Friday, February 19, 2016

The Importance Of Good Bosses

I can definitely say that I have been blessed by good bosses.  I have been swimming in the corporate world for over 20 years now (barely).  During that time I have had great bosses.  That has given me an incredibly freeing environment to work.  Mind you, there are always company politics and as with any other breathing human being, I do have friction in my working relationships.  More importantly, I recognize that I rub folks (probably more than one of my bosses) the wrong way, etc.  But overall, I have been given a very wide berth when it comes to work.  And.  I. Am. Grateful. 

That brings me to this past weekend.  I came to realize what a joy it is to have good bosses but not just that, what a joy it is to work with good people at good companies.  I do freelance for a certain company.  It is a very small shop.  And the CEO (the guy) is an absolutely fantastic guy with whom one can work.  He's a very straightforward feller, he has always been honest (OK, I guess if he isn't, I wouldn't know, right, ha!) and has always been open about how things are going.  I have worked with him for a few years now and it has definitely spoiled me.  There is that fear in me that taking on additional clients will necessarily bring on more friction.  The prospect reminds me of renting your house.  Interview, vet and be willing to walk away (not choose a renter). 

Interviewing and Vetting

A real estate friend said renting isn't that bad, you just have to know to whom you are renting.  I suppose that actually applies to way more than just renting, but that strikes me as sage advice here as well.  As a freelancer, I am just as much interviewing a client as a client is interviewing me. When talking to someone about a contract, etc., it is so important to ask more than just the basic what is the app/site/etc., what is the language, time frame, etc.  Living in corporate America, I get to live all of the other things that can make a contractor's life a bit, um, painful.  So while it would be impossible to know all of the variables that would impact the job (and prospective hiring folks may not even want to divulge some of it), it is good to ask a few questions like (but not limited to)...

- Who is the project lead versus who makes the final decisions versus who has the budget pen?
- How many groups have input on the project?
- If possible, ask the groups what role they see they play then match to the previous question.
- Is there a conflict between any of the groups as to the solution or is everyone on board (probably something that won't come out right at the beginning, unfortunately)?
- Are there competing internal solutions or is this replacing a home grown solution?

There are thousands of others, but things like this are what I feel like we should say (as the corporate America entity) when hiring a contractor/consultant.  We don't, but hey, no one has really asked, either.

Walking Away

The other piece of that is being willing to walk away.  I have sat with quite a few folks who freelance for a living or do work on the side at least.  Many (to most?) of them have some type of personal policy in place to be willing to say no to a contract or gig even if it would be lucrative (there's a whole little thing about "something being too good to be true usually is" in there, too).  That is a tough policy to keep in place, mind you, when dollars get thin.  Much as Dave Ramsey would say (sorry for the horrible paraphrase), desperate people make stupid decisions and broke people are too often desperate.  Not really anything sage to guide on that one, I guess, except I should try to manage my money well.

In the end, I suppose this is just like Solomon says.  Nothing new under the sun.  Likely the same notes and thoughts thousands of others have put in thousands of books and blogs.  But it's good to put it on "paper" to remind myself of this.  And to flesh out as time goes on.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

JasperReports And Fitting Coolness Into Your Life Stack

So I'm trying to get up to speed on basically every coding and web technology known to man....OK, that's what the endeavor feels like......or how I like to completely inflate my capabilities and expectations.....anyway, I've been reviewing iReport Designer (yes, I know, it's officially unsupported.....).  Pretty neat stuff.  One of the great things about the report is really the simplicity....



I have two (and a half) observations.

First, this api looks very useful (ignoring the direct db call, ha!) and fairly simple.  The deployment doesn't seem so outrageous (but I haven't put anything in production.......so that will likely change).  I always have to stop and admire folks like JasperSoft who put such a great effort to make something as absolutely tedious and boring as data reports in a fairly slick package.  Nice. And thanks.

Secondly, the more I get into java technologies, the more I see how much xml (or some variant) is leveraged.  Heck, I've noticed in my own apps that doing something as simple as an xml for name-value pairs for properties can be helpful.  And, based on some materials elsewhere, this is something that will continue as I expand my horizons.

Second-and-a-halfly, I do embrace this technology.....well, I believe I do.  My challenge as I'm learning is to also figure out integration.  I am immersed in a PLM world, most notably Windchill.  Windchill has been hit or miss on integration points for external api's like this.  I hope it's a hit on this one.  My observation is that learning a new technology is cool.  Seeing how folks who developed it were seeing "my pain" is cool.  Getting some slick initial results is cool.  What's not always cool is the integrating the overall "coolness" into your everyday life.  Like, say, Windchill.  Always one of those things that comes along in parallel (as I'm seeing) with learning a technology.  May be cool......but whatever stack of life you have put together may render that coolness pointless.  Or some such.

