for each.... Read more