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by Quinn Heiner Being a software consultant involves a diverse skill set beyond that of a typical programmer.  I recently had a discussion with one of the top technical managers at our company and in that discussion came up with four points to consider when it comes to setting yourself apart as an exceptional consultant. […]

Author: Quinn Heiner, MCSD   The value of certification exams is certainly a strong debate that rages on; however, certification exams for established technologies by reputable companies can certainly add value both to your skillsets and to your organization. Having put in many long hours toward passing (and even failing) a few certification exams myself over […]

Author: Geoffrey Sagers If you are anything like me, you want the latest and greatest. In the area of web development, that can definitely be a double-edged sword. Using only the latest technology you shut out many users who either must use older browser due to corporate restrictions, or choose not to upgrade. One of the […]

Author: Dan Woodruff Ever had a developer join a team, suggest a radical solution and be shut down? Or have them suddenly be allowed to develop their ideas? I find it fascinating as to how this happens and may have some insight. Each company’s culture, whether they know it or not, has inherent values. For example, […]

Author: Chris Lake One of the ways that STG likes to partner with its clients is to sit in as an observer when we have a candidate interview.  We don’t interfere with anything said, but being in the room helps us observe and see both how the candidate does and what needs our client has […]

Author: Geoffrey Sagers I recently had the opportunity to attend the RootsTech Genealogy conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of the sessions I attended was the Innovator Showdown. It was the final six of numerous of entries to “show off” how technology can improve family history — the world’s largest org chart. Most people […]

Author: Ryan Parrish As a consultant, often when diving into a large online retailer environment you can expect there to be many pieces of proprietary company knowledge to pick up. Between learning a new API, using Foreign CRM tools, and adapting to the conventions of their business operations and hierarchy expectations, it can be a […]

Author: Patricia Johnson Part 1: The Code That Time Forgot Like me, you probably expect that html code is going to display virtually the same in every browser, with a few known exceptions. There are small foibles in rendering between the assorted web browsers, but with every update, those differences become fewer and fewer, and […]

By Quinn HeinerIn this article (which has no relation to Covey’s famous book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, except maybe the number seven), we will take a different approach in our discussion of good habits by first pointing out the bad ones.  By going from ineffective to effective, we will essentially discover what […]

Author: Quinn Heiner Imagine if your software company had an 18-month hiring process for all of its techs, and that your chances of actually getting hired were slim at best (really slim, as in maybe 5%). But no problem, let’s say you get the job!  Great–now for your first project.  You’ll be working with an all-volunteer […]

Author: Matt Chiang What is automation: In the most simplistic term, automation is some type of script that controls an application to do some type of action.  However, there are flaws to this ideology.  The background to automation probably started years ago w/ someone in QA or development when they were doing the same thing […]

Author: Quinn HeinerWe’ve all heard the well-rehearsed arguments of being a full-time employee for a company versus independent contracting.  With technology careers, this debate becomes even more relevant given the large number of both contracting and full-time positions available.  There simply aren’t enough people to fill the demands of the industry, which for most software engineers, […]

Author: Eduardo FloresIn this post I’m going to outline how to get a list of available nearby bluetooth devices to show when scanned by an Adroid device. I’ll review how you can prompt the user to enable/turn on bluetooth in your Android device, how to show already paired bluetooth devices, and how to scan for […]

Author: Quinn Heiner Without seeing the subtitle to this article, you might try to decipher what “Synergizing the Strategic Alignment of our Initiatives“ really means, only to find that in reality, it means almost nothing.  It’s just a bunch of buzzwords thrown together.  The old adage that words mean something is only sometimes true.  When it […]

Author: Brett Child Software developers, and IT in general, have a reputation for being over budget, being late, and not even meeting the needs of the customer. There are a million different reasons for that; such is the complex nature of software development. But, here are a few ways to reduce the risk that leads […]

Author: Neal Jenks Design Consultant | IxD Practice Manager There’s a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip that perfectly encapsulates the IxD profession. Six-year-old Calvin is sporting a rather spiffing astronaut helmet and superhero cape. His mom asks, “What’s up today?” Calvin responds, “Nothing so far.” “‘So far’?” “Well you never know, something COULD happen today. […]

Delegation on iOS This tutorial is a simple basic idea to show the concept of delegation on iOS, using Objective-C. Delegation is usually not something a beginner would use, so this tutorial would be targeting intermediate users, which also means it assumes you know your way around Xcode and Objective-c at a reasonable level. Final […]

Author: Aaron Salazar A few years ago I was introduced to John Allsopp’s article “A Dao of Web Design” by a great UX designer that was on my team at the time.  Since then I’ve read a few times and have forwarded it on to co-workers in an effort to spread its good word.  The CRAZIEST part […]

I have been a software developer for a number of years and I find there are many sonic distractions in the office that prevent me from concentrating.  Sometimes it is something small like someone eating an apple in a loud way or something big like a boisterous meeting conducted in an adjacent cubicle.  A lot […]

Author: Andrea Reese Hurst At the request of an engineer who I wrote requirements for, I jotted down some tips for good requirements gathering in a software setting. Here they are, a bit tidied up: Identify the end users, the project owners, and other stakeholders who influence the success or failure of this effort. Schedule […]

Author: Craig Golightly Whenever I meet someone new and they find out I am a Software Developer they often say, “I have this project…” I used to spend time listening in detail to what they wanted to do and I even embarked on a few “side” projects. These projects were filled with late night meetings […]

Author: Andrea Reese Hurst Coming from a waterfall development environment, I was used to polishing a requirements document to the nth degree before handing it off to development, but in an Agile environment, this put me behind schedule, and didn’t even make good user stories. Here are a few things I learned while working in Agile […]

Author: Mike Chatwin I have heard horror stories from colleagues of daily scrum meetings that run over an hour… STOP IT IMMEDIATELY! A daily meeting running this long becomes a roadblock to several of the basic principles of the Agile Manifesto (www.agilemanifesto.org): – Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery […]

Author: Dan Bunker Pick any software company and take a stroll through their cubicle farm.  You’ll find developers white boarding out problems, coding and staring at 2 or 3 monitors at a time and occasionally having nerf gun wars.  Most will simply view this environment as a standard software shop but if you take a closer […]