Writing (RSS)

Priorities

...priorities

... note the smudged laptop screen... the pacifier... the nearly-finished bottle...

The smudges are from Emma showing me things on my screen. The bottle and pacifier are Riley's. The manuscript is an upcoming e-book on Team Edition for Database Professionals. More on that in a later post.

Juggling priorities is part of many lives - especially if you're a working parent. I've written about 75% of this current work between the hours of 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM. I was up anyway with Riley (Christy and I have "Riley shifts") - might as well write when he's snoozing.

Tonight is Stevie Ray's first soccer practice, so I won't be making the Richmond .Net Users Group meeting as earlier planned. I encourage you to attend if you're available this evening, Matt Harvell is one of those scary-smart people. Trust me, you'll learn stuff!

I will be speaking at next week's meeting of the Richmond SQL Server Users Group talking about Database Testing. I didn't mention it in the abstract online, but I'm planning to break out the Orcas Beta 2 version of TFS during the presentation - there's just way too much cool stuff in the new version!

Things are busy, that's true. And most work is done on flexible schedules. But life is going well for the Farmville Leonards.

Time to run - Wigglin' Boy needs to burp...

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Richmond Developer Community User Groups Writing Team Edition for Database Professionals Work-Life Balance Farmville

Tech bloggers: Heads up

I received an interesting email a few days back. The sender isn't important - the text is:

Hi ,
I am interested in purchasing textlink advertising on your website Let me know if you are interested and we can discuss further details. I can make a good offer to make it worth your time.

Let me know!

Thanks

No one had ever asked about advertising on VSTeamSystemCentral.com before, so I responded positively.

The conversation took a couple odd turns - enough to raise red flags.

I eventually refused politely, and then not so politely (begging, the final red flag). Compare the message I received to the one received by the blogger at phillsacre.me.uk. Again, I had a different name, but the same pattern of email domains - for me first it was Yahoo, then Gmail.

I'm not sure what these folks are up to but after the problems suffered by job boards last week, I'm sticking with the Google Ads for a while.

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: textlink advertising your website bloggers tech

Testing With VSTS Sample Chapter Available



The cool people at Wiley (Wrox) allowed the cool people at Solid Quality Mentors to post my chapter, Testing The Database, from the upcoming Wrox release !

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Team Edition for Database Professionals Database Testing Unit Testing Wrox Solid Quality Mentors Wiley

Getting Lucky

I was recently reminded how lucky I am.

It's true, pure luck has played an important role in my life, defining where I am today personally and professionally. Well, maybe not an important role, but it's been there.

How?

Mostly in the form of opportunities. But I then had to act on these opportunities to get the most out of them.

This is starting to remind me of a joke a pastor once told:

A local minister rides out to visit Farmer Brown one fine summer day. As he pulls off the main road onto Farmer Brown's acreage, he admires the tall corn and plush rows of tomatoes and beans. When he greets the old farmer, the minister says "You and the Lord are running a fine farm here!" To which Farmer Brown replies "You should've seen it when the Lord was running it Himself."


I can show a direct correlation between the number of 75-hour weeks I work and how lucky I am.

I can also demonstrate an inverse proportion between the number of mornings I awake completely rested and how lucky I am; as well as a positive ratio of 20-hour days / "luckiness".

So yep, I'm a pretty lucky guy.

:{> Andy

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New Book! Professional Software Testing with Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Tools for Software Developers and Test Engineers

is now available for pre-order at !

I was honored to work on this book with three testing gurus: Tom Arnold, Mike Frost, and Dominic Hopton.

The book covers many aspects of testing. More than just what to test, why to test is also covered. Although the book covers testing with Visual Studio, non-Microsoft technologies are referenced.

The book is written for developers practicing test-driven and test-first methodologies, and for test engineers. It provides great insight into the Visual Studio testing framework.

