I Am a Job Creator

During this political season there is going to be a lot of talk about “job-creators.”  I feel pretty strong about this subject but I do not think that this is a proper place or time to vent my feelings on the matter.  Suffice to say, my focus is on business and NOT on politics. 

I am now hiring sales people for my start up.  I am looking for some folks who want to change the world and get involved in a chance to provide small and medium sized businesses with cloud based software. Please send a resume, cover letter and contact information to jobs@goeeethree.com.  I am looking for people who can legally work in the United States who want to sell.  We will try to get back to you as soon as possible. 

Being and entrepreneur is a little crazy.  I am looking for a few more people to climb on to the crazy train with me and see if we can make a difference. 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Why I Use TFS 2010

Team Foundation Server 2010 is not a muscle car.

Developers are a temperamental and combative in nature.  Many business people justifiably treat us like the troll under the bridge due to our gruff and matter-of-fact way of addressing controversy.  Some of us even look and smell as bad as these mythical creatures.  Nothing inspires more troll like behavior than developers debating which technology or tools are superior.  Another chapter in this ongoing discussion came from Derek Hammer and his blog “TFS is destroying your Development Capacity.”  This article is well footnoted, inflammatory, and filled with plenty of reasons not to use Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server 2010 or TFS for short.  I want to take time to answer some of his criticisms and explain why I am sticking with TFS for my business. 

Hammer’s criticisms are fairly clear:

1)      TFS version control is frustrating to use.
2)      Bug Tracking is hard to use.
3)      TFS is not flexibile enough for Agile project management.
4)      The build system is clunky.
5)      Finally, the vertical integration of the product makes it impossible to use best practice tools.

Let us start from the beginning, if you grew up in the business with Visual Source Safe and Visual Source Safe 2005, you will understand that TFS is a quantum leap forward.  Code can be exclusively checked out to one developer or several developers can work on the same code and merge it together.  Also the ability to branch and merge code is clean and easy to understand.  This makes it possible to have code in development, staging and production environments existing in source control.  This is a huge help if a problem crops up in production and it cannot be reproduced in the other environments.  The label and history functions make things easy to track and using project settings forces developers to comment check-ins and associate check-ins with work items. 

Hammer does have some legitimate gripes.  TFS forces you to be connected to the server via your “workspace.”  This is a bit of a pain for people who think source controls consists of copying and pasting folders.  Fortunately, this criticism will soon be moot because the next version of TFS will allow you to work locally and then connect to the server to synch changes.  He also talks about a simple four window three-way merge.  Personally, I have not seen this and I did not even know it was a standard.  I would like to see an example of this.  Please leave a link in the comments. 

Next, Hammer dislikes the bug tracking system.  This was what sold me on TFS.  Work items, bugs and tasks can be entered via Visual Studio or the web site which is built into the system.  The web interface in no more difficult than SharePoint and customer service reps can easily be trained on how to fill out the information.  Finally, TFS has its own API so if you are not happy with the interface you can write your own web form or MVC application to place bugs into the system. 

Moving on to Hammer’s third criticism, TFS is not suited to Agile management.  My biggest challenge as a developer and consultant has always been having the client adopt any kind of Project Management Operations.    This is particularly true in the organization that thinks project management consists of leaning over a cubical wall and asking a developer to build a website.  Thus, TFS is a fantastic introduction to agile and its principles.  I still use a white board for the project team however; TFS helps creating excel reports for management a breeze.  Also, I create custom reports all the time to view specialized data.  When I was at a client, I act as scrum master entering data into the system and leading the project.  I also spend a lot of time training others on how to use TFS to get the most out of the system.  For a mature Agile teams, TFS may seem like an impediment but for companies just getting started, it is the perfect set of training wheels.

Next, Hammer talks about how the build engine is clunky.  Without any reservations, I can agree with his criticism.  In my nearly two years working with TFS, the build system has frustrated me the most.  Often, I simply rely on Microsoft Visual Studio’s publish tool, web.config transformations and FileZila to get work done.  Fortunately, I see this changing.  The Chicago ALM group had a great meeting on Sept 14^th 2011 illustrating how to customize the build process and I look forward to more people coming forward and sharing their knowledge of the subject.  Until then, I am sticking with FileZila. 

Finally, Hammer criticizes the vertical integration of the product and how it is endemic of “The Microsoft Way.”  It has been my sad experience that most people who make decisions about technology are not technologists themselves.  Thus, they are not thinking about best practices or better ways of doing things.  To this kind of individual vertical integration is a perk and not a defect.  With TFS, they see and all in one package that is easy to install and does what is required of it.  This leaves it up to the technologists to us the tool they have been given as best they can.  If that means we write web apps for the customer service people to put bugs into the TFS system and we run reports each week and send them out as excel, so be it.

