In Part 1 of this blog, I talked about two main development processes that software developers use, waterfall and agile. In this post, I’d like to examine how those processes are relevant in business process, not just in software development.

I have the privilege of working closely with a number of our software vendors to help them improve their products both for our use and for their entire client base. As I have worked with them, I’ve discovered that there are some amazing correlations between software development processes and business development processes. Those similarities have changed the way I look at development, in many areas.

There is a lot of talk in our society about finding balance in life. For me, sometimes, it seems like there is so much pressure and focus on this topic that I have to have everything in perfect balance every moment of every day and, if I don’t, I’m failing. Often, this perceived failure causes me to end up even more out of balance as I try to drop what I’m doing to fix the imbalance which, inherently, causes more imbalance. If you’ve ever seen the I Love Lucy episode where they are working on the factory line, yep, sometimes it feels just like that!

Over the past few weeks, I have personally witnessed some incredibly horrible cases of customer service and some amazing cases as well. While tremendous amounts of money are spent on marketing to acquire new clients, often, existing clients are taken for granted or overlooked. It amazes me to see how much people, and companies, often ignore basic customer service and undervalue its benefit.

Thinking Outside of the Box is a phrase often used but rarely done. It can be easy for us to say we want to or are thinking outside of the box but the very fact that we are still thinking about the box indicates that we are still constrained by that box. The idea, however, remains important as the practice of out of the box thinking is critical to the health and growth of individuals and organizations. If we don’t figure out how to master thinking outside of the box, how can we have breakthrough innovations and ideas?

In the last blog, I walked through things we have learned to be able to Write Great SOPs. This is great but it falls short if all you do is stop there. Businesses, people and processes should be continuously maturing and improving. The difficulty is in figuring out how to get this to happen in a consistent fashion.

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege to speak at one of the premier IT industry events in Orlando, FL. One of the sessions was titled SOPs for your SOPs and really covered two topics. The first was how to write great SOPs and the second focused on building a solid culture around continual process improvement. While I tend to focus heavily on finding our flaws and continuously seeking to improve, I can tend to forget to see what we do well. It was rewarding and an honor to share with the attendees what we have learned, often, from our own mistakes. In this blog, I’m going to focus on things that we have found are critical to writing great SOPs.

This week, I am headed to an IT conference in Orlando where I will have the privilege of presenting on how we have built our business and culture with a 100% remote workforce. Advancements in technology allow people to work remotely, often with similar access to IT resources as they have when they are onsite. However, a remote environment requires some paradigm shifts and maturity, both in the team and the leadership, to work effectively.

Back in July, I wrote a 2 part series on Demystifying the Cloud. You can find Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE. In parts 1 and 2, I talked through the different kinds of clouds, pros and cons and considerations for evaluating the cloud. While I definitely posted some opinion, I intentionally didn’t present a lot of opinion or speculation there. I have had some people asking for my take on the cloud, if it is right for them and where I see things going. So, back by popular demand, this is Part 3 of Demystifying the Cloud, where I’ll walk through my thoughts on the cloud.

Earlier this year, in a blog titled Here’s to the Crazy Ones, I talked about how we approach failure and our attitude towards it. Recently, I came across a video from Simon Sinek where he is talking about how you train your mind to perform under pressure and I wanted to share that.