November, 2008

Weekends and the Independent Developer

There’s an old saying that goes something like “There is no rest for the weary!” to which I have been known to rephrase to “There is no rest for the independent developer!”.  The intro to my blog states “This blog deals with the questions and challenges of providing users with quality “custom” software programs…”, and over the past 15 months of writing this blog I’ve worked hard to stay at least somewhat on-target with that stated objective.  This weekend has actually made it easy for me to write my last blog post for this month — having provided me much in the way of “subject matter” to substantiate my “There is no rest …” statement(s) earlier.

This has been a weekend filled with activity for me — and opportunity to correspond via email(s) with clients for whom I’m working.  Now, while I have had plenty of communication with said clients, the good news is that because all of the communication has been via email, it has truly been un-obtrusive and no threat to my efforts in creating a work-life balance that works for me.  In each case, the issues communicated have not been of a nature requiring an immediate response — hence they have not been disruptive.

Truly in this day and age of technology and ever-present communication channels, we who are independent developers working from our homes have to fight hard to maintain work-life balance.  It is very easy to be suckered into working through a weekend, holiday, anniversary — you name it!  However, we do not have to be a slave to the communication when it comes in the form of emails — I think of them as a quitely soft arrival (I keep sound turned off so that I don’t hear them arrive - unless I’m willing to know).  I look at them only when I’m ready to — some weekends I never look, most of the time I see them within a couple of hours after receipt.

I, like many other independent developers I know, seldom are not working on a weekend — and our client customers (many of whom are also working on a weekend) know it.  Using email as an un-obtrusive means of communicating works – and the end result is a high service level and opportunity for work-life balance that works.  Seems like a win-win situation to me!

Buried in Paper

I seem to go through this on a regular basis — feeling as though I am buried in paper.  Even though I am an independent software development consultant by trade, in trying to keep up with various requirements for accounting, tech articles which apply to my professional needs or personal items such as health records — it seems that a mountain of paper piles up each month.  Then, as I go through the months accumulation, invariably at least some of that monthly accumulation ends up being added to the stack of “save for future reference” that may be an accumulation of selected monthly paper.  The cycle never seems to end.

It is then that I realize once again that I have choices!  (Choices are a MARVELOUS thing!).   One of those choices is that I can throw away most everything, and then either access on-line as needed, or just do without — or hope that I can remember enough about something that came across my desk to be able to search it out and come up with it.  I’ve been working on this method over the last couple of days!

Recently I have been incorporating scanning functionality into many of my customers applications.  The functionality has proven very productive for my customers, and they love it!  Therefore I certainly have another choice — i.e. buy some kind of “document management” software and scan.   What a novel concept — using the very technology I use every day!  Hey — I could also create my own custom “document management” system and have just what I need available at all times - once scanned that is. 

Bottom line is this however, by the time my day is through there is neither interest or energy left to dig into either a project to learn some new software, or, to actually create something for myself.  I continually wonder what’s wrong with this picture!  Here I am, a reasonably technically savvy application developer, and yet I continue to work at least somewhat in the dark ages!  The fact is that I can either choose to work 24/7 and at best inefficiently produce, learn or otherwise develop what I need — or — I can choose to create some kind of work-life balance.  I choose to balance thank you!

Not Fun? Why Do IT?

While doing some cleanup yesterday I ran across my “spare” bumper sticker which I purchased at a Ben & Jerry’s a few summers ago.  At the time I purchased 2 of the stickers because I loved the message so much - 1 for the car I was driving then, and 1 for my next car.  The time has come - next warm day I’ll clean the car (…or at least the bumper!) and install the bumper sticker.  “If it’s NOT fun - Why do it?” has really been very much a part of me all my life.

Even in my early career in manufacturing production control I expressed my thoughts very freely to my co-workers.  Imagine my surprise when it came back to haunt me when an employee I hired a few months previously walked into my office and told me something like this — “It’s not fun — so I’m not doing it any more!  I’ll be gone in 2 weeks!”  That was an eye opener!

Each time I see the phrase I’m reminded that indeed I do have choices to make.  As frustrating and difficult as IT (Information Technology in ths case) is, and as strong as my love / hate relationship with IT is, I remind myself that I am fortunate to have the choice of doing IT or not.  I also have choice as to how I do IT — every client I deal with, just as they interviewed and evaluated me for the work they wanted done, I also have evaluated potential clients to at least “best guess” how well I will be able to work with the potential client.  I can honestly say that such client evaluation has served me well since I can have fun with my clients - and we’re better off for it!  (Especially during those hard times of dealing with system failures or “bugs”!)

Password Management

We’ve all seen them — the little yellow sticky notes pinned up on the workstation board, or attached to a cabinet, or whatever other clearly convenient and visible place that is available — the ones with username / password combinations scratched on them for all to see!  Is it any wonder that studies indicate that our most vulnerable areas of system security come from within?

