Omelets You have probably heard the expression, “you’ve got to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.” This means that if you want to accomplish something, it is inevitable that some sacrifices or mistakes must occur. In the world of enterprise technology, we often talk about cutting edge technology and agile practices. It’s often the new technology and practices that are less stable and proven than the legacy technologies and traditional practices. Hippocrates You have probably heard of the…

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In The Return of the Jedi, the Emperor did a nice job of executing a comprehensive plan to turn Luke Skywalker to the dark side, crush the Rebellion, and rule the galaxy. Admiral Ackbar astutely observed that the rebellion had fallen into a trap and Luke succumbed to the Emperor’s manipulation. Things were looking good for the Emperor, who had previously declared, “everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.” That’s a pretty good place to be. As a leader, you…

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It started as an idea. Then it picked up momentum. Finally, it happened. Just yesterday, CHS held its first-ever internal technology conference. We called it CHS TechKnowledge 2018 and it was awesome. While the term, Digital Transformation, is over-used, it is a relevant impetus for this event. As an IT organization, we realized that simply being great technologists isn’t going to do it. As much as we need to continuously improve as a department, that still won’t cut it. For…

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Corporate IT is a tough place to work. The hours are notoriously long. The blame is thick and the gratitude is seldom. Business people don’t talk to you when they are happy. They only come around when they are upset. And that’s just life within the four walls of your office building. Every once and a while, you get to go out and network, talk to a vendor, or attend a conference. Then you come to realize that your processes…

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I’ve made it to 100. I’ve been at this for two years now, writing weekly musings on technology leadership issues. On this milestone article, I believe it’s worth reflecting on why I am doing this and how it’s going. Why I like to write. My normal day-job requires a lot of in-person interaction, which I enjoy, but it taps my energy. Writing this blog forces me to draw inward periodically to focus my thinking and form ideas. It’s restorative for…

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In 1987, Mel Brooks released Spaceballs as a parody of Star Wars and other science fiction of that era. As much as I consider myself a Star Wars geek, I’ve probably watched Spaceballs more than the movies it parodies. It’s so quotable, and somehow, it never gets old. I was recently considering a common IT problem and for some reason, Spaceballs scenes kept coming to mind. IT is all about speed. More CPU, more bandwidth, faster project execution, tightened SLAs, on-demand provisioning,…

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Companies that accumulate too much financial debt suffer significant consequences. They are often unable to respond to market opportunities because they are over-leveraged. They are also at-risk for making significant structural changes just to stay afloat. Most large companies manage their finances appropriately to avoid these consequences. However, these same companies are often prone to accumulating large amounts of technical debt. What is technical debt? Technical debt is what happens when we focus on features and functionality, and ignore non-functional…

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Henry Ford is famously credited as saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” The attribution may not be accurate, but it’s still stirring. Apple made the iPhone because everyone at Apple universally thought all cell phones stunk. So, they made one that they liked. I gave conference presentations in 2013 and 2015 postulating that when users ask for an iPad for work, they would be better served by a Windows tablet instead….

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I built my career on IT infrastructure. About a year ago, I was given the opportunity to lead software development too. I love infrastructure. I love code. I really love Infrastructure as Code (IaC). IaC is this end-state nirvana where all of your infrastructure can be provisioned, configured, and maintained programmatically, rather than manually through interactive consoles. It’s only been a recent phenomenon that this is even possible. Infrastructure administrators and engineers all learned how to do their jobs via management consoles,…

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I recently read the latest autobiography of Richard Branson, Finding My Virginity. For those of you that don’t recognize his name, Richard is best known as the founder of the Virgin Group, a conglomerate of Virgin brands such as Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Galactic, and 400 other companies. Sir Richard Branson is also a knight of the United Kingdom. In addition to being a billionaire entrepreneur, he’s an adventurer, philanthropist, and all-around troublemaker. I’m not as capable…

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