SEP Blog

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 Named a Winning Company in the 2022 Powderkeg Unvalley Awards

Westfield, IN - January 2022, SEP, a software product design and development firm has been announced as a winning company in the 2022 Powderkeg Unvalley Awards. This recognizes SEP as one of the best tech companies to work for in…
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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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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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Reading Lately – Carrots, Sticks, and Motivation

I was recently inspired by a blogger named Maya. She has a section on her blog called “Reading Lately” where she posts books/articles that she has recently read, or is currently reading. I felt like there was a lot of value in having a short list of reading material, with a short review about them as […]
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3Q Book Review: The Return of the Mentor

The Return of the Mentor by Brian J. Caldwell and Earl M. A. Carter What’s the point? For me, this book really drove home 2 major