While we may require “strong” passwords which get changed every 30 - 60 days, they can be even more susceptible to being “written down” where the user can “remember” them — in my experience the more restrictions put on a “strong” password the more often users will write them down because they’re afraid of forgetting them.  I don’t blame them — but — it sure destroys the security that we try to build into our systems. 

Add to this password mess the requirement for meeting varying requirements for individual systems, networks and workstations and the situation becomes convoluted at best.  What got me going on this blog path was seeing the statement “Sticky notes don’t make for good security” in something I was reading.  My response to the statement is, of course, DUH!

So — How to get passwords under control?  Wouldn’t it be nice if we had an application to securely allow us to use a single password to access all resources which meet our security level?  A Google search on password management tools returns a number of entries — however at a quick glance most tools seem to be specific to Mac or Windows environments exclusively.  It seems to me that most desireable would be an application which will serve ALL common O/S environments, as well as databases. 

Maybe I just want too much , but I can dream can’t I?

Another IT Moment for the Developer

Some years ago I worked very hard to extricate myself from the “hardware” issues which I found myself having to deal with instead of developing — which (at least most of the time) I love doing!  Dealing with “hardware” however I do NOT love doing.  Then comes the panic call — customer down, application partially unavailable, state auditors coming in for 3 weeks of audit just after the Thanksgiving holiday!

Result? — deep into the throes of a hardware issue I go — day before the Thanksgiving holiday  (timing is everything!), was looking forward to knocking off a bit early — but… not to be!  So I meet with my friend (also their hardware guy) and we head to the site.  It seems that communication between their office and main operations facility is not working.  It is normally linked via a fiber optic cable running the 300 feet or so between buildings.  Now, I inherited this installation which was done some 8-9 years ago, and until today hadn’t had to do anything with it.  In fact, it has been at least that long since I connected my last site.

Our challenge for the day was to get the 2 very different media converters talking with each other — without being able to test either of the original units to determine which had gone bad.  This would be somewhat of a trial and error operation.  When replacing the unit on one end, testing for link and having none, we were dismayed since it had been a power “issue” in the remote building that had caused the original outage, which led us to believe that it was the unit in that building which “must” have gone south with the power.  However, in desperation we decided to try replacing the unit we “thought” to be the good one.  Well, imagine our surprise to find that by replacing that unit we had communication!  It was a beautiful thing!

Moral of this story?  Sometimes the independent software developer must wear other hats.  Customer service is primary — while this long term customer of my friend is a relatively new customer of mine, the task they needed accomplished took the skills of both myself with my experience and knowledge set, and that of my friend “the hardware guy”.  Together we were successful, and our customer who was seriously behind the eightball as a result of the failure is now able to work efficiently again.  I expect they will continue to be a loyal customer.

Reflections from an IT Guy

Somewhere around this time of year I always find myself reflecting upon where I am in forwarding my goals for the year, what I have accomplished professionally, and what I have accomplished personally.  I find myself also looking at the relationships built over the past year, and how I have or have not been a positive contributor to those relationships.  In short, I find myself deep in thoughts of what has recently been as related to what my perceived possibilities for the time have been.

Often I find that the past year has looked nothing like what I had expected, and also I often discover that what has occurred was in fact better than I could have imagined — even though it didn’t look like I thought it should.  Life in the IT business tends to be full of surprises!

In my last post I touched upon the importance of taking time to balance work and “life”.  This morning I received another newsletter from one of my favorite web writers — Bob Lewis of itcatalysts.com.   In his “Keep The Joint Running” newsletter for 11/23/2008 “Random Thoughts” I immediately sensed that he was about to write (once again) on “thoughts” which could have been the subject of what I might write.  I find that VERY often what he writes could have been written by myself.  Perhaps that is why I enjoy his writing so much.  The fact is that back in September of 2007 when I first started with this blog one of my hopes was that somehow I could find within me some measure of writing ability to keep readers interested in  the way that Bob Lewis’s writing always has for me.

Anyway, that aside, Bob’s writing for this week starts out with a poem ”Temporary Well Being” which alone is worth reading I believe.  However, Bob builds on the poem in a manner and with cleverness that I admire.  I recommend reading Bob’s latest — “Random Thoughts“.

Holiday Madness

As we in the U.S. approach our annual Thanksgiving Day celebrations I am reminded once again of the importance of setting priorities for work-life balance.  This came to my attention as I found myself “filling-up” on “things”  (business related) that I could do during the time that my clients won’t be “…disturbing me…” about problems, new ideas and requirements or any such items.  YUCK!

I know that I am not alone in this custom development, IT consulting or independent developer arena in my ability to find more areas to fill up a holiday weekend than there are hours to fill up!  I’ve seen it over and over again how easily a potential change-of-pace weekend turns into just another few days — filled with events that frustrate and leave me feeling that I “lost” my weekend!  (Which of course I DID!).  It is even more disturbing to realize just how often the problem has been caused 100% by me!