[Edited to change my horrible use of "iReports".....]

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

PacktPub

I am not an evangelist of PacktPub.....but I certainly have enjoyed their offerings.  And right now, they have some for free.  Just check out:

https://www.packtpub.com/

And click the Free Learning Forever banner.  Free books.  Perhaps some are......niche books....that don't interest everyone, but there have been some nice manuals come up.  Check 'em out.

[grammar edit]

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

UX Design Challenges

I've been reading a bit about UX and Design.  Three observations have really hit me.

First, there are a ton of resources out there.  One really neat one has been a PacktPub video UX Design for Web Developers.  It has been a really good learning experience.  One really nice method for feedback is to give access to a site/mock up and record (video*) how users are moving around a site.  The great part of it is that you can watch and almost hear the users struggling or fumbling or saying "FWA?!", ha ha.  The challenge to all of these resources is that it becomes very overwhelming.  Trying to focus from everything to something certainly is proving to be a challenge.  In the Packt video mentioned, Chris Becker throws out a ton of UX sites.......most of which I haven't even been able to visit.  Oh, well.  In due time.

Second.  Remember, a list of things?  Second, UX is not native in my corporate environment.  I know.  Everyone just rolled their eyes and said "wow, what a fantastic revelation."  I guess I was expecting a little more receptiveness to consideration of UX design patterns.  This friction seems to come in a couple of notable ways.  One way is in the cost.  And I completely understand this.  How much does X cost versus how much time Y will we save (or how much $$ Y will we save).  That is run of the mill justification.  My challenge is how to best quantify the "savings".  A great example is a big push recently.  We did a survey, found the users of a system ranked the usability (basically) a 1 out of 5 (5 being best).  And I have a feeling that it garnered a 1 because users weren't allowed 0.  To me, that's a pretty solid reason to make a break from what we have.  To me, a very big break.  Yet.  There has been significant resistance.  Or a "yea, we should change, but just this tiny bit."  It has been an eye opening experience.  A second way I have seen in my environment has been the monolithic system.  We have an inside joke around "The Whopper".  What this means is that some along the chain believe in this one, big silver bullet.  It does everything.  It's......The Whopper.  Thus when someone might say hey, we should do this, there is a likelihood that someone else will then say, well, if we do that, the only way it is usable (we'll agree) is if we do x, y, z, aa, ab, ac, perpetual motion machine, etc., too.  I know, most will say, of course, nothing new.

Lastly, and probably the biggest, is a little self revelation.  I am not some incredible genius, to whom all should bow and blindly support.  I'm impatient.  I like to be right.  As Jack Handy once said, "In a previous life, I must have been a king because I like it when people do what I say."  Because of that, when challenged, I immediately bow up, get defensive, see all the problems with the problems people may offer.  That's a pretty big hindrance to getting people on board with any plan, much less UX.  Less pride.  More selling, right?

So.  Where does that leave me?  Well, in a sense......square 1.  I'm not convinced of abandoning a smaller, nimble project and/or justifying spending $.  Unfortunately, at this time, neither are my counterparts convinced of how awesome I am...........and idea I've presented.......UX can be.  Yea, that last one.  One way to solve this?  Mock up, test, change, Mock up, test, etc.  Your basic human centered design principle.  Patience, too.  Business mindsets weren't created in a day.  Mine included.

So.  Off to do more changes and feedback sessions.

* - I use Camtasia.  I have thoroughly enjoyed using it these several years.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

5 Dollar Bonanza...Yee Haw!

If you have wanted to learn a new technology, I believe a good way of doing that is using a book that teaches by example.  I have used this to get a good foundation on Primefaces, Excel Pivot Tables and Java EE and Eclipse, just to name a few.  The good news is that Packt is having it's annual sale.  $5 for any eBook (my preference) or video.  There are some great tech titles out there.  Take a look and buy one today!

https://www.packtpub.com/packt5dollar/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=JustinK

From Packt:
Following the success of last year’s festive offer, Packt Publishing will be celebrating the Holiday season with an even bigger $5 offer. From Thursday 18th December, every eBook and video will be available on the publisher’s website for just $5. Customers are invited to purchase as many as they like before the offer ends on Tuesday January 6th, making it the perfect opportunity to try something new or to take your skills to the next level as 2015 begins. With all $5 products available in a range of formats and DRM-free, customers will find great value content delivered exactly how they want it across Packt’s website this Xmas and New Year.

Find out more at www.packtpub.com/packt5dollar
#packt5dollar
Media Contact: sam@packtpub.com