The silver bullet in software development is all about value

It has been 26 years since I wrote my first commercial software code. With that I mean that I have written code that somebody has paid for. What I did then is to use my knowledge and capabilities within mathematics, physics and software development to deliver a...

How to keep the team together when distributing a colocated team

The main difference between working in a co-located or distributed environment is how we communicate together. Experiences show that miscommunication is always a part of any failure and good communication is the basic for all successful teams. Main success factors...

Unlock the intrinsic motivation

Reflections on how to unlock the intrinsic motivation of your colleagues Performance appraisals is the standard many organizations are following when they aim to check the status among their employees, adjust the skills and salaries. This solution have been around for...

Team lead: Do you count successes or add value?

A couple of days ago I had a long and deep discussion with a good friend around how to be best possible leader in a software development team. Throughout the discussions we identified many types of leaders we both had in addition to our own leadership styles. The...

How to maximize business value in software development?

Once upon a time there were some companies trying to build the perfect software. They called it the killer app. Unfortunately, they struggled producing any value and got killed themselves. Their CEOs and boards of directors asked WHY. After a lot of analysis and...

The science of prioritization

What to do first; this is the question! There are only 24 hours a day. Time is money and you can not value things equally. Something brings you more value, other things are urgent while something else should be done sooner or later. How to set priorities and know that...

Introduction to the science of prioritization

What to do first; this is the question! There are only 24 hours a day. Time is money and you can not value things equally. Something brings you more value, other things are urgent while something else should be done sooner or later. How to set priorities and know that...

The art of Communication

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then...

Are you working in a team or in a group of people?

Often we see people working together. When we are introduced to them, they present themselves as a team. We think also that they are a team. However, when looking closer at these people we see that they have different goals, operating on different agendas, level of...

How to build scalable teams

When observing IT development teams we still see that many companies are still using Component teams as the main way of doing Software development. Component team is a team of people working with only one component of the whole system. They become experts of this...