Throw out the old ways, in with the new. Let’s stop comparing those apples and oranges.
A common language is what keeps us understanding each other. So when we speak about certain business terms, we may use words for one thing even tho...
Read more about Forbidden words listAs the CTO, or any other person with a separate title responsible for tech teams, you are a spokes person for the company in a way, and what you share and do on social media like LinkedIn i...
Read more about Social MediaAs with all other chapters, I start with a slight existential question. Are you regularly invited to report to the board? Some organisations still think that their CTO’s are IT managers, or a scaled...
Read more about Board presentationsOnce upon a time when I worked as an Engineering Manager I was asked by the CEO to report on certain KPI’s in order to measure and control performance of the development team. We had KPI’s (Key Performa...
Read more about KPI’S and OKR’sOwning your own budget could really help you and your team to be able to work efficiently and to the point. The beauty of budgets is that they are decided once per year (and...
Read more about BudgetPeople either directly involved in your project or product or affected by the outcome of your activities will need to be continuously getting status up...
Read more about Project UpdatesIn this remote working world — where many teams are spread out doing “home office”, we really need to communicate harder, better and smarter. I’m no communication exp...
Read more about CommunicatingLet everyone decide their own working time, when to take time off and how to manage and handle their own work. Again, we are dealing with adults who took themselves thru schools, ac...
Read more about Time OffWe input instructions in a file, which is interpreted by another program on the server, returning back a result. That’s it.Coding is indeed the art of telling the “computer”...
Read more about CodingWhat's harder in life than hearing something you have been working on or been a part of is not working to another p...
Read more about FeedbackThe classic question that you have heard so many times, in so many shapes. Now, slightly adjusted for our purpose I will discuss some thoughts around the topic.
If you w...
Read more about Build or BuyOn one axis you have innovation, the other side process. They are their own complete opposites. There is no innovation in a process. It follows its steps, any attempt to bypass, go outside the box or fol...
Read more about InnovationBefore even touching the topic of motivation, I’d like to talk about some very important prerequisites I think needs to be there. Trying to motivate people without having great leaders is like try to mak...
Read more about MotivationAccountability is an interesting word. It means “the fact or condition of being accountable; responsibility”. Google say...
Read more about Avoiding micro managementHome office, as it was called before, has been around for a long time. At least for developers it was great to be...
Read more about Working remoteSpotify are famous among developer circles for their collaboration model. At the time it came, it was something new and fresh. Built on agile principles...
Read more about Collaboration modelsYou have managed to get the entire team to that team offsite. The trip in went well and everyone have arriv...
Read more about FormingIs IT-management a part of the work as a CTO? Sound more like something under the wings of a CIO – but in reality in smaller companies the CTO cou...
Read more about Computers and SecurityFinally something fun! Application Programming Interface (API) is the way to connect different systems with each other. Is it plug and play as in you just click and it's done? No way. 99% of all API...
Read more about API’sDevelopment process
How to get something from idea to done using a standard development process.
There are many different Development processes. I’ve worked with Waterfall phasing, scrum with sprints which releases all...
Read more about Development processLate Friday evening, just when you are about to sit down for that family dinner, the phone buzzes and you get notifications from your favourite monitoring service that the website is down. You excuse yourself and...
Read more about Incident ManagementAstonishingly many online services are not monitored and this has the obvious effect that no one knows when they are working or not. An...
Read more about MonitoringData is the new oil, I used to hear when I worked as an Agile Coach at Maersk Digital in Copenhagen. True that, but it’s not new. Data is important and interpreted in a way that makes sense, it co...
Read more about DataBring out your favourite pillow because it’s time for some discussion about everyones most boring topic — documentation. Believe it or not, in the beginning of dev times this was a true and an importa...
Read more about DocumentationSwitching focus in the middle of the task is the worst thing for most developers, and perhaps also other employees. As a CTO or any...
Read more about PrioritisingAs mentioned in the previous chapter, Devops are important to maintain code but guess what this is also a team effort, and on top of that it’s also a business critical pr...
Read more about Maintaining the codeDevelopment Operations. This guild that few knows the essence of. Is it just a developer fixing some automatic release scrip...
Read more about DevopsTo test something before release is a good idea. Testing is as with everything else — a big topic and there...
Read more about TestingWe divide code in Frontend and Backend. Not really for fun, but because of a reason. In order to understand basic Software Architecture, we need to understand the split between frontend an...
Read more about Frontend & backend and their DevsSoftware development in the context of this book means building an application that is used in the web browser. Or, in some cases, on your phone as an installed “app”. Wh...
Read more about Programming languages vs Frameworks vs StacksAs you read in the Starting a Project chapter, building a project is all about trying out the idea fast and see how it’s received, then bu...
Read more about Build a productYou are going to build a great product, but I got news for you. It all starts as a project. It’s fine. We can ca...
Read more about Starting a projectWe need to talk about plans. One of the biggest misunderstandings about Agile is that you can’t plan. It's not true. You just can’t make detailed long term plans that must be followed and be super strict...
Read more about PlanningThe word “agile” can be heard in meetings and seen in presentations. There are many misunderstandings and it would make sense to discuss these, however let’s start with the agile basics.
In...
Read more about AgileBeautiful code or just working code? Maintaining code or building new features and increase sales? Adhere to the development process, continuously remove technical debt, prettifying code or keeping the...
Read more about What to focus onRemoving access to systems is important, and should be done the day after the person leaves the team. Here, it's also a good...
Read more about Off-boardingOne person in your team is not delivering. There’s a lot of subtile messaging in that sentence. Let’s dig...
Read more about FiringAbbreviations - we all love and hate them. We love them because they are easy to remember a...
Read more about The three types of CTOsIf you look at job ads for developers, they are “usually” pretty much alike. There is an intro about what the company do, then some role info and some perks. Most also states that there is...
Read more about OutsourcingI asked the latest hype – our new companion ChatGPT from OpenAI.com what it thinks about ethical concerns...
Read more about Asking ChatGPT about AI ethics and opportunitiesBeing a big topic ten years ago - fast forward til today - is it still interesting? Yes, very much. And no, the basics hasn't really changed.
Agile product development is a method of creating and delivering p...
Read more about Agile basicsThe topic of salaries and renumeration is a huge topic that deserves its own book. My take on it is that people should be paid fairly, to their market “value” and “enough”.
Up to a cer...
Read more about What to payTMC are expanding and now we are looking for more CTO's. Our mission is to "Change the way technical products are built from the ground and up". This means we build products by involving developers on all "stage...
Read more about We are hiring CTO-consultantsOne thing is for sure. You will be doing this activity together with new people joining your company many times. No matter how much don't want people to leave and you are tol...
Read more about OnboardingHaving the right people on the team is of course very important. But who are the right people and where can you find them? Not so easy. Finding your future coworkers takes a lot of...
Read more about Hiring the right peopleWorking within technology for almost two decades, I've obviously met a lot of developers. There is much to be said about all the great people I've had the chance to work with – but in this post I'd like to focus on s...
Read more about Developers on an equity modelThe art of developing an application has been well described in various coding books that you can find gathering dust on almost all developers desks around the world. This is not that book. There may be some technical referen...
Read more about The CTO PlaybookAnnouncement: The danish recruitment platform called Hyro will be closed and moved to Juice. Hyro was...
Read more about Hyro becomes JuiceThe boat has 6 spaces and the Vierwaldstättersee is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world.
Tuesday September 12th, 18-21 is the time.
What could be m...
Read more about Come sailing with meLet's talk about your Product Development needs. How can we help your company?