I got to write a chapter on Testing the Database. I use Team Edition for Database Professionals in the chapter to build a database project, then test it. I'm really happy with the chapter. The last section contains a detailed, step-by-step walk-through of building a custom test condition in C#, then integrating it into the TEDP test conditions. I wrote it assuming no experience with the Visual Studio 2005 IDE and little or no experience with software application development. I wrote it so database professionals with no exposure to application development could write their own custom test condition.

The book should be available in September!

:{> Andy

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Managing The Thing You Cannot Touch

Yesterday I wrote about The Thing You Cannot Touch. Today I'm going to tell you some ways to manage the situation.

First, try to determine why You Cannot Touch The Thing. This is invaluable information in charting the waters ahead - especially if you're consulting.

Second, accept the fact that there's better than a 90% chance that you will not, in fact, be allowed to Touch The Thing. In my experience, three things must be true for you to overcome the business friction imposed by The Thing:

  • You have to try everything else first.
  • Everything else must fail to sufficiently address the issue.
  • The source of the issue must be mission-critical.

Regardless, your best knee-jerk reaction is acceptance. This is tough for a professional. In your heart of hearts you know what it takes to solve the real issue. And yet, you've been told You Cannot Touch It.

The good news? There's also a better than 90% chance you can find a way to solve the issue - or at least alleviate the client's pain - without Touching The Thing.

Modern enterprise applications are comprised of lots of moving parts. The Thing is probably not the sole source of pain. Addressing other bottlenecks may do the trick - at least for now.

And, if you're the person they called last time they had an issue and you solved it (and weren't "difficult" to work with), you'll likely get the call next time.

How cool is that?

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Consulting Software Development Satisfying The Customer Leveraging New Business

Signs It's Been a Tough Week...

It's been one of those weeks. I finished up a large project and both books I've been working on moved into editing (which is another way of saying I stayed up a lot writing to get them ready for editing).

The books are (Wrox) and ().

I could tell you about the project, but then I'd have to kill you.

I can tell I've been working a lot. I keep asking questions like "What day is it?" and "Shouldn't I be doing something right now?" I also feel guilty for only working 9 hours or so each day. It's just... weird.

It's nice to have a normal workload again - and a little boring. I get to used to doing stuff all the time and I don't know how to stop.

Enter Christy - my beautiful bride. She's scheduled a week away from it all (well, most of a week anyway). The place doesn't even have internet access.

Gosh I love that woman!

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Writing Visual Studio Testing Training Kit Microsoft Press MSPress Wrox Wiley Getting Away From It All

Updating the Virtual Team Foundation Server document

Talk about overdue... I'm finally updating the Virtual Team Foundation Server documentation at VSTeamSystemCentral.com.

There are 163 pages out there now that demonstrate the procedure I use to build a vTFS but they were written for the December 2005 CTP of TFS. A couple things changed - not much mind you: I think the biggest change is less permissions (not a member of local administrators) for the TFSReports and TFSService accounts. This means the document is ok as far as functionality is concerned, but it's always best to follow the principle of least privilege.

I'm finishing up and a project in the next couple weeks. Adding some content to my blogs and VSTeamSystemCentral.com is one priority. I have about 35 blog posts in my \Andy\Blogs\Primordial folder just waiting to be posted - most of them at Applied Business Intelligence in a series I'm calling SSIS Design Patterns.

I really enjoy having too much work to do - I like it a lot more than the alternative. But I'm also looking forward to doing more work around the house as Wee's birth approaches.

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Team System Team Foundation Server SSIS Design Patterns Business Intelligence Wee Leonard

Congratulations Frank!

Frank La Vigne is published in CoDe Magazine!

Frank's article Exploring Ink Analysis is now available online. Congratulations Frank!

:{> Andy

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It's MVP Day

So far as I know, s are annouced the first day of each quarter.

Congratulations to Frank La Vigne who was re-awarded Tablet PC MVP for another year!

Update! Darrell Norton was renewed as an ASP.Net MVP!

Congrats also to David Silverlight, the brains behind Community Credit, XML PitStop, NonProfitWays, Code Camp Evals, and many other cool websites - at least one of which he's asked me not to talk about yet! David was also re-awarded as an XML MVP.