Let us compare software to automobiles for a moment, Hammer sees TFS as a clunky minivan which gets people from point “A” to point “B” with little speed or flash.  What he wants is a sport car where he can open the hood and swap out engine parts for better performance.  Talk to any Mom and they will tell you when push comes to shove they will settle for the minivan.  This is why most businesses are moving to TFS as well.   It may not be sexy and flashy but it gets the job done in a way technical and non-technical people understand; this why I am sticking with TFS.  I understand the tool.  I know that I can train other developers how to us it.  Finally, it makes sense to business people who usually pay the bills. 

As someone who used to be a troll under a bridge, I understand Hammer’s perspective.  Now as I begin my own company and transition to working with C-Level executives, I see that there is more to a technology decision that just the technology itself.

Why I Have a Board of Directors

When you decide to go into business for yourself you want to succeed and you want to do it now.  It is easy to get angry or impatient.  Fortunately, I have a board of directors who keep me focused and moving forward. 

They were the people who suggest that I get an attorney to draw up sales contracts so people who are using my service are legally obligated to pay me for that service.  They have made numerous revisions and suggestions to my business making sure nothing is missed for a venture capitalist who might want to help me out.

I found a good collection of people who I trust.  I hope that as we start selling the board will prevent me from killing my business before it has a chance to take off.  Every entrepreneur is a bit of a maverick, but I am glad that I have a board of directors who will watch my back and act as my posy.

Respect - good for the soul

R-E-S-P-E-C-T tell you what it means to me.

This is the final part of my four part discussion of E₃ systems corporate values.  This week, I want to discuss respect and how it applies to the business.

When talking about respect, it is easy for an author to rely of clichés about the subject.  Countless leadership books have covered the topic.  Sports radio has countless hours of conversation devoted to players and coaches who have earned it.  Finally, it is one of those intangible things which a business can create but cannot measure.  In short, a business lives and dies based on the respect it has in the marketplace.

To me, respect is about as simple as the Christian Golden Rule or Kant’s Categorical Imperative.  If you treat people like you want to be treated respect is just a natural byproduct.  I am terrible with names but I try to make a point of calling people by their given name rather than their nick name.  This simple gesture values them as people rather than as the moniker others have placed on them. 

When I used to work at a casino we were trained to thank our staff for a good days work and say goodnight.  That little acknowledgement meant the world to me as a line employee.  As a pit boss, I practiced it religiously.  It is a habit I still have.  Again, it seems like the respectful thing to do for employees and peers. 

When I look at people like Al Dunlap, Carly Fiorina, John Bolton, and Martha Stuart; I see people who have found success but forgot how to respect others.  I will strive to remember that everyone who works with me have a family, friends, and a soul.  Nothing crushes a person’s soul more than working with ignorant, arrogant, and disrespectful people.  It is my hope that I can create an environment of respect at my workplace. 

Finally, I see respect as how you treat your community.  A business only exists because people in your community are willing to work for you and purchase your product.  This means using locally sourced vendors, keeping outsourcing to a minimum, and paying a fair share of taxes.  It isn’t very glamorous but if you do simple things like this in the community people will notice and be more predisposed to buying your product. 

So that is what my firm is going to stand for: agility, growth, development and respect.  I am ready to start selling and I hope that we have more adventures to report as the weeks move on. 

Talking About Development

Development = Winning

This is part three of my discussion of my corporate values.  This week, I want to talk about development.  In corporate parlance, you hear professionals talk about developing “human resources.”  I disagree.  A business is not made of resources; it is made out of people.  It is people who sell your product.  It is people who innovate and help grow the firm.  Finally, it is people who will purchase your product.

Once you realize you are dealing with people instead of resources your attitude changes about how you do business.  Instead of wringing every ounce of productivity out of your resources like a technocrat, you will start behaving like a choir director attempting to get everyone to sing the same tune with enthusiasm.  It is a significant paradigm shift.    

Since we are dealing with people instead of resources, a successful business person should do everything in his power to make the people who work for them successful.  In a modern day economy it means the following: 

1)      A clear understanding of mathematics up to the Algebra level, even better an understanding of calculus.
2)      A clear understanding of science including basic physics, chemistry and biology.
3)      The ability to effectively communicate with the written and spoken work in both formal and informal settings.
4)      Being able to use a word processing program, spread sheet, and presentation software.
5)      Understand project management techniques.
6)      Be able to work with others in a team environment.
7)      Understand the basic cannon of Western Philosophy, Religion and Literature.
8)      Be able to write basic HTML and CSS.

