Leadership

More Thoughts on Why Techs Don’t Like Documentation

A few years ago, I was interviewing candidates for a systems analyst job, and trotted out one of my standard questions: Tell me something you have done that you are proud of. This particular developer called out her source code annotations (comments), and was rather specific about her own comment quality standards. But when I asked her if she likes to write documentation, she was quite hesitant - and that surprised me a bit, made me think. What's the difference…

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New Way of Working Part 1 – and an Interesting New Direction

Sure, I've been mobile for some time, but it's late spring in Chicago, and after such a hard winter, I am trying to take better advantage of the balmy weather and these newfangled mobile devices to get work done in alternative places, using alternative methods. The work is a bit different as well; I'm taking a hard run at some "digital strategy" topics, and forcibly breaking away from the manic focus on cost and productivity. Well, maybe "manic" is a…

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‘Three Types’ Revisited – Shades of Grey that Matter

There is a flaw in my simplistic story of the Three IT Archetypes - if/when someone points it out, I will openly admit it, but would also insist on a follow-up conversation. Strictly peer-to-peer [regardless of title], one part technique and one part philosophy - and preferably over a suitable beverage. The problem is the oversimplification - although the diagram hints at it, you typically need to point out that there will always be some overlap. eCommerce is a classic…

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When Asked a Simple Question, Give a Simple Answer

How much rigor does any decision really need? One clue might be to look at the number of significant digits you will be presenting. Say you are asked to present the cost impact of IT systems on a major acquisition or merger. Based on the context of the conversation - the macro-financials, the pay-back models, and the YOY growth plan for the next five years, you will probably be delivering a single slide that shows $20M in cost and/or benefits…

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Managing IT: Three Archetypes

I'll tell you about this visualization from a recent internal conversation, but I may end up aggravating some career IT people out there. Yes, I have massively oversimplified things - but I'm trying to develop a broader understanding, and I think it's a good first step. The original question was "How do I manage IT?", but it quickly morphed into "how can I drive / derive value from IT?" (note the powerful difference that a single letter makes - derive sounds sustainable).…

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Change is Easy. Habits are Hard.

At technology conferences, vendor seminars, and user group, I enjoy the networking conversations - professionals looking to leverage each others' background, experience, and relationships, ostensibly to forward their own careers, but openly trying to solve a problem with a win-win for both sides of the connection. Inevitably, however, the conversations refine and regress down to a common theme - the classic oversimplification "change is hard". Much of the time, I'd wager that change in your organization is comparatively easy -…

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