I was nominated for Q3 / 2006 but not awarded. I was disappointed but understood: the process looks at your community involvement over the past year, and I sort of "came out of nowhere" a few months earlier.

I was fortunate enough to be nominated again earlier this year. And today I received the news I was awarded SQL Server MVP! The email arrived around 4:30 AM EDT. I was up until 3:45 AM EDT polishing off my Testing The Database chapter for the upcoming Wrox book: - so I almost knew about it real-time!

It's a huge honor and I am humbled and overwhelmed all at the same time.

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: About Andy MVP SQL Server

A couple changes!

I've started a new blog: Applied Business Intelligence!

I will continue to blog here about Team System topics. I'll probably continue to share personal stuff here as well - I'm debating that...

I've also changed my login here at VSTeamSystemCentral.com. I'll no longer be posting as that dry and boring "admin" guy - now I'll be posting as me!

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: New blog Applied Business Intelligence BI SSIS ETL Reporting Services

posted Tuesday, January 16, 2007 10:45 AM by andy with 0 Comments

2006 - the Year in Review

This is probably my last post of 2006. It's been a good year. Not perfect, but very good.


got lots of traction in the industry. Most SQL Server technologists I know agree five years was a long time to wait for a new release, but the feature set matches or exceeds the development effort.

Most shops I deal with have either migrated, are testing 2005, or have plans to in 2007.

was released and Service Pack 2 is on its .

- aka Data Dude - went from CTP1 to RTM in six months. Very impressive development cycle!


It's been a good year for the Richmond Developer Community.

We started a new SQL Server Users Group, which is now the official PASS chapter for Richmond, VA! We also held two successful MSDN Code Camps - and the leadership team is planning more for 2007.

Speaking of leadership, the team did an outstanding job in 2007 - thanks to all who led and participated at every level! You folks rock!


Personally, it's been a good year too.

Christy and I bought a house in Farmville, VA - completing our move from Jacksonville, FL back home to Virginia.

We recently learned we're going to be parents again! :)


Business-wise, it's also been a cool year.

I moved from a temp-to-perm position to a permanent consulting gig, and was then recruited by Solid Quality Learning! The relationship with Solid Quality allows me to be an independent consultant. It's nice to be working for me again, although my boss is sometimes a jerk... ;)

I learned a couple difficult lessons as well. Without going into detail, suffice it to say this year affirmed my long-held business standards regarding the importance of integrity, loyalty, and trust. At my age and with my experience with people and in the industry, I am not often surprised by people - but I was surprised this year. My lovely bride Christy has an applicable saying about such times: "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment." Amen. I believe it is best to always treat people as you want to be treated because you never know...

I also experienced new levels of trust and respect. I worked with an incredibly talented team on a cool project. Loyalty was a hallmark of our experiences on the team. The result? Against seemingly insurmountable odds and obstacles, both internal and external, we succeeded - and made it look easy! My experiences at Solid Quality Learning have underscored the value of loyalty and integrity in all we do. The professionals that lead this company are at once the most talented, intelligent, down-to-earth, humble, and open people on the planet. It is an awesome honor to be part of this organization!

I was honored several times this year:

  • one of the authors of (Wrox)
  • allowed to participate on the leadership team for the Code Camps
  • honored to lead the Richmond SQL Server Users Group
  • honored to lead the Richmond .Net Users Group
  • nominated for MVP
  • honored to deliver the Team Edition for Database Professionals keynote at the Philadelphia Launch Event
  • honored to be invited to Redmond several times to participate in TAP and certification discussions
  • honored to work with a fantastic team to develop an industry-changing application (which I cannot talk about!)
  • honored to be asked to join Solid Quality Learning as a mentor

I don't do resolutions, I merely set goals for the forseeable future. I was able to accomplish two of three goals I set at the end of last year. I find three is a nice round number for goals - and I am working on my three goals for 2007 this last afternoon of 2006.

