Latest Posts - Page 99 of 205

June 17, 2020June 11, 2020 A Positive Point-Of-View

Positive Customer Experience – Finding a Win

Our paychecks primarily come from customers, directly or indirectly. That may point to there being no negatives in dealing with them. Nevertheless, supporting users can be a struggle. Developers and engineers do not typically enjoy support and interaction with them. That does not keep us from finding a positive customer experience in the work we are asked to do. Setting The Stage I have often pointed out that those “pesky customers” slow down our development progress. It is not uncommon to be in a situation where the new features or improved performance we are chasing would be available sooner if we could “pause” our customers for a while. Even maintenance windows would be more convenient if our customers did not... Read more

June 15, 2020June 11, 2020 A Positive Point-Of-View

The Upside of Challenging Problems

We all face obstacles and challenges in our daily work. However, the IT world is full of extra challenging problems. These are the tasks that we struggle against for days or weeks instead of minutes or hours. We can see a project go off the rails due to one of these obstacles, and they can challenge our sanity. They are never fun to experience. Nevertheless, some positives come from these “dark days.” What Does Not Kill Us Makes Us Stronger The most significant positive to come from these challenging problems is the thrill of success. When we get past these types of issues, it shows us we can what we thought was impossible. Our career does not end with that... Read more

June 12, 2020June 9, 2020 A Positive Point-Of-View

The Upside of Recruiters

Timing is everything. There are moments where it is easy to list the upside of recruiters. On the other hand, there are times when we have less nice things to say. For example, that call that interrupts our “coding groove” can make any call unpleasant. It is only made worse when we find the person on the other end has a random job to tell us about. A View Into The World I have come across developers that see no positives in working with headhunters. However, a significant upside of recruiters is that they do the work we prefer to avoid. They fill a role like tax accountants. There are just some areas we prefer not to think about, even... Read more

June 10, 2020June 8, 2020 A Positive Point-Of-View

Open Source Software and Tools- A Positive Look

Open Source software is a staple in most modern careers. One reason is that there are essential pros to using it. Some developers would even argue that it is hard to find negatives with this approach. Love it or hate it, Open Source is here to stay. There are too many languages, frameworks, libraries, and tools that fall under this umbrella to ignore them. Removing Barriers To Entry The free factor of many open source tools and products has opened up development to a greater audience. This push has even driven traditional software houses like Oracle and Microsoft to offer “free,” trial, or developer versions of their tools. We have seen the developer community grow at a rapid pace over... Read more

June 8, 2020June 7, 2020 A Positive Point-Of-View

Technology Changes – Using It To Your Advantage

Technology changes at a fast rate. It might even seem like that speed is increasing every year. This speed of change can be daunting to those that want to “stay current.” It requires us to spend hours every week consuming content and working on new skills or with new tools. While this situation can often be viewed as a negative, there are many positives we can find in these challenges. Steady Improvement The most impactful positive of technology changes and advances is in the area of productivity. Not every new version or tool is a step forward. However, most of them are. These enhancements build over time and have made life in the IT world much better than it was... Read more

June 5, 2020June 5, 2020 A Positive Point-Of-View

Testing Challenges – Teach More Than Quality

We will look at a number of obstacles during this season. The testing challenges that are part of quality assurance can be daunting for developers. However, there are invaluable lessons learned. We will see how testing teaches us about our solution and goes beyond its promise of quality improvements. You might even find a new product based on what testing teaches. A New View One of the most valuable outcomes from these testing challenges is a new view of our solution. When we test we are forced to go beyond the “happy path” that we normally take. Developers can get very myopic in their view of the solution and how to use it. This is not a knock against developers. ... Read more