Practices Articles

We’re curious people by nature. And we love to teach others what we’ve learned. So explore our blog to gain fresh insights from our expertise in areas ranging from culture to AI.

SEP Wins TechPoint’s 2024 Innovation Service Partner of the Year Mira Award

SEP Recognized as Indiana’s Top Innovation Service Partner, Winning TechPoint’s Prestigious Mira Award Westfield, Indiana - SEP has been named the Innovation Service Partner of the Year by TechPoint at the 25th annual Mira Awards. The Mira Awards, Indiana’s largest…
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Scaling Communication

This week, I was given a prompt asking “How do you communicate.” My first instinct was, “poorly.” Okay, that’s not strictly true. It’s more like, “obliquely.” I’m more comfortable with analogies than straight up saying, “it depends.” Don’t worry. I’m still going to tell you how to scale communication. Two kids sat down to play. […]
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Make it Real. Make it Simple.

Make it Real. Make it Simple. There is a lesson that keeps becoming apparent the more I practice Agile or Lean methods. Simple is best. To illustrate the point, I want to talk about some tools that are powerful because they are simple. Paper Prototype One of the easiest ways to gain shared understanging of […]
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Curiosity as a tool

SEP has asked us to write about the tools of our trade. I’m a software engineer at a decently-sized software engineering company, so it’s pretty clear that I have several tools in my programming toolbox. Things like Sublime Text for scripting, DiffMerge for file diffs, Stackoverflow for Q&A and community, and even music for getting in the zone. But there’s one tool I […]
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My Favorite Tool That I Struggle With

What tool do I use more often than any other, often while using other tools? What tool am I certain can be an aid in solving almost any problem, if used properly? What tool do I struggle with the most, even though I probably complain about other tools much more often? What tool have I […]
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What’s in your Utility Belt?

When developing software, we engineers have to use a variety of tools to deliver the right product to our clients. As Batman has practically everything in his utility belt, let’s see what I keep up my sleeve as staples of software engineering. The Soft Skills These are the skills I use for software engineering and […]
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Sometimes the Tools of the Trade Take Time

I’m not a very good woodworker. I rush things. I have a general rule when I do work with wood and saws, I only work for about two to three hours at a time. If I try to work longer, I find myself getting anxious to finish. Not to quit for the day, but to […]
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The Point of Particularly Personal Personas

The Agile software development movement has a concept called user personas. During a project’s spin-up, developers are encouraged to create these personas as representative users. A typical persona may be “Victor the Vice President”. Victor is a VP at his company. He will use the software for high-level data reporting, but not data entry. On […]
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Fire the Firefighters

Are there fires occurring on your projects? You know the ones: We have a major delivery coming, and the testers just found 12 new defects. The user study uncovered a missing feature, and we were just about ready for delivery. Management changed the direction of the project halfway through. Oh, and, by the way, project […]
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Diagnose, Deliver, Delight

Burger King used to have a marketing campaign for “Have It Your Way”. For a restaurant setting, it’s nice to be able to customize the normal menu for our tastes. But what does “Have It Your Way” really mean for our software clients? What’s on the menu for a successful project? Diagnose the Problem When […]
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