Data Driven Projects
From the dawn of programming time, one of the holy grails that programmers have chased is to avoid hard-coding data values into program code if at all possible. Since most significant applications use some form of database management system, software applications can be developed that are extremely flexible because their behaviour can be changed by manipulating the underlying data, rather than program code. Over the past ten years, I have worked on a ton of projects where application changes...
Read MoreNumeracy Skills are Undervalued
I believe that the most important attribute for any business person to possess is great communication skills. However, this is followed closely by numeracy skills. Numeracy is defined as “the ability to use numbers, especially in arithmetical operations”. Communication and numeracy skills are very different in that there is a very broad range of communications skills but with numeracy, it has been my experience that you are either strong in this area or you aren’t. Here’s an...
Read MoreAgile and Common Sense
Agile is hard. Agile is mistaken for a silver bullet. This is a great blog post. There is a fair degree of common sense in both these statements. I love common sense. I love it even more when it gets applied to the process of software development in companies. As a PM who made his PM bones using predominantly (but not exclusively) PMBOK-based methodologies, Agile-based approaches worry me only in that they appear to be driven more as a reaction to negative experiences with existing software...
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