Tag Archives: efficiency

Innovation Debt

If you work with software engineers you likely hear the phrase “technical debt” regularly.* This is a painful reality for active projects, but just as painful is something you won’t hear discussed: Innovation Debt. We incur this debt from failing to innovate and renovate ourselves and our products. While the pain from this kind of debt isn’t felt as quickly, when the bill comes due it may be more expensive than a firm can bear.

In most companies only the executives think or talk about the need for innovation, while those with Continue reading

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Filed under Management, Revolution, Software Development, Strategy

Ask The Right Questions

When you confront a problem, one of the most important things you can do is ensure you are asking the correct questions. Too often we dive in to solving a problem the moment it is presented, but quite frequently, that will not lead to an optimal solution. Sometimes it doesn’t even solve the problem at all! Instead, step back from the problem and ask a few questions.

  • What are you trying to accomplish? (or, what is the desired result?)
  • Why is this important now?
  • Who should be tackling this issue (and how can I/we help them to do so)?

By asking these and similar questions, you can determine if you are attacking the real root cause of a problem, the right problem, or potentially even something you don’t need to worry about at all. This takes only a moment, and can save so much.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

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Filed under Efficiency, Learning, Strategy

“My Team Is Perfect,” Or Why You Need QA

Even a cursory look online you will net lots of opinion and research telling you why software development is so much more predictable and efficient with proper software quality assurance (SQA), yet almost every small software shop decides SQA is one of the roles they can do without. Continue reading

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Filed under Efficiency, Project Management, Software Development