About enterblog
Enterblog is an ongoing collection of thoughts and experiences that I am facing in my current project, Eversun Software Corporation. Eversun was founded with the idea of developing a high quality model for taking advantage of the global marketplace for software technology.
Early Experiences
I began my career in the technology in 1999, shortly after graduating from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. My fascination with the Internet and information technology rerouted me from the land of fungal proteins and genetics to Technology Professionals Inc., an IBM business partner based in Bridgewater New Jersey.
I came to realize very quickly what was needed to produce results on information technology projects. Not years of experience. Not a focused 4 year education from a widely respected University. To be a productive programmer merely required raw intelligence and curiosity.
The Groundwork
I had taught myself to program in the language of Java in a period of 4 months. From the first day that I joined TPI, I was the companies most productive programmer.
The low barrier to entry in the information technology market was fascinating to me. I was also fascinated by the diversity of my peers. Africans, Russians, Indians, and more. From every place on the planet, it seemed, people were drawn to technology centers to work on projects.
With more experience, I met more programmers. I also met more pressure. I realized another important limitation was time. There exists an inextinguishable supply of work. Once an assignment has been completed, there will always be a new assignment that can now be undertaken as a result of the first's completion.
An International Perspective
I finally left the East Coast in the Summer of 2002. I traveled to Vancouver Canada, knowing that the marketplace was in a state of flux, and that it was time to explore a new challenge.
I spent most of the that Summer, and early Fall learning Chinese, and exploring the Pacific Northwest. Vancouver is home to a large population of Chinese immigrants.
Here I encountered sharp minds, skilled engineers, and high unemployment. The significant economic differences between New York and Canada were clear.
As I supported myself with New York based consulting work, it also dawned on me that proximity can be virtually eliminated through the use of technology. Standards in communication along with the excess of over-investment of the late 90's led to a surplus of broadband.
The Final Pieces
So, in a short three years, I learned some very interesting facts:
- Programming can be a very useful task to businesses
- The barriers to becoming a productive programmer are low. (a computer, broadband, curiosity, and motivation)
- Market conditions vary greatly across the world.
- Technology is feeding itself, by lowering barriers of communication
The only question that I was left with, was how to best take advantage of this knowledge.
Agile
I turned to agile methods, as they represented the path of least resistance. In practicing agile methods, there are no strict and rigid processes that need to be followed.
I liken the use of agile methods in the collaboration on software development projects to the use of body language in communication. Body language is one of the lowest common denominators in communication.
It is easy to know who is happy and who is sad. A smile is almost a universal symbol. In the same way, agile methods like extreme programming and scrum focus on the simplest possible form of communication that is possible.
The Blog
I write for the sake of understanding. I write to help myself make sense of the world around me. I write so that I can share with the world, the conclusions that I have come to.
I cannot guarantee that everything in this weblog is factual. However, I will guarantee that a best effort has been made to process the limited world that I see around me.
I hope that there are companies and individuals who read these pages and can find value in them. I am also excited to receive feedback from readers at danny@enterblog.com.
