Archive: 2014

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  So simple, is it not?

  Recently in discussion with colleagues we exchanged opinion about software that automate development. We mentioned using unit testing in TDD to minify debugging, prototyping tools that can even generate some classes from UMLs or IDEs that allows “so called developers” to create more or less complex ERM-wanna-be software just by using their mouse or touchpad. On the very end of that list discussions turned into comparison of DIY-webpage software so widely advertised over the web. It was burning under the fire of total criticism. Especially for boosting business expectations. As in recent times developers are being often mentioned as spoiled profession, anything that challenges old fashion engineers finds extreme enemies and believers.

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  3 min min read - June 10, 2014

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  Role of lead technician in technology startup

  Films have been made, articles & books written about the role of a lead technician. We all might think that everything is now clear and understood. But we still face the same problems, the same issues, the same mistakes with regards to filling this position. It feels like being caught in the Einstein’s definition of insanity:

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  5 min min read - June 10, 2014

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  UHLANS IMAGINATION – HOW TO DEAL WITH POLISH TEMPER

  

  (In this article I would like to explain cultural differences, that may be difficult to handle while working with Poles. To give proper background I would have to start with some historical description. Anyhow article is still about Polish IT specialists)

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  5 min min read - June 12, 2014

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  HOW MUCH DOES POLISH OUTSOURCING COST? PART 1

  

  Disclaimer: Many agencies are hiding values to hide their margins and gain a lot on somebody’s else work. Often quality doesn’t go with the price. Few days ago Elon Musk gave his great Tesla technology as open source to the public. Was that wrong? Of course not. He creates new rules in the market. I might be afraid of someone reading this article and not willing to use my help facilitating enclosed data. Surely I can’t help everyone and I don’t even want to. On the other hand I know that data is beginning to long journey and you need to know how to apply it. Values I present some agencies keep in secret. I will try to explain where it comes from and for what you should pay, if you let someone find best work force for you.

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  3 min min read - June 15, 2014

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  5 REASONS WHY CUSTOMER SUPPORT IN POLAND IS BEST CHOICE FOR YOU

  

  Last time I described raw cost of one Polish rambo-developer hired full time on remote basis (read it). This time I would like to explain much simpler and obvious scenario. Again I will explain you my personal views, but proved by actual client scenarios. Again I will offer you my help to find proper candidates and will point you few talents I worked with. If you have other opinion or questions, feel free to ask and comment.

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  2 min min read - June 16, 2014

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  TRUSTED, CAN MEAN ABUSIVE

  How to deal with limited company IT contractors when you are a start-up?

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  2 min min read - July 7, 2014

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  What does geometry tell us about project estimation

  Let's take a look on estimation with a bit of humour.

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  1 min min read - July 17, 2014

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  Often BD misunderstandings in SaaS industry

  SaaS industry more than any other creates contrasts. It's mostly because it combines very strict technology world with funky spirit and humanistic aspects of sales. Unfortunately often that contrast creates misunderstanding and wrong assumptions. If we think about engineers, a lot depends on character and experience. When it comes to business most of trouble is misinterpretation of common terms that sounds much better than they look like. Let's discuss briefly most misunderstood terms.

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  4 min min read - July 17, 2014

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  5 (+1) THINGS EVERYONE FORGET CALCULATING PRICE – POLISH IT PRICES PART III

  In response to one of my previous articles about prices in IT outsourcing I have been attacked that I lower employers expectations. It turned up from simple misunderstanding, because I was writing then about not too experienced developers (2-3 years) hired for full time and my arguer was freelance senior. I could agree with most of his points, but as someone who worked both as developer and manager, and have quite good understanding of economics, I would like to explain you what often we don’t take in account when we build (both employers and employees) our price expectations.

