Technology changes quickly. Every week there are new tools, frameworks, and paradigms. Choosing the right technology for a new project in a constantly changing landscape can be daunting. Popular developer websites (and blogs!) are filled with articles on “the next big thing” which every developer “must” know. In my experience, most of these technologies will be short lived. Some will prove …
The Cost of Meeting Lurkers
A simple way to improve team productivity is to stop inviting “lurkers” to meetings. I was introduced to the term “lurker” in 2000 when I was active in IRC chat rooms. A lurkers is someone who doesn’t provide any value to the group chat. Their participation is very minimal and usually not helpful. In meetings, a lurker is someone who similarly doesn’t participate …
Ruthless Meetings
Ruthlessness has always had a bad rap. There is a thought that being ruthless is uncaring or cold. However, being ruthless is a virtue when it comes to staying on track to meet project deadlines. A current client of mine often has one hour meetings in which, after 20 minutes and the pertinent topics having been resolved, everyone in the meeting …