While it is true that (sometimes) there can be “real” requirements to work on a holiday weekend, such as when a long weekend is the “only” time that such things as a major database re-structure or hardware upgrade can be accomplished.  Let’s face it, IT is a demanding (as well as rewarding) career, and sometimes that does require some “odd” hours.

My hope for this post is that someone out “there” who reads this will have a better holiday weekend because I posted.  To all — best wishes for your Thanksgiving weekend, and if Thanksgiving is not a part of your tradition I wish you a weekend of freedom from the stress and strain of your IT involvement, whatever that might be.  May your weekend be truly recreational for both body and soul.

Data Storage, Government and Computer Systems

A lengthy article that caught my attention earlier today wrote about concerns that the U.S. Government’s new Electronic Records Archives program may not be ready for the big time.  OK, so that really isn’t unusual - but - other statements made in the article truly indicate a magnitude of information almost unthinkable to have 2 months to process.  The article “Bush’s exit to put new e-records system to the test” states that the Bush Administration is expected to turn over some 140 TB of information to be added to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) where it will be properly catalogued and stored. 

Following up on this article I also found a GAO article very much of interest to me as a developer, even one whose general clientele is small business.  “Challenges in implementing an Electronic Records Archive” is the GAO article I refer to.  The idea of implementing “…an initial operational capability with somewhat reduced capabilities…” in my experience is almost always beneficial, whether part of the initial implementation plan OR as the result of “issues” encountered in the development.  Also referenced in the article is that “…a parallel development of a separate part…” (of the system) is being considered.  It is interesting to note that this “separate part” of the system itself may not be ready to take on the Bush records in January 2009 as required — reason? — “…NARA and its contractor are still negotiating the precise scope of work and system requirements…” Since this system is to be created using “…a commercial product that provides some of the basic requirements for processing presidential electronic records…” I have to wonder what there is really to be negotiated.  It seems to me that what there is to do is to get going with what is known to be required - time is running out!

For years now I have found myself becoming very frustrated with what I believe to be an over zealous effort to pre-define a “perfect” system, negotiating and re-negotiating — another example of what I would call “Analysis Paralysis”.  FYI — The GAO article was released in May 2008.

SEO and the Independent Developer

In the last couple of months I have found myself, like so many others, listening to the gloom and doom forecasts of economic slowdown (and worse) wondering how it will affect me.  Last month I blogged (really got on a soapbox) about developer pricing in my post “Service Pricing Thoughts for the Independent Developer“.  In these seemingly ever worsening economic times providing value to your customers certainly is not the only consideration — in my experience during difficult economic times it seems that those times are probably the most difficult times to get new work from an existing client base.

That leaves the developer with the task of finding new clients to service - but how?  Certainly today the web provides a broad capability to “advertise” services — but those web pages describing the company and its services still must be found by those looking for the services.  Enter SEO - Search Engine Optimization.

I can’t say how many (if any) developers would say that they are “expert” at SEO, so for those who would include themselves in the non-expert category, I’d recommend an article published on the SiteProNews website entitled “Should Small Businesses Invest in SEO During a Recession?”.  The article, well written and informative, makes many points which I believe to be essential.  I personally find the subject very interesting.  I particularly like the statement made by the author as he is about to write on outsourcing of SEO services — “Full disclosure: I am biased.  I run a search engine marketing agency. But I hope you’ll hear me out anyway.  This bit of honesty just adds to the articles legitimacy for me.

Cynical Thoughts of an Independent Software Developer

My hope is that all my readers will forgive me for my recent lack of blog writing, as I have been very busy on behalf of all independent developers while flying my personal jet (…shown here) to congress to lobby for a bailout bill for independent business owners.  Unfortunately my travel has brought me away from my sprawling Texas mansion now being rebuilt along the shores of Galvaston Bay (…no internet access), as well as my soon to be rebuilt home in the hillside of California which was burned to its foundation, a complete loss during the recent fires out there.  These events have also, of course, meant that I have had to spend countless hours fighting with insurance companies which are of course going broke in this economy and also looking for money from congress so as to continue “business as usual”.  (I find that not getting insurance money due me really IS business as usual however! — so why do they need the money anyway?). 

While my personal jet is well-equiped and of the latest design (…as pictured here), the bad economic times have meant that I have cut back on the $4/minute use of internet access while traveling — I just simply refuse to spend that kind of money — and of course, I told my lobbyists in Washington and they thoroughly understood my concerns here!  Unfortunately my best efforts have apparently done nothing to change the situation for us as independent developers in an economy seemingly tanking each day, riddled with job cuts, and clouded with uncertainty.

Bottom line fellow readers is this — we’ll have to keep working hard (…when we have work) until at least 2040, by which time we’ll recognize this period as “the best of times”!  We’ll long for the “good old days” of today.  In the meantime what there is for us to do is to continue to express the value of efficient applications, tailored to the business model, and flexible enough to provide for changes in that business model as they inevitably arise.