A few years ago I worked with an organization to build computer-based-training modules to teach Java. My team and I worked with a professor from the Education Psychology department at Texas A&M to study how computer-based training could actually be effective. I think these ideas are equally as applicable to instructor-led training.
The challenge was to include content in the course if and only if it added discernible value toward the course’s objectives. To make sure the progress is discernible, we used a method of task-analysis to iteratively define finite activities …

I got my new business cards today.  Our business cards at Improving are unique, they are customized for each person including pretty much whatever text each employee wants.  My cards include a quote from Warren Buffett: “Price is what you pay, Value is what you get.”

I heard this quote a couple years ago and it has really stuck with me.  I know what it means to me, but I decided to google it today, just to see what others had to say about it.  I found a 2003 post from …

I’m continually surprised at how much discussion exists about how to manage releases and development branches in enterprise source code repositories. Many of the smartest, most experienced people I’ve worked with have come to the same conclusions about the best way to manage a source code repository. I suppose I just assume that everyone in the industry has accepted these strategies as a best practice, but maybe I’m wrong! I enjoy working with subversion the most, so my analysis assumes it is the tool being used to …

I kind of like the term Rural Shoring. Sure there’s no shore, but that’s kind of the point. The sales pitch is built into the term (Rural Shoring’s Not Shoring)! The term is a little tongue-in-cheek, which appeals to me as a bit of a dig against offshore.
The most common term is probably Rural Sourcing. The term is ok, it is descriptive and makes a strong reference to offshoring, but it is more of a specialized type of outsourcing than a juxtaposition to offshore. I’d prefer something …

I remember now why I’ve had a couple blogs that have ended up abandonned…
I am very interested in Castle ActiveRecord right now, and am doing a lot of development with it in my spare time. You would think that, since I was excited about it, I would blog about some best practices/gotchas that I’ve run into. You would be right. I have two ActiveRecord posts sitting incomplete in my blogger account because I want to include some code samples, but I want to generalize the examples to something not associated …

I’ve been on a few rural teams and seen a few more. The question I’ve run into several times regarding Rural Sourcing is…how many entry-level folks can we use and still be effective? Having led a team of WAY too many interns, this is a valid question. The tendency of management types might be to overload the team with interns to achieve the lowest blended rate… but you end up trading productivity and quality for cost, which is a losing proposition for everyone. I think there is a balance of …