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  4 min min read - July 17, 2014

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  There is not such thing as impossible

  All my life I was focused on helping others to achieve their goals with my skills, knowledge and experience. That focus anyhow never made me stop to try achieve something myself. It placed me in very comfortable situation to see breaking points, rises and failures that built my believe in victory, even in David vs Goliat war. Just a couple of them:

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  3 min min read - July 19, 2014

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  Is technology sharing good or wrong on AirBnB case

  I started to code in primary school in early 90ties. At that times the only sources of code were boring books about Turbo Pascal or C++. Bit later also magazines with a few bits of "how to write" on the last pages. Later internet came and created the whole spectrum of tutorials, but start of GitHub (and of course couple of his precursors) started tsunami of technology evolution. At the moment speed of improvements made impossible to follow. Thankfully we have amazing continuous integration tools and package managers like composer, bower, npm and global knowledge social bases like StackOverflow or Google Groups. That all combined allows you to build your solutions fast and easy without inventing the wheel. More, using cutting edge technologies like cloud computing, extreme scaling etc. comes with minimal cost. All out of the box.

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  4 min min read - July 25, 2014

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  You cannot afford to waste time on just coding

  As a developer I have quite high self-esteem. I had a huge luck to work with great mentors and evangelists in the beginning and take part in few cutting edge projects. It lead me to situation when in web technologies I felt like a fish in the water. Knowing mechanics of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, AnsiSQL in each details made me feel that there is nothing that can surprise me. And in fact I was able to build almost any web product. So what's wrong? That is what you expect from senior developer, right?

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  2 min min read - July 29, 2014

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  5 ways to lose potential senior candidate

  Recently got on timeline nice short article saying that IT industry in the UK is booming. I think that is true. I can see that each day in my mailbox and on my phone. As a senior (hope not because of age) I experience a bit hard to manage flood of various offers. It's nice feeling to be recognised by recruiters. But it's annoying that still many of them don't even try to walk just for a moment in my shoes. If they were, they would figure out why I reject some of their enquiries in a seconds:

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  3 min min read - July 31, 2014

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  How can a startup invest in people

  Many times recently I met a statement that people with startup experience come often with very limited set of skills. Compared to enterprise environment that spend huge amounts of money on human resources, it's obvious that level of learning may differ. Anyhow often startups delay any investment in their teams backing up that by leak of proper funds. I believe in most cases, it's because they don't see short term value in education.

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  2 min min read - August 8, 2014

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  Team Group Therapy

  No matter what is demographic structure your team has, sooner or later you will find that it’s not only a set of great skills, but also characters. It really doesn’t matter what age or gender, education or background your team members are. Team as any other group works under laws of sociology, has the same problems as any other group and can be enhanced by the same simple rules.

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  2 min min read - August 12, 2014

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  Five signs that developer will not survive team work

  I have been working in IT for about 10 years and worked with plenty of great developers, architects and designers. Many of those people formed my current skills and way of thinking. They also have shown me the biggest obstacles for developer to grow. Funny enough during the years I started to see, that few colleagues who didn’t fight those issues ran into kind of developer limbo. More successful have made one product/project and do it for years alone. Others wonder from team to team and always end up leaving because conflicts. Despite anyhow character and cultural challenges, there were always some habits that refrained them from breaking that circle of madness:

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  3 min min read - September 29, 2014

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  Opinion: Should non-technical people participate in technology development process

  Probably I won’t find an answer to given question, as many cases may differ. Anyhow I hope this article will trigger proper discussion in your team about healthy boundaries and delegation.

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  2 min min read - October 1, 2014

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  Power of not knowing

  

  To continue my question from last article, I would like to show you simple scene:

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  1 min min read - October 2, 2014

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  Tomorrow Never Dies

  Do you remember number of articles and books about changes in your life that said: do it now, not tomorrow? Tomorrow indeed never dies. Often you want to do the old song for the last time before changes, but changes never come. The same is in your business or startup.

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  2 min min read - October 10, 2014

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  4 ways you can ruin your career while asking questions

  Don't get me wrong. I appreciate much people who begin their adventure with coding and I always try to support them. Anyhow many people take very tricky way on their learning journey, which may result in spoiling their reputation and losing job opportunities.

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  3 min min read - October 23, 2014