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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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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“Have It Your Way” Software
Have It Your Way is an iconic slogan from Burger King. Letting the customer pick and chose whatever toppings and condiments they want works really great when you are making burgers. Customization is good for the customer and the business. If BK only sold hamburgers with pickles, they would lose the business of anyone who […]
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Beware of Assumptions
We’ve all created a persona. We spend time empathizing with this future user of our product to ensure we see the product and experience through their eyes. We think through and focus on their skill sets, goals, opinions, biases, and limitations. We think though all the things a user might not even be aware they […]
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Beware of Group Projects
*This post is being manually syndicated from my external blog, [Larry Price And The Endless Cup of Coffee](https://larryprice.github.com), as part of the Back-to-School 2013 SEP Blog Battle.* Relying on other people is hard. I’ve always found it difficult to understand that other people aren’t me. Don’t get me wrong, working with others can be really […]
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