June 20, 2009
There are many, many traits needed to be a good (or great) software developer. You see them mentioned everywhere: math skills, deductive reasoning, curiousity, craftmanship, etc.. I also think they need resolve.
Resolve to push through the tough times and the easy times. All of us are expected to adapt to new or changing requirements. A lot of us must also push through the moribund things we have done a 100 times and offer no challenge whatsoever. Just this week, I was cruising through some website changes in classic ASP, when one phone call turned the whole week to….well, nasty.
Just look at this example from Computerworld. I can guarantee you there are software developers involved in the decisions making process at these small businesses, helping decide whether to buy, build or maintain. That takes resolve too.
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Posted by Scott Kersey
April 9, 2009
While I was reading this great article on BusinessWeek about innovation, I was struck by how much the findings resemble what happens at the networking meetings I attend. Each of us, as small business owners, have problems we have to solve every day. One of those is “how do I get more clients?”. The answer is business networking.
Listen to these findings from the article…
“The further the focal problem was from the solvers’ field of expertise, the more likely they were to solve it.”
“…diversity increases the probability of coming up with a solution…”
“Serendipity is most likely to occur when a large number of diverse participants are aggregated in ways that expose them to a broad range of challenging problems”
People who engage in networking quickly find that a referral can come from anyone in any industry. As an example, one of my projects was referred to me by a commercial painter. The more diverse your network, the more likely you are to uncover opportunities. The more people you expose to your “problem” of needing or wanting new clients, the greater the likelihood of finding new clients.
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Posted by Scott Kersey
January 29, 2009
Lately I have been so impressed in the power of my network. Not that it’s extensive or anything special but it is there for me. Every time I network with someone I’ve met years ago or last week, I receive information and advice that I could not normally achieve by myself.
Last week, it was the owner of a web design firm in Mesa I met at an ASBA function. Through pure chance, we sat by each other and when I heard her company name, bells went off. I knew this person from some where or some place. After the function, I asked a few questions trying to figure this out. After 10 minutes, we figured it out, it was the AZIPA group. In the time it took to figure this out, I recognized that this business owner operated using the same principles as mine, namely knowledge, work ethic and honesty. We wanted to talk further, so we agreed to meet over coffee the following week.
During the coffee, we discovered we had quite a bit in common besides the markets we serve (and technology we worship). We were both candid and honest. She could give advice and receive it, as easily as could I. We shared what worked, what did not work and what needed work. We were both organizers of a networking group, her at one time and myself right now. It was a great meeting. I gained a ton of advice and perspective completely for free (and because I tried).
This week, I met up with a old colleague from a former consulting gig for lunch. He brought someone along I had not met before. Both work at Intel in Chandler but have some entrepreneurial ambitions. We discussed business development at length and yet again, the conversation led to places I would have never imagined nor achieved on my own. Even though we were interested in different markets, we could relate to the power, depth and variety of our respective networks.
You’ll often read that you should dust off your network if you are in the market in the job. You’ll often read that building your business requires networking and deep rooted relationships (based in trust). What you don’t hear about is how strong your network is. This comes from the diversity, the openness and honesty of those in your network. People you know are ready and willing to tell you just what you need to hear. I recommend you get out there and enjoy it for yourself. It’s worth it.
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Posted by Scott Kersey
January 24, 2009
Given my complete disdain for creating help files (see HTMLHelp, MAML, RoboHelp) and Microsoft’s own wavering over CHM files and MAML, I needed to make the conversion to a wiki based solution for my projects. Wow, where does one start? With the last wiki tool I used and hated or the one before that I despised. You see, wiki authoring tools are clunky. Clunky to install, clunky to edit and nearly impossible to get configuration support for.
Luckily, I stumbled across WikiMatrix. They have a Wiki Choice Wizard that will guide you through the decision process. Want page history? Click here. Want support vendors? Want localization? Click here and here. After 6 or so questions, voila, here is a list of a wikis that meet your criteria. As you click on each one of the wikis for a closer look, you get a complete list of features. Even syntax examples! Thank you WikiMatrix and thank you CosmoCode for creating it!
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Posted by Scott Kersey
January 16, 2009
I attend a number of networking events each month to build relationships with other professionals and entrepreneurs. I NEVER have a hard time explaining why I am good at what I do. It’s simple. No one in the room will meet someone as dedicated as I am to learning everything I can about software development and small business. I have an addiction and it’s hard to compete with someone with such focus.
If you are considering going out on your own, because of a recent layoff or an impending one, you should know exactly why you are doing it. You should be doing it because you are the best at what you do. You’ll offer dedication, knowledge and service that clients cannot imagine today. It takes that to win new clients. It’s not luck, it’s dogged persistence and demonstrable proof that you are better at what you do than most. This point is well illustrated by this article, ala
… there is always room at the top applies everywhere. If you are good at what you do (meaning if you are in the top 10% – 15%) there will always be a place for you and you will always do well. It doesn’t matter what field you’re in or what your place is in that field. There is always room for someone who’s great at what they do …
You’ve probably heard the adage “love what you do and success will come”, but I would add that you better be great at it too.
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Posted by Scott Kersey
September 15, 2008
Recently, I was challenged by a prospective client to explain why I should get the web application project when I only had 3 years of ASP.NET experience. I’ll admit I was unprepared for the question. My hesitant, but entirely valid, response was about how software development projects are made up of many important pieces including business analysis, project management, application design (i.e. middle tier), user interface, testing and maintenance.
This really got me thinking about the history of .NET, and therefore ASP.NET, and what is the best level of experience to have when working on solutions in 2008. You see, .NET was originally released in version 1.0 in 2002. As a matter of fact, the first demo of ASP+ was here in Phoenix at PDC (Professional Developers Conference) in 2000. The .NET framework 1.0 (and 1.1) was easily dismissed as typical Windows development, i.e. you had better wait until the first service pack before developing anything really important on top of it.
I distinctly remember 3 weeks of experimentation with .NET 1.1 while I had some bench time in 2003 after .NET 1.1 was released. Back then I wasn’t much of a web developer, I was more focused on Windows applications and SQL Server. I didn’t know what I had. ASP.NET 1.1 had real promise while the Windows Forms portion of the framework was very crashy. Given that I developed (then and now) robust applications that my clients depended upon day in and day out to run their business, I dismissed .NET Framework 1.1. I don’t regret it either.
The .NET 2.0 framework released in 2005 is when most developers, including myself, finally came on board. Ask any developer (today), what their favorite version of .NET is and the response will be 2.0. The introduction of master pages, web parts, personalization and declarative data access really made developers job easier.
So, given some time and perspective…my 3 years of .NET experience are right on track with the release of a stable version of the framework. You can make the point that I might be a better .NET developer if I had those additional two or three years of .NET experience, because I would have experienced more pain and thus learned harder lessons. I’ll agree with that if you’ll agree that, during that same period, I was providing my clients with robust software built on proven platforms (rather than working in immature tool-sets/frameworks just to advance my own knowledge). I won’t even bring up the 6 to 10 new business models I learned in that same time-frame that might provide benefits to the business a prospective client would like me to learn today.
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Posted by Scott Kersey
Posted by Scott Kersey 
