I've been consulting in the high-tech field for over a decade, and programming for substantially longer than that. In fact, my earliest programs were BASIC programs on my C64, though my first true love was an Amiga 1000 owned by my ultra-cool uncle. But these days I wear a suit. I wear a suit because I consult with "geeks" and "suits" and all comers in between. Most of my clients have been in the Financial sector, so dressing up provides credibility with the customer, and my thinking has moved drastically towards a customer-focus over my decade of consulting.
I've started this blog, because I consider things from a few perspectives. As a technologist, I think about software feasibility, artistry, craft, and shippable result. As a geek I think about cool, new, innovative tech. As someone who has to act on behalf of the customer in many situations, I think about value and fitness-to-purpose and total cost of ownership. As a project manager I have to think about predictability, output, project throughput, cost, and so on. As a consultant, I think of cross-cultural conflict resolution, needs analysis, and communications (geeks and suits speak vastly different languages, leaving aside ethno-linguistic or gender communication issues). So my observations hit a lot of these areas. They often will stray into the Agile and Lean categories, though often I end up working in non-agile, non-lean environments, so they're not exclusive to these communities of interest.
I already blog on AgileAdvice.com, but really this is intended as a vehicle for personal thinking that's probably going to stray a bit from that blog's editorial perspective, though there will be some overlap. I may cross-post some. Regardless, I wanted a way to start talking about things important to me, professionally, from a variety of perspectives, whether or not I have an audience. Hopefully, someone will find this useful.
Cheers,
Christian Gruber