Here's to 2007 - may you have a safe, prosperous, and happy new year!

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: 2006 Year in Review trust Solid Quality Learning integrity new baby 2007

posted Sunday, December 31, 2006 4:44 PM by admin with 0 Comments

Trust

My older daughters Manda and Penny gave me gift cards to a popular bookstore chain for Christmas. So I purchased a sci-fi paperback (you can't beat sci-fi for inspiration) and The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey.

I like this book a lot so far. It reminds me of the ethics I've witnessed at Solid Quality Learning. Here's a quote from Chapter 1 in a discussion about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act:

Compliance regulations have become a prosthesis for the lack of trust - and a slow-moving and costly prosthesis at that.

Amen.

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Trust The Speed of Trust Stephen Covey business ethics Sox Sarbanes-Oxley

Writing Again

I remember Brian Knight approaching me about contributing to the (Wrox, 2006) book. He said something like "Writing is a lot of hard work." He was right.

Remembering my younger, wilder days (I'm older and tamer now) I compare it to a hangover. While you're in the middle of it, you swear you'll never do this again. Time passes, healing the wounds and dimming the memories and you begin to think "That wasn't so bad."

Sooner or later you get another opportunity and you say "Ok!" It's when you start facing that first milestone or deadline that the old memories come flooding back.

But seriously, it's all good.

It's a big honor to even be asked to write. One that I humbly accept and hope to continue for many years.

The reason it's sometimes painful for me is I'm so unorganized. You don't have to take my word for it - ask my lovely bride Christy! Lucky for me, Christy keeps me straight and doesn't complain about my lack of organization skills.

To help me with organizing my time, I bought a book on time management... now if I only I can find the time to read it...

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Writing Time manangement hangover

posted Sunday, December 10, 2006 3:48 PM by admin with 0 Comments

The Clean Break

For the first time since 2001, I find myself sitting behind the president's desk in the global headquarters of my own business!

The new venture is called Andy Leonard Technologies, Inc. and this my first full-time day on the new office.

I mostly perform work for Solid Quality Learning as a mentor. For those who are unfamiliar with S. Q. L., it's a fantastic company! Not only are the people industry-recognized experts, they're actually cool! They engineer the entire process of joining their ranks so that it's low-stress. It has allowed me to ramp up quickly - and for that I am very thankful.

Mentoring is a great concept - it's a hybrid between consulting and instructing. Here's how it works: I join teams for a number of days or weeks. While working together, we develop a specific set of objectives - usually to develop template projects, best practices, and establish a foundation for the working environment. Together, we build out example projects using the templates to demonstrate their effectiveness.

In addition to this, I'm also a trainer. When training, I lead excellent classroom-based instruction courses. I currently lead the ETL with SSIS course, but I am ramping up on more course material - hoping to lead others.

In my previous jaunt into business, I operated ASI. ASI specialized in industrial automation and integration. It was a lot of fun for me because it brought together several disciplines I enjoyed (and still enjoy!): engineering, electrical control systems design, and software development.

ASI started in 1995 when I wrote one of the first completely web-based Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) called Plant-Wide Webs. Plant-Wide Webs started using dynamic HTML before DHTML was widely available, then graduated to ASP. Writing the application and running the business were cool experiences!

I learned a lot about business and myself. :)

Most of those lessons were learned the hard way. I remember looking at the checking account one day during my first few months of entrepreneurship and seeing $80 in there. I thought "I must've done something stupid." I was right, and this was the beginning of my understanding of business development.

When Solid Quality Learning called I was ready. I understood the risks of making the leap. I knew it would be a lot of hard work. But, unlike last time, this time I have a fantastic team supporting me - and outstanding business development support!

The person who deserves the most credit has to be Christy. Not only does she support this decision, she's actively involved - booking my flights, making hotel arrangements, and renting cars... she's awesome! She even jumps onto mapping software and talks me in from the airport to the hotel so I don't drive around lost my first night in a new town! (The car rental people always ask "Do you know where you're going?" and look at me funny when I say "No, but I'll find it!") Christy does this in addition to taking care of Stevie Ray and Emma without help from me (when I'm out of town or holed up in the office) - and she does it without complaining.

