What time is it?

~ by Randy Wagner Multiple Clocks Almost everything in our lives is governed, in one way or another, by the clock. Workdays, meeting time, dinner time, release schedules, the list goes on and on. However, the one thing that is easy to lose sight of is that we’re working with multiple clocks and that time…

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Opposing Objectives

~ by Randy Wagner Management Must Balance Opposing Objectives Management is a juggle of contradictions and multiple balance points. Every person on the team has different strengths and weaknesses. Some tasks must move fast while others must wait to fit the correct sequencing. However, the core balance we need to achieve is independence with standardization.…

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Be Essential

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~ by Randy Wagner What Does it Mean to “Be Essential?” The simplest and most accurate career advice I have ever received is this: “Be essential.” That simple two-word phrase represents a fundamental truth about most things in our lives. It creates drive, offers a roadmap, and last but not least, provides employment opportunities. It…

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Three Blockers

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~ by Randy Wagner Three Common Blockers to Success I came across a TikTok observation on how to succeed that I find translates well to project work. We begin each project with that blush of maximum potential. “We’re going to do great things for the client and find ways to improve over last time.” Then…

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The IT Memory Leak

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~ by Randy Wagner Find Opportunities for Improvement in the Helpdesk As software professionals from various disciplines, we strive to create and deliver quality in the systems, functions, data, and reports that we implement. However, as we all know, there is no perfect system and there’s always opportunity for improving existing code or adding and…

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Known Good

~ by Randy Wagner Why Project Assumptions Must be Evaluated Trying to understand the world we live in is as old as humanity itself, but it is often much too easy to rely on what we think we know rather than to honestly evaluate what is in front of us. Whether you do carpentry, run…

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Context

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~ by Randy Wagner The Chasm Between the IT World and the Business Side All of us have worked on project efforts where business identifies a need, Business Analysts (BAs) document the functionality, and QA tests precisely to spec, only to have the business say that doesn’t work the way I need it to.  Often,…

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Culture vs Methodology

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~ by Randy Wagner How Client Culture Affects Methodology One of the great challenges of managing a project with a client is ensuring that both the vendor and the client can work to their maximum potential. No two companies have the same culture and even departments within a company will vary. Understanding the overall culture…

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