Articles for category: Leadership

December 18, 2021

Greg Thomas

Your Job Description

Most likely it’s evolved. Beyond what you started doing, beyond what was in the paperwork. Perhaps what is leaps and bounds from where you started two years ago where everyone was elbows apart and now you are miles away from each other. Despite all that, do you know what your job description is? I’m not talking about the one that everyone can pull up from the company website and go “here, this is what I do” or the one that you can download from a job posting where the only comparison is the title. I’m talking about what you do,

December 17, 2021

Greg Thomas

What you Deliver

What is it that you deliver to your customers?  Your team?  Your CEO?  Your clients? Writing code, building test cases, writing requirements – those aren’t what you deliver – they are the output of what you deliver. Here are some ideas of what you can deliver (written in the I format) I deliver scalable, performant solutions. I deliver software that takes a licking, keeps on ticking, and comes back to life when everything around it fails. I deliver teams that can build anything. I deliver guidance, mentoring, coaching to junior team members so they can one day lead this company.

December 16, 2021

Greg Thomas

Reusing Code

Let this picture sink in.  I don’t know who made it but it’s perfect. If you want every possible test scenario run, then you should be prepared to pay for every random test scenario. The problem isn’t in the code we write (that needs to grow and iterate and develop) but what we are willing to pay for it.  If you are using something beyond its means, beyond what it was originally intended to do because it’s “Free” that is not just the coder’s problem but yours too. I once wrote a piece of code that was meant as a

December 13, 2021

Greg Thomas

Where the Faults Are

Every team has its fault lines, a divide where multiple faults come together.  If you live near the fault line you know it exists.  The further you get away from it, the less important it seems or the potential for harm exists because it is “over there” and not near you. At any point in time, it’s the role of the Dev Manager to know what faults will trigger these lines to break and fall down upon one another.  Because if it does happen, they are the person on the ground looking to repair their damage and help their team

December 11, 2021

Greg Thomas

A three minute call is all it took

No one should ever be part of a call that is delivered in this fashion.  Your company should have all the breakers in place to ensure this never happens. Hopefully the last of these we ever hear of, but here’s our take on Remotely Prepared – https://www.upsidedownoffice.com/podcast/this-weeks-3-minute-mass-zoom-firing And here is one of many articles that references this debacle. All I can say, is something of this magnitude should never be phoned in, and this is what it felt like for these employees.  

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