Thanks, Cutie. I couldn't do this without you!

It feels good to be back. So far, the new boss is treating me ok... but it's still early on the first day... ;)

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Andy Leonard Technologies, Inc. Self-employment SQL Server Solid Quality Learning SQL

posted Monday, November 20, 2006 4:14 PM by admin with 0 Comments

Right on, Steve! (Giving back)

(Yes, I'm stating something about my age by utilizing the phrase "right on.")

Steve Jones has a great editorial about giving back to the developer community in this morning's SQL Server Central newsletter. Check it out here. I couldn't agree more!

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Developer Community MVP giving back writing PASS

posted Thursday, August 24, 2006 10:33 AM by admin with 0 Comments

Using Google Caching to Rescue a Lost Community Server Blog

I recently needed to move some blog entries from one site (where they were previously posted) to a new blog site (this one, in fact). Both sites utilize Community Server, but the old site was offline - hence the need to relocate the files. 

As I had been blogging at this site for nine months, there were quite a few entries there. And, because things had changed during the past nine months, I knew some of the material would be difficult to reproduce.

I realized I could get to Google's cached version of some of the entries, but I didn't know how to get to them all. After some casting about, I hit upon a method for retrieving the information I sought.

Here's what I did:

1. Browse to Google.com and search for some text in your blog, preferably an entry title:

2. When you locate an entry from your old blog in the search results, right-click the entry and select "Copy Shortcut":

3. Click "Advanced Search" beside the main textbox on the Google results page:

4. On the Advanced Search page, paste the contents of the clipboard (the copied shortcut to your old blog entry) in the Domain textbox and click the "Google Search" button:

5. The Google advanced search will likely only return one result - the desired page:

6. Click on the "Cached" link below the description to view Google's cached version of the page:

7. Heres where it can get tricky. If your Community Server theme includes a sidebar that displays Archives, right-click on the earliest archived month and select "Copy Shortcut" (If Archives is not visible, all is not lost...):

8. Return to Google and again click the "Advanced Search" link. Paste the copied shortcut into the Domain textbox (If you do not have access to the Archived link, Community Server Archive links are fairly standard. They follow the format "/archive/YYYY/MM.aspx") and click the "Google Search" button:

9. The search results should contain the latest cached version of your Community Server's blog entries for the archived month:

10. Click on the "Cached" link to view Google's cache of your blog:

11. You can then copy and paste the results into another blog editor, or save the page - thus rescuing your Community Server blog!

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Blog Rescue Blogs Google Cache Google Cache Developer Community

On Book Authoring (for the first time), part 5

is now on book shelves.

The work isn't over, by any measure. There are updates to maintain. The authors publicize the book at speaking engagements and conferences. In this case, it's not because it's required by anyone (no one's told me I'm required to promote the book anyway...) - I'm proud to be part of the team that authored this work.

I believe we formed a bond while working together. I certainly made new friends - most notably Haidong Ji - whom I enjoyed chatting and swapping emails with during the writing and editing phase.

I was privileged to be employed alongside several of the other authors during the writing: Brian Knight, Douglas Hinson, Jason Gerard, and Mike Murphy. Writing together while working together was a blast! At various times I believe we all took turns serving as coach, mentor, editor, encourager, co-conspirator, comiserator, brother and friend. It was a team effort I will treasure the remainder of my life.

The book has received awesome accolades - both public and private. My couple chapters would not have been possible without lots of help from others - some of whom were not mentioned in the credits section of the book. First and foremost, Jeff Beehler provided support "above and beyond" both any duty and my expectations. Without his help, the chapter about SDLC would not have been possible. Thanks Jeff!

Ashvini Sharma and Donald Farmer provided moral support, encouragement, and unfettered access to the SQL Server Integration Services team.

