Articles for category: Initiative

November 7, 2024

Greg Thomas

Can I have a Moment?

Another set of SPAMMY emails I receive. “Can I have a moment?” Well if we’ve never met, and you emailed me out of the middle of nowhere (honestly I have no idea where you live, for all I know you could be on a space shuttle), chances are no we can’t have a moment? Because a moment, that word, means something treasured, something of value, some level of trust that has built up over time that I give to people who have earned it and that I get back from people where I have earned it with them. You can

November 6, 2024

Greg Thomas

Going into the Cave

Do you need to be online? Seriously, do you need to be on Teams all day long? Every now and again when I have a lot of work to do and no need to meet anyone, I go into the Cave. The Cave is where email and messaging is shut off, you go there, you do work and you come out with work done. To go into the cave the following must be true; You answer no emails, no messages, no meetings – that is the importance of the cave. You go into the problem with a cave, you come

November 4, 2024

Greg Thomas

New Languages, Same Problems

The same development problems, happen irrespective of the languages and platform you use; Delivery schedules Ticket Management Code Re-use Technical Debt API versioning Branching strategies Templates and Re-Use Data Access When we get past those problems, then the game will change.

Triage vs Full Serve vs Self Serve

Triage – address the immediate problem, stabilize, stop the bleeding, redirect, and move on. Full Serve – someone does it for you, all of it, end to end, your job is to ask for it and it is done.  Who you start with, is who you end with. Self-serve – you do it yourself, end to end, you’re on your own.  If you have a problem, you don’t ask for help, you use the tools provided to solve it on your own. You can either triage your services, provide full services for your customers to take care of them, or

Exceptions to the Rules

There are exceptions to any rule. The goal is to ensure that exceptions don’t become the norm. Because if they do, there is no point in having the rule. And if you don’t have the rule, then the norm is what you tried to stop. Unless of course the rule doesn’t apply anymore, in which case you don’t need to wait for the exceptions to occur. You can just tear it down in advance.