Thomas Koeppen Blog

this is a usual observation in large companies. There are two key issue that often hinder collaboration: The first is misaligned goals. The second are undisclosed concerns about the risks of collaborating. Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life wrote a great story in his blog: The truth is often that the so-called jerks are really just thinking [...]

News Item edited by Thomas Koeppen Many companies have historically utilized transactional-based business strategies and have established a litany of processes to ensure their success. These companies do not encourage innovation and choose to rely on processes as a highly controlled mechanism to address predefined problems. In these environments, the concept of employee ownership rarely [...]

News Item added by Thomas Koeppen i found an fantastic description of Marc Andreessen (Founder of Ning – the social network and co-author of Mosaic – the browser) on hiring people: First, drive. I define drive as self-motivation – people who will walk right through brick walls, on their own power, without having to be [...]

The difference between a good engineer and a great one has little to do with technical skill, but a lot to do with all the other stuff.

It’s easy for IT managers to get bogged down in day-to-day activities and lose sight of the bigger picture of leading their staff. Whether you’re a seasoned pro, or new to the game, the following tips will help you effectively manage your team. 1. Spend time (and money) developing your people IT is a constantly [...]

Scott Ambler’s latest DDJ article covers a topic that is important for us: Pitching Agile to Senior Management – This inability to articulate to senior management why they should adopt agile techniques is ironic considering our focus on communication. Ambler’s experience is that management is often very willing to become more agile if you’re able [...]

Nichts ist so beständig wie der Wandel. Veränderungen sind zum permanenten Begleiter im Wirtschaftsleben geworden: Strategiewechsel, Restrukturierungen, Unternehmenszusammenschlüsse und externe Einflüsse verlangen von Unternehmen, sich zu verändern – und von Mitarbeitern ebenfalls. Der Sozialwissenschaftler Lewin teilt einen erfolgreichen Veränderungsprozess in 3 Phasen ein: PHASE 1: Auftauen (unfreeze): Zu Beginn eines jeden Veränderungsprozesses müssen Widerstände gegen [...]

This is a great artical illustrating what developers need to deal with everyday – Development: “You want answers?” Marketing: “I think we are entitled to them!” … read the whole story: http://blog.versionone.net/blog/2007/03/a_few_good_mana.html Son, we live in a world that requires software. And that software must be built by people with elite skills. Who’s going to [...]

1. What industry sites and blogs do you read regularly? 2. Do you prefer to work alone or on a team? 3. How comfortable are you with writing HTML entirely by hand? (+exercise) 4. What is the w3c? 5. Can you write table-less XHTML? Do you validate your code? 6. What are a few of [...]

1. Keep business experts away, far away, from integrators and developers. If the people building the solution don’t talk with the people who need the solution, then the project will fail every time. Admittedly, driving a wedge between creators and users is a lot easier when you’re a manager, but even average workers can keep [...]