Kamal Hahti deserves recognition for an inspiring demonstration that motivated me to dig into some of the atypical functionality exposed by SSIS. This proved especially useful while writing the chapter on interfacing with external applications.

:{> Andy

posted Tuesday, March 14, 2006 6:32 PM by admin with 0 Comments

Soloists vs. The Choir

I discovered blogs a few years ago reading Eric Sink's blog, Eric.Weblog(). I was led to his blog by his regular columns on the  (the series is still posted there): The Business of Software. For those who do not know, I once earned my daily bread running a small business. Eric expressed things about the software business that I had learned (or wished I'd learned) during that time. His blog remains at the top of my bloglines favorites - right next to Joel Spolsky - legend and founder of Fog Creek Software - whose blog I discovered through links on Eric's blog (isn't the internet wonderful?). The thing I admire most about these guys is their obvious passion for the business of great software development.

During the summer, Joel posted an awesome tome entitled Hitting the High Notes. In it, he delves into one motivation for starting a software company in the first place: "building the company where the best software developers in the world would want to work." Joel's premise is the Best Working Conditions lead to the Best Programmers which lead to the Best Software which leads to Profit! His post deals with a cornerstone of this philosophy: Is there really that great a difference between good and great programmers?

Joel cites some impressive statistics gleaned from Yale Professor Stanley Eisenstat, who teaches a software development class. The scatter plot says it all.

As Joel notes, "There's just nothing to see here, and that's the point. The quality of the work and the amount of time spent are simply uncorrelated." His conclusion: "You can't afford to be number two, or to have a 'good enough' product. It has to be remarkably good, by which I mean, so good that people remark about it. The lagniappe that you get from the really, really, really talented software developers is your only hope for remarkableness." (For my fellow vocabulary-challenged readers, lagniappe means "an unexpected added benefit." I had to look it up... isn't the internet wonderful?)

Please read the post in its entirety, I'm sure you will get more out of it than this summary provides.

A couple months after Joel's post, Eric responded with a post entitled My Comments on "Hitting the High Notes". Eric's post emphasizes the importance of teamwork in developing great software. The contrast in the two paradigms is summed in three paragraphs:

"For a soloist, hitting the high notes is an essential skill.  In a choir, the essential skill is the ability to blend.  Some of the most gifted soloists just don't have the stuff it takes to fit in a really great choir. 

Sometimes, they can't blend.  Their voice is the problem.  A really distinctive voice is an asset to a soloist but is a disadvantage in a choir.  They can't blend because that's just the way their voice is.

More commonly, they won't blend.  Participation in a serious choir requires a generosity that simply is not present in everyone.  Choir members don't get individual accolades or fame.  Soloists do."

The remainder of Eric's article answers the question: "So are you saying we should forget about the high notes?  Certainly not.  I am not suggesting that you hire 'mediocre programmers'." His conclusions (summarized by me):

  1. "Be it a choir or a team, you want every member to be at the highest possible talent level.  But the people on your team have to be willing and able to blend."
  2. "Great developers don't just make the product better -- they make everybody around them better."

Again, please read Eric's post in its entirety for the full effect.

I am interested in your thoughts on the matter.

Is solo talent the key to great software development? Is it team talent that leads to greatness? Or is it some combination of the two? Is such a combination possible and/or necessary? What do you think?

My two cents:

My experience has shown results matter - regardless of your market. But - and this is key - markets are different.

If you are, or work for, a small software shop, your results are directly tied to the consumer of your software products. This is your market. You don't have to guess whether you did a good job or not - you merely need to examine the corporate checking account.

If you work for a larger firm as part of an IT department, your market is comprised largely of internal customers. Internal customers consist of business people and analysts of all sorts, shapes and sizes; most of whom have or are seeking advanced degrees in business or marketing. This is your market. Your measure of success is feedback from these good people.

To sum:

  • Small software company, consumer, bottom line is your critical success factor (CSF).
  • Larger organization, MBA, feedback is your CSF.

