Articles for category: Initiative

November 22, 2019

Greg Thomas

Great, Everything has Changed

Two weeks ago, Microsoft wrapped up its yearly Ignite Conference and before long, Apple and Google will have their big conferences again. Amazon and Facebook will have theirs. And everything will change again. All that code you wrote will now need to be upgraded to a new platform. That product you were working on was done in half the time by twice as many people. The idea you had is already being worked on and set for release next month. What you designed for the customer might as well wait until they start using the new stuff. This is technology,

November 21, 2019

Greg Thomas

Sometimes, you need to Act Like It

No one is born into a role. Everyone wants to a police officer at the age of two, but no one actually is. Just like no one tells you the day you are going to lead a team. It just kind of happens, maybe you had an inkling something was going to change, maybe it was a formal promotion to being a manager but now there it is in front of you – you are a Leader. It’s not easy stepping into a new role, it’s always scary, even if it’s just one set of eyeballs staring back at you.

November 15, 2019

Greg Thomas

The More You Invest

Fast forward to 2:45 – where Ramsay says to the chef – “They more work and effort you put in, the more it hurts when it goes wrong.” – I’m paraphrasing out some of the pieces about food but the sentiment is exactly the same in anything you are doing – coding, writing, sports, whatever it is. The more you put in, the more it hurts when it goes wrong. I love this line because it perfectly captures on line that we must cross between investing wholly in what we are doing and giving up and when the going gets

November 11, 2019

Greg Thomas

Before you Review Someone’s Work

If someone asks you to review your work know that two things are happening at that point in time. They want feedback on what they could do to improve what they have created. They value your thoughts and opinions on what they are creating. Saying – “looks good” or “this is great” or “amazing work” is not feedback or a review of someone’s work. It is a confirmation that you have received the work disguised as having reviewed it. A better response is – “I don’t have time to look at this right now, but will make time next week

November 8, 2019

Greg Thomas

More Than the Next Sprint

If you find yourself consistently pushing out work to the next sprint, then I have some bad news for you. You’re not doing anything closely related to either SCRUM or Agile, you’re simply doing work and let it roll on and on and on and never delivering anything. If it takes you six weeks to deliver something you thought would take two, learn from it, what could you have done better? What made you think you could do it in two? How can you plan for it better next time and avoid the same mistakes? If you can’t avoid the