Articles for category: Delivery

January 21, 2021

Greg Thomas

Finding Pain Points

Every project has a set of pain points that aren’t a direct output of the project but are indirectly related to it. “We can’t find reference documents anywhere.” “People are always late for meetings.” “Meetings go on too long.” “Our architecture is a mess.” The list goes on and on and on. These are pain points to the delivery of the project. These are pain points that are not only slowing your team down, but are holding them back. These are pain points that threaten to hurt your team, weaken their resolve and kill their morale. These are the thousand

Works on my Machine

As a Developer, I have always hated saying these words, it always feels a bit like a copout – like I didn’t do my job, left something out, forgot a scenario, ignored something, etc, etc. I don’t mind the jokes that come with it (and they do come, in waves and torrents). When this happens my first thoughts are; Don’t say it. Ask for logs. Get a screenshot. Work the problem. It’s that last one that is so important that separates the issue from being lobbed over the fence for someone else to deal with or for picking it up

January 18, 2021

Greg Thomas

Do More Than Just Show Up

Everyone and anyone can show up to a meeting. But only some can contribute. Only some can ask the hard questions. Only some can move the ball forward. Only some come with information and content relevant to what is being discussed. If you are attending a meeting with the thought that you need to be “entertained” or “wowed” – save everyone some time and watch the recording later.

It’s all Going to Break

Your code. Your team. How you lead. What project you are working on. What you are learning. Everything, it all breaks at some point. Good. That’s the point, if it doesn’t break, you’re not learning, you’re going through tutorials and motions where everything is isolated and perfect. It’s messy, all of it, it’s supposed to be messy, that’s the point. Break it, make a mess, fix it and grow.

January 13, 2021

Greg Thomas

The Artful Debugger

Your bug might have been reported on X, but when you dug into it, it was really an issue with component Y. Component Y didn’t handle the error correctly and hid it instead but eventually it bubbled up stopping your code in the progress. Upon further inspection, it looked like it’s not a problem at all but a feature of Platform A that can be implemented via toggling Option B. All this to say, to enable Option B you needed a certificate from Vendor C that would contain the proper subject names of Domains D and E which you don’t