Herein, I believe, lies a cultural disconnect.

Teamwork is essential in a large organization. If you cannot "play well with others" you will find your(talented)self out of corporate life quicker than you can say "I hate Microsoft" or "Open source rules." And yet, why can't we find a way in the corporate world to professionally and successfully manage talented, yet difficult, people?

My friend Mike Potts, the Efficient Coder, perhaps characterizes the bane of the coporate coder best in his essay entitled Where are you OOP??: "Developers in these shops are typically doing all they can just to meet their deadlines, probably have a very low team morale with hardly enough time to do their jobs much less truly analyze anything. A little Psycho meets MS Project."

Is managing talent that hard?

I've been a manager a couple times - most recently in the IT infrastructure for a large corporation (trust me, you would recognize the slogan...). I can criticize my peers and myself alike for errors handling talented individuals - but managing talented individuals comes down to some simple, yet often difficult, concepts:

  • Don't do anything stupid.
  • Don't tick off the talent.

Actually, ticking off the talent is kind of stupid, so Concept 1 would probably suffice.

Sometimes, however, the scales tip in the opposite direction and the talented individual hijacks an organization (or appears to) as discussed in this thread.

My experience managing talented people has been double-edged. It's great when you find a way to communicate the harsh realities of corporate culture in a manner which actually penetrates the talented psyche; and it cuts like nothing else when you fail at this endeavor. My practical advice to corporate IT managers:

  1. Don't be intimidated by talent - lead it.
  2. Communicate the (sometimes harsh) realities of the current corporate culture to your team - then challenge institutional bureaucracy at every opportunity.
  3. Greet individual or team success and failure with a predictable and balanced response - and protect your team members from unpredictable and unbalanced responses. Remember: You must be free to fail before you are free to succeed.

:{> Andy

PS - Every IT manager (ok, professional) in large corporations should read Career Calculus - another great post by Eric Sink.

posted Friday, November 11, 2005 6:05 PM by admin with 1 Comments

On Book Authoring (Part 4)

Now for the fun part: the work is done.

For me, the work ended with one last all-nighter. I was a week late on the copy-edits and was basically holding up the book. It was definitely not intentional, but facts are harsher realities than intentions.

"There I was..." in the middle of moving myself and my family from Jacksonville, Florida - our home of 3-1/2 years - to Virginia. The purpose of the move was to get my family closer to our extended families in Virginia. I had relocated my wife, children, cats, and most of our stuff and was preparing to fly out of Richmond for one last day of packing and work. Sitting in the Richmond airport, I popped open my laptop, connected to the free airport wireless service (is anyone in Atlanta reading this?) and began checking email. I hadn't checked email in a few days, so there were a few messages waiting. Some marked "URGENT" - from people you don't want to receive URGENT messages when you're writing.

It wasn't a pretty situation. Months earlier, I'd snagged my screenshots using Beta 2. I saw a webcast earlier in the week about Team System (one of my chapters is an introduction to SDLC for DBAs), and the wizards looked really different. So I knew I would have to snag new screenshots. But to snag new screenshots I needed access to the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) applications, which I did not have. This meant the book could go to press with inaccurate screenshots or the chapter could be pulled. Not good.

Luckily, some good folks at Microsoft responded to my repeated barrages of tear-stained spam and provided a copy of the RC1 software. It turned out a disk had been FedEx'd to my home in Jax - and that email was among those I read while sitting at RIC awaiting my delayed flight. As I was proof-reading my response to the URGENT message, stating the material I needed to complete my work was waiting for me in Jax, a followup URGENT message arrived - this one with an appended PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY in subject line.

I stopped proof-reading and clicked Send.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. These folks had more than enough reason to be demanding, upset, and worried. I gave every indication of dropping the ball, and the publishing business is extremely time-critical in nature. Drop a few balls and you have no book to show for lots of time and effort. So I understood.

