It is so easy to distinguish an engineer (or an engineer to be) from a non-engineer. When we interview people for a software engineering position, we want to determine how much of an engineer the candidate is. That’s why we ask a fair amount of questions apparently unrelated to software. Real engineers focus on the problem, break it into pieces, and analyze them. They translate the problem into their “own words”, making analogies with common, easy-to-understand processes. Once their solution is challenged, they are able to optimize and explain it.
Posts in Category: ceo
There is a common perception that collaboration is the universal solution to all issues that software companies encounter. A lot of effort is invested in improving collaboration between tech people, starting from tools that can be easily purchased and ending with programs that encourage collaborative behavior. The idea is quite simple: if people collaborate better, the output of the entire team, both its quality and quantity, will be better.
While I do not want to mitigate against collaboration, there are specific cases where it simply doesn’t work. I will exemplify that and suggest some solutions as well.
There is no apparent connection between these two, but Moonshot is actually in the same trend, even though it uses Intel x86 (Atom). Many people advocate for ARM on servers, mainly because it is low-power, allowing a high CPU count per rack. But no one would mind I guess with a low-power CPU from Intel either.
Unfortunately, not many have a good overall picture on the cloud challenges, not to mention software engineering. And this is pretty complicated.
Several days ago at WHD.global 2013, I gave a presentation on BYOD and I think it is worth sharing it with those of you who did not attend.
What the heck is BYOD, you might ask yourselves. 😀 Before anything else, it’s a pretty complicated name for a process that is quite simple. BOYD allows employees to use their own devices for business purposes.
When I first ask someone this question, I usually get a brutal answer: not a chance!!! This is what I’ve learned the hard way: true innovation is a process. Accidental innovation is not a process, but a fortunate mistake. 😉 In order to innovate, you have to follow a recipe because innovation must be consistent.
Organizing a software company can look like rocket science nowadays. But it shouldn’t be!
Apparently, most startups are unorganized. In other words, when someone who previously worked for a large entity joins the team, they are surprised at the lack of organization. Later on, they are even more surprised to learn that many things actually work better that way.
A couple of hours ago we published the repository for VoipNow 3 Service Provider Edition Beta. It has been a long journey – more than 18 months since the first line of code was written, tens of private Scrum iterations and thousands of issues fixed in JIRA.
Interaction with students made me understand that computer science graduates need some guidance. Every teenager knows that an architect designs structures, a doctor heals people, and a professor teaches students. These jobs are easy to understand. Still, it’s not so obvious what a computer science graduate does. Sadly, many students remain pretty much confused about their mission, even after graduation.
This is the title of a famous book of Stephen Covey. In many online tests we use in the recruitment process we ask a simple question – “What’s the title of the best book you have ever read?”. Frankly, for me this would be a pretty difficult question, mostly because it’s quite impossible to flatten (I have a good definition of best) books based on topic. I can name a few very good books regarding engineering process, product management, architecture etc. But these books cannot compete with War and Peace, Karamazov Brothers, poesy or philosophy.
Everyone praises SJ for his technological achievements. Some say that he was the greatest CEO of our times. The saddest thing in death is that everyone seems to admire you after passing. 🙁
It’s not a secret that I am great admirer of SJ’s work, although I am not a Mac fan in particular. Steve did a lot for our industry. Not only did he bring technology closer to humans, but he simplified the life of many. He truly understood what people liked and how they want to feel. His vision was exceptional.