Book Club 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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Why We Started Book Clubs at Work

We started book clubs at SEP over a decade ago. Since then, we’ve had over 100 book clubs, with more than 75% of the company participating in at least one book club! Book clubs have been such an integral part of SEP’s group learning for a long time – how did this happen anyways? Why […]
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SEP Book Review & Recommendation for The Pragmatic Programmer

5 Books You Should Read Before You Start Your First Job In Software Engineering

Traditionally, students get only a small taste of the industry before graduating. You may find yourself chugging coffee at 3 am before a deadline; a hard lesson on project pacing. Perhaps you, a team leader, has to deal with a colleague upset about the balance of project work. Despite these experiences, you’ll surely be learning […]
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SEP Book Club and Review for Creating Great Teams

Reading Lately — Teams, Orgs, and Vision

Previously I shared my “Reading Lately” list with a few books about motivation. Each publication from that list is still relevant in my thoughts, actions, and discussions with others at SEP. This time I am sharing 4 books that have greatly influenced the way I think about working collaboratively with people — whether on a […]
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SEP Book Review of Who Moved My Cheese

SEP Book Classics

SEP Book Classics – What’s that? Well, good question. SEP Book Classics started from a discussion in an Appreticeship Patterns book club at SEP. Our group was discussing how to help new members to the company gain a shared language/knowledge of many of the books that we’ve read at SEP. The problem then, was to […]
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SEP Book Review of Predicting the Unpredictable

Book Review: Predicting the Unpredictable – Pragmatic approaches to estimating project schedule or cost by Johanna Rothman

Synopsis On every software project I’ve worked on, I’ve been asked two questions: “How much does it cost?” and “When will it be done?” Given enough experience on software projects, one would think this question would be easy to answer. The author explains why she thinks this is so hard. One reason she mentions is […]
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professional development book club meeting and talking

Building a Better Book Group

A little while back, there was a discussion around SEP about how to best keep track of the books we read for our own professional development. Notably, how to share our thoughts and reviews in an easy-to-use way. We had a solution, but in order to avoid swearing, we won’t talk about it now. We […]
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SEP Book Review of Scrum Mastery

Book Review: Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership

Having recently begun acting as Scrum Master for an 8 developer off-site team with with several hundred active project members, I thought it a wise idea to more formally read up on the traits and aspects that make a Scrum Master great (or even good for that matter). Before I get into my personal reflection […]
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stack of books in front of hands at a laptop keyboard

The Optimistic Employee Owner

During a recent “blog-battle” here at SEP, we took on the topic of “The Optimistic [insert role here]“. So I’m going to take a little liberty and talk about why I’m an optimistic employee owner. For those not aware, SEP is a 100% ESOP (as of spring 2010). This has some nifty benefits such as […]
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SEP Book Review for Persuasive Business Proposals

3Q Book Review: Persuasive Business Proposals

Persuasive Business Proposals by Dr. Tom Sant What’s the point? The point of this book is to write clearly and concisely, to differentiate yourself, and to better equip yourself with tools for writing persuasively.  Ultimately, this book is designed to help you and your company write winning proposals. How was it? Good.  I honestly felt […]
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