When I arrived in Jax (late), my FedEx was propped against the front door. I opened the package and began snagging and editing. I snagged into the wee hours of the morning, then into the morning, then past the time I was supposed to show up for my last day at work. I worked into the early afternoon and finally it was done. And accurate.

I shipped it off to the editors for another final once-over, put in an appearance at work to say some tough good-byes, headed back to the house, paid the carpet cleaner, packed up my old pickup, grabbed four hours of sleep, then aimed the old Jeep north for 11 hours of interstate travel. It was the hardest thing I've done in years. Was it worth it? Are you kidding?

Amazon has the book listed with  showing the authors. It's almost showtime!

:{> Andy

On Book Authoring (for the first time), part 3

The (understated) lesson of the last couple weeks is: Your first professional edit is no fun.

My initial reaction to the email was "They're firing me?" (They weren't.) It evoked a cacophony of emotions - few of them comforting. It was a challenge to the ego, professional adequacy, and definitely my writing ability. I was afraid of failure, ticked because of all the time I'd put into it only to receive such a critical response, and worried about how I would explain this to folks I'd already told, "I'm writing a couple chapters in a book." That email was all this and more.

And it was accurate.

You've read the articles and heard the stories of now-published authors recalling their pre-publication days. The recollections are usually peppered with anecdotes of how they were turned down at publisher after publisher, only to persevere until being accepted by someone, finally. It's that kind of work. And while it's merely a matter of hindsight for them to repeat their story in the present, I will, from now on, understand that look in their eye as they recall those days.

This is work, folks.

I am fortunate - very fortunate - to be on a team of writers led by someone who's been there and done that many times. The mentoring I'm receiving has kept me sane. Honestly, I do not see how anyone does this the first time - but for me, it would be impossible without the leadership and example of this fellow.

Development edits are due - I'm back to it.

:{> Andy

 

On Book Authoring (for the first time), part 2

In an earlier post, I shared some revelations I experienced as I participated in authoring a couple chapters for an upcoming SQL Server 2005 Integration Services book. I feel inclined to share some more, so here goes:

1. It's a lot of work. I've heard that from authors before, and I suppose it just didn't take. An experienced author and very good friend shared that he wouldn't wish writing on his worst enemy. I understand the sentiment and the editing has just started - I'm certain there's more to come.

2. It's a once-in-a-decade (-perhaps-lifetime) honor and opportunity. I've been reading books published by this publishing label for a decade. I always admired the style and content of their books. Some were better than others but all in all, they publish cool stuff. To have an opportunity to write for them is humbling and amazing all at the same time.

On balance, the work is well worth the honor and opportunity.

:{> Andy

posted Monday, August 08, 2005 5:57 PM by admin with 0 Comments

On Book Authoring (for the first time)

"Writing is a lot of work." I heard authors say that at countless conference sessions. I remember thinking: "How hard can it be? You're the expert! Just write what you know!"

So now I'm working on a couple chapters for an upcoming SQL Server 2005 Integration Services book. The stuff I heard other authors say is starting to make sense.

The first flaw in my former logic is more than apparent to me now: How does one become an expert on a yet-to-be-released product? My guess is there are two ways:

  • Develop the product.
  • Spend every waking moment - including moments you should not be awake - struggling through beta versions to learn the product.

:{> Andy

Team System

I'm spending some quality time with Team System these days. I am very impressed.

The biggest challenge to date has been installation. In fact, I have yet to successfully install Team Foundation Server. I suspect a deployment and configuration marketing opportunity for more challenges may exist here...

Were it not for the VSTSBeta2 DVD, I would not be experimenting with Team System at all.

There are lots of cool things to like about Team System:

  • The framework integrates seamlessly into the Visual Studio 2005 IDE.
  • SharePoint and Reporting Services are used to report status.
  • The default development methodology is Agile.
  • Test-Driven Development templates are supplied, which provide a mechanism for recording (forcing, in some cases) unit test results.
  • Project Management tools integration - though I have not had an opportunity to tinker with this yet.

All in all, a major step forward in software development life cycle - kudos to Microsoft!

:{> Andy