May 2012
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When you want something done right…
“Well, you know what they say… when you want something done right, you have do to it your bloody self.” My dad used to say this all the time. In fact he still does. How often have you heard it said? A key turning point for a new manager is, I think, the realisation that…
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The Complete Product Owner
The product owner is possibly the most misunderstood, or at least the the least understood, role in agile software projects. Just about everyone you talk to, whether a current practitioner of the role or just someone who works in agile projects, will give you a slightly (or greatly) different description of the role, its scope…
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Good Design is…
In the 1970’s renowned German designer Dieter Rams defined ten design principles that embodied his view of design and product development. He said: Good design should be innovative. Good design makes a product useable. Good design is aesthetic design. Good design makes a product understandable. Good design is honest. Good design is unobtrusive. Good design…
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Consistency is not a rubber stamp
Stop signs are always red. Exit signs are green. Play buttons are triangles. These are patterns and norms that, when appropriately leveraged in a design, can help communicate expectations and function. It doesn’t matter if you are an interface designer working on a software UI, a software engineer writing code or a manger preparing a…