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• Opinions Change

  Opinions change, and they should change as more and better evidence surfaces. There are words for this: “learning” and “growing” are but two of them. Communication plays a key role in changing opinions. I’ve been studying communication recently and I’ve Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 26, 2015 9:30 AM by andyleonard | 1 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Leadership, Doing Software Right, Consulting

• While You Have It…

  I remind my children who live at home - the "junior engineers" - to deal with the things they have in their hands while they have them in their hands . Why? Because it’s inefficient to put something down only to pick it up later and put it where Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 26, 2015 2:08 AM by andyleonard | 4 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Leadership

• What Customers Want

  Not once, in my combined years of direct employment by enterprises or consulting, has a customer contacted me about an issue about the grain of their date dimension in their enterprise data warehouse. Not one single time. I haven’t been contacted about Read More... Posted Monday, August 10, 2015 12:00 PM by andyleonard | 0 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Leadership, Values, Consulting

• On Kindness

  Do you remember that time kindness backfired? Do you remember kindness letting you down? Me neither. Kindness never fails. I can hear you thinking, “Yeah, Andy? Well there was this time I was kind and…” The thing you’re going to finish that sentence with, Read More... Posted Wednesday, April 15, 2015 10:47 AM by andyleonard | 1 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Leadership, Transparency, Professional Development, Consulting

• Software Economics and Testing

  “ There are two types of developers: those who test their software and those who will. ” – Andy, circa 2015 It’s April Fool’s Day in the US, but I’m going to act like it’s Halloween. Software testing is no joke, and not testing should scare you. In 1996 Read More... Posted Wednesday, April 01, 2015 6:00 AM by andyleonard | 1 Comments Filed under: SSIS, Database Testing, EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Software Testing, Doing Software Right, Testing, DILM

• What’s the Number One Attribute of Awesome Email?

  Brevity. :{> Learn more: Read More... Posted Monday, February 23, 2015 6:00 AM by andyleonard | 0 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Professional Development, Better at Work, Managing Geeks

• Managing Geeks Now Available for the Kindle!

  Managing Geeks – A Journey of Leading by Doing is now available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions! Many people have expressed interest in obtaining an electronic copy of Managing Geeks. I’m sorry it took this long, but it is finally available. Read More... Posted Thursday, January 22, 2015 7:45 AM by andyleonard | 4 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Books, Leadership, Managing Geeks

• Testing

  It’s 2015 and we still have no flying cars. (Dear Doc Brown, we still need roads. Love, Andy) On a similar note, we’ve suffered through another year of software breaches and empty promises to fix the issues behind them. Brian Kelley ( Blog | @kbriankelley Read More... Posted Monday, January 05, 2015 8:00 AM by andyleonard | 0 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Doing Software Right, Testing, #BY15

• “Can You See Me Think?”

  Introduction This post is the fifty-seventh part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series can be found on the series landing page . A Story… Once upon a time I was a manufacturing systems integrator. That’s a fancy Read More... Posted Saturday, October 26, 2013 8:00 AM by andyleonard | 3 Comments Filed under: Project Management, measurement, EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Doing Software Right

• On the Demise of the MCM Certification

  Recently, Microsoft decided to retire some expert-level certifications. Among them, the highest SQL Server certification: the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM). There are several good posts on the topic, most notably: Death of the MCM Program (Paul Randal) Read More... Posted Monday, September 23, 2013 11:40 AM by andyleonard | 8 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Community, MCM

• It’s About Delivering Value, Stupid

  James Carville coined the phrase, “ It’s the economy, stupid ,” as part of Bill Clinton’s 1992 US Presidential campaign. I’m not fond of the “stupid” part. But I have also never successfully advised a governor to become President of the United States Read More... Posted Sunday, August 11, 2013 12:00 PM by andyleonard | 1 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Business Intelligence, Elegant Design, Professional Development, Consulting, Cloud, Disruptive

• Performance-Based Management and Andy’s Law

  Let’s begin with an assertion: “People are more important than process.” – Andy, circa 2008 Whenever an enterprise or institution adopts a new process or policy, that policy should serve people and not shackle them. The nicest thing that can be said about Read More... Posted Friday, May 10, 2013 10:29 AM by andyleonard | 3 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Geek, Doing Software Right, Freedom!, Disruptive

• Less Useful Soft Skills

  Introduction This post is the fifty-sixth part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series can be found on the series landing page . Over a career that spans decades, one encounters useful and “less useful” soft skills Read More... Posted Tuesday, October 23, 2012 8:00 AM by andyleonard | 0 Comments Filed under: EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), I-Am-Such-A-Geek, Transparency, Engineers, Consulting

• Push The Pebble

  Introduction This post is the fifty-fifth part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series can be found on the series landing page . This post is about starting something. Today is the First Day… … of something. Somewhere, Read More... Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 8:00 AM by andyleonard | 3 Comments Filed under: Software Business, EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Doing Software Right

• Trick Question

  Introduction This post is the fifty-fourth part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series can be found on the series landing page . This post is about you. Me? Yep, you. Two questions: What is your job title? (<—Not Read More... Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2012 8:00 AM by andyleonard | 23 Comments Filed under: Software Business, EMPs (Expensive Management Practices), Doing Software Right