Posted in Software, Strategy on May 28th, 2007 2 Comments »
The acts of men should always be placed in historical context. Technology is no exception. I discern over the past four decades different phases of technology emphasis.
In the 1970s, the focus of software development was on automating major business processes such as accounting and payroll. These applications were concentrated on mainframe computers in […]
Posted in Software, Managing engineers on May 22nd, 2007 No Comments »
I strongly support the Agile Development methodology for creating commercial software. There is nothing in the Agile Manifesto with which I would disagree. I have learned of late, however, that I do have a problem with Extreme Programming. No amount of methodology will make a bad engineer a good engineer. Whatever the initial intent of […]
Posted in Start ups on May 15th, 2007 2 Comments »
A growing company reaches a cultural inflection point when it hires its 100th employee.
Up to the 100th employee, everyone in the company pretty much knows everyone else. Work and responsibility are handled on a first-name basis. Everyone knows that Susan handles marketing material and Bobby handles burning CDs for customers. In a small company, […]
Posted in Software, Strategy on May 8th, 2007 No Comments »
Bloomberg reported today that “The Java development kit is available today under an open-source license that lets developers modify and distribute the software” (see Sun Makes Java Free, Expands Technology for Mobile-Phone Makers). Wall Street seems to have scooped the Valley, because I see no similar headline from the tech magazines.
Alex Blewitt was just […]