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"What Is Code?" How I Explain What I Do As software engineering professionals, we each have a role in educating everyone in our circle of influence about just what software is and how critical it is to our everyday lives. Mike Sowers explains how you can answer the question "What is code?" without making your listeners sorry they asked! |
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A Win-Win versus a Win-Lose Approach to Conflict Too often when people address a conflict, they take an I-win-you-lose approach. That distracts from focusing on opportunities for agreement and can make ongoing relationships difficult. When people have to work together, the wise approach is one that serves the best interests of both parties. |
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Ignore the Data at Your Own Risk At work, the evidence of something worth paying attention to is often front and center, and yet we dismiss it. If you ignore the data—negative survey results, team member absences, an increase in bugs, stakeholders who repeatedly miss meetings, etc.—you could be overlooking signs of trouble. |
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How Challenging Your Beliefs Can Improve Your Work The psychological term "confirmation bias" means that once you have a certain belief, you tend to see evidence that supports that belief and to ignore, belittle, or miss evidence that refutes it. This can make you narrow-minded. Instead, try to seek evidence that challenges or refutes your beliefs. |
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Agile and Fear Come Hand in Hand If you’re looking to make the whole organization agile—through iterative work cycles, continuous improvement, and direct feedback from customers—fear has to be involved to some degree. But in order to foster a culture of honesty and trust, this uneasiness will have to be overcome. |
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What Do You Do When You’re Stuck on a Problem? Some problems we can resolve on our own in a couple of minutes. Some take more time, or we can’t resolve them alone. What do you do then? Johanna Rothman suggests scheduling a timebox to find a solution alone, then if that doesn't work, using one of the ideas in this story to "unstick" yourself. |
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How to Manage Project Delays We often attribute project delays to internal reasons, such as poor management, lack of collaboration, resource issues, and software quality, but there are often reasons that fall outside of the norm. Rajini Padmanaban provides some examples of these types of project delays and how to manage them. |
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The Best Advice for Not Giving a Boring Presentation Presentation flaws can turn off your listeners. Eliminating content you view as boring, presenting with enthusiasm, minimizing the use of text, and not reading your slides verbatim can make all the difference between whether your audience enjoys your presentation or spends the time nodding off. |