This level of proficiency is earned by college graduates.  Unfortunately, we do not produce enough of these people each year to fill the roles in our modern workforce.  This means that business leaders have to provide training and education to the work force.  This means providing in house training to employees and providing access to continuing education at local colleges.  I find this doubly important for technical professionals who have their skills erode every 18 months as newer and better ways come along.  I know that I am struggling to keep up as XML Web Services are replaced with WCF and HTML 5 becomes a web standard. 

For a business to be successful, you need to be developing your work force.  As they grow they become more productive and you have the opportunity to make more money.  This creates an upward spiral where a well-developed workforce becomes a competitive advantage. 

Nothing is more frustrating that being put into situation where you are destined to fail.  Developing employees and co-workers mitigates this risk.  If you are going to winning company then you are going to teach your people how to win.  This is why development is so important to me and my company. 

On Growth

I have spent the last 20 years as a professional.  Instead of graduate school, I opted on going to the school of hard knocks to see if I could make a living.  In that time, I have swapped careers three times moving from radio to the casino business to finally winding up in the technology profession.   In that time, I picked up a little wisdom along the way.  I noticed that people who said one thing and did another were often rewarded for their deviousness.  The Peter Principle wasn’t just a fancy premise for an essay and that being a jerk was often forgiven if you made your monthly sales figures. 

I also learned a few things about the growth along the way.   Today, I want to talk about growth and how it will relate to my new firm.  The job of any business person is to grow their business.  A small business has to keep selling and growing in order to pay vendors and employees.  This simple formula of sales equaling growth quickly becomes complicated.  As customers increase, you have to hire more employees to service those customers.  The proper balance is how to keep customers happy while keeping employee costs down.  It is not easy.

Sorry, I am worried about growth not olives

I have witnessed a lot of funny things called growth which are fraudulent.  For instance, one company I worked for purchased regional competitors and other firms which provided the same service.  Sales increased but only because more market share was concentrated in the firm.  In many respects, it resembles building a house of beer coasters.  It looks impressive but it will fall apart the moment anyone pokes at the structure.  Which is what happened when bad weather affected the business, the share price of the company went from $33 a share to $12.50 and really hasn’t recovered in the eleven years since I left the firm. 

Another example, is fiddling with margins which boosts profits but really doesn’t solve a customer service problem.  I turn to the famous olive example, where an airline generated over $40,000 in profits by having fewer olives in its in-flight salad.  This is not growth.  It is accounting tricks and stiffing customers to create the illusion of growth. 

I plan to grow my business the old fashioned way with sales.  It will not be pretty but it will be honest and generate wealth and prosperity without all the smoke and mirrors. 

Making Sense of Agility

Just like dancing...only with business

In the next few blogs, I want to discuss the corporate values of my organization.  I have four guiding principles which shape how I want to run this business they are; agility, growth, development, and respect.  Today, I want to share with you my feeling about agility. 

In 2009 I was working for a dysfunctional family business, the technology staff was banished into the server room and was not allowed to do much interaction with the rest of the business.  When we were interacting it was usually to get reprimanded for not delivering what the rest of the business wanted.  It was like living in a Kafka story.  Introduced into this ugly environment was agile project management.  I was skeptical but decided to give it a try.  Much to my surprise, I liked it and I quickly became a convert. 

For those not familiar with Agile and Scrum, it is a better and faster way to deal with software projects created by developers and project managers at a ski trip in Utah.  They even have their own manifesto which is much easier to understand than the one Karl Marx cooked up.  It reads as follows:

·         Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
·         Working software over comprehensive documentation
·         Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
·         Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Thanks to Agile, it was now possible to put in place processes which helped the business user rather than get in the way.  Documentation is still necessary in Agile but could be changed to meet customer needs.  Changes no longer caused controversy because they were handled in a judicious manner.  Finally, developers and business users had to work together to get things done because they both depended on one another. 

In the course of developing my web application, I have made several major revisions to the product.  Each correction or improvement, never say change, did make the software better.  It also created an understanding between the developers and business users.  The developers set the deadlines for a project while the business users set the priorities of what needed to get done.  Each side had equal power and they both developed a mutual respect for each other’s challenges.  Best of all, we had working software which met expectations. 

In this business environment, being agile is going to be a competitive advantage as we strive to meet customer demand and make things happen.  I would rather have something people can use that is improving than vapor ware which promises to be perfect, whatever that means.