Doug's Blog Archives – Page 45 of 58

9 Jun 2009

An Entrepreneur’s Fable (Part 1)

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:27:38-06:00June 9th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Note: This is a repost of previous story. Part 2 is coming out later this week.

Once upon a time three inspired information technology technicians working for a large consulting company decided to start a business. One was an architect, one was a project manager and one was a developer. One became the CEO, one became the salesman and one became the lead technician.

This was a time of plenty. Everyone was starting a technology business and overnight success was coming to companies that had nothing to show… no products, no customers and no revenue… the gold rush of the Internet. […]

2 Jun 2009

The Pain in Joint Ventures

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:27:41-06:00June 2nd, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

As Seth Godin points out in his post today, the success of a joint venture is greatly reduced due to both:

The Venture Part: Is by definition risky.
The Joint Part: The more independant parts in something that can fail, the more likely the overall thing will fail. This applies to just about anything and gets even more challenging to predict when dealing with the complexity of people.

Open Source Software Projects

Open source software projects are often done by a team of dispersed and somewhat independent developers, etc. The common goal keeps everyone aligned.

If someone volunteering their time drops out, someone else in […]

2 Jun 2009

People from Jobs Past

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:27:44-06:00June 2nd, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Mindset and Motivation|

There are three types of people from the past: the good, the bad and the un-remarkable. You quickly forget the un-remarkable and the bad you want nothing to do with ever again.

Sometimes a particular problem or event causes you to remember some of the good ones.

Even after many years, when the good people cross you path again you feel good. Whether it is the past memory or the knowledge that they are still doing well, it is a nice but fleeting experience to briefly catch-up and then… go down your separate paths again; too busy in your own lives follow through […]

29 May 2009

Progression – Growth by Success

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:28:00-06:00May 29th, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

The worst thing you can do when developing your staff/team members is to set them up for major failure (the second worst is not bothering to develop them at all).

For instance, you hire a recent business graduate with lots of potential and then put them in a position far beyond their experience level. The person then messes up really bad, maybe loses a key account or mismanages the team such that productivity drops or key employees quit. You will have to "fire" them from their position. This can devastate the individual and quite literally ruin their level of respect in […]

27 May 2009

Development Updates

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:28:04-06:00May 27th, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Software Development|

Sean Feldman spent the day at Sunwapta on Monday. The visit was highly appreciated by our team and especially me.

I think what is most important now after all the visits and training is to just do it; take action. We have a perfect (greenfield) project that is starting up from scratch and we will be using all the latest and greatest we can manage:

The MVC pattern on top of a layered architecture (.NET),
Fluent nHibernate,
Automated Builds and Continuous Integration automation using Hudson and a slew of other tools,
BDD/TDD on top of domain driven design,
Etc.

In this project I am representing the customer but […]

26 May 2009

Moving Forward in Today’s Economy

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:28:20-06:00May 26th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

As I mentioned before, I am actively watching ProCoach Success System and Andrew in particular as he grows his company and in doing so, helps entrepreneurs succeed in manifesting their dreams.

He recently posted a video on YouTube that I found had some good advice on how to move forward in today's economy:

Stay Informed (but avoid wasting energy on negative discussions)
Evaluate Your Risks (and adjust as required)
Pursue Opportunities (there are never as many as when the economy is down)
Focus on Things Within Your Control (activities and mental attitude)

It is worth watching.

25 May 2009

Agile Business Creation

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:28:25-06:00May 25th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

Here at Sunwapta Solutions we live and breathe software development. Whether it is consulting work for clients or building software products, we need to follow and excel at the latest technologies and trends.

Agile development is a methodology and even more if done right; a state of mind for the development team that can lead to more rapid software development cycles with value for the customer early and often.

Agile business means an existing company being able to set a new direction followed by rapid implementation… the ability to respond quickly to the marketplace. This may mean launching a new product. […]

22 May 2009

Development Skills Sprint

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:20:26-06:00May 22nd, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Software Development|

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am now much more focused on business development. For me this means being an agile business (I’ll come to this later in a new post). As a piece of this I need a development team that is both agile and leading edge skills-wise.

It is interesting how things sometimes come together. JP moved back to Alberta and ran his Nothing But .NET course again here in Calgary and we sent one of our developers.

Sean Feldman, a Nothing But .NET and Sunwapta Solutions alumni, offered to come back and share with us what he has […]

20 May 2009

Developing with Passion @ Sunwapta

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:28:47-06:00May 20th, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Software Development|

With my personal focus on business development I am swinging heavily back into a focus on software product development.

I am more the product manager/architect type and leave the developing to the experts, but I have a passion for building great software nevertheless. This includes everything around encouraging our developers to further learn and master the latest agile processes and tools, from the foundation of solid Object Oriented Design to the latest in development tools.

The last week and a bit have been pretty consumed with the JPBoodhoo show. For those of you who don't know Jean-Paul Boodhoo, he is considered to be […]

16 May 2009

Doug Wagner @ Sunwapta – 1 Year Anniversary

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:28:53-06:00May 16th, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Marketing|

It is surprising how fast a year goes by. My blog has reached its 1 year anniversary today.

Approximately 125 posts in one year is not a bad accomplishment considering writing is not my full-time occupation.

I have found I have a passion for writing in a number of subject areas.

Sometimes it is hard to come up with a new subject and sometimes ideas just flow out. Sometimes an idea sounds good in your head but when you write it down, it is not as brilliant. That is the challenge of taking an idea and communicating it in a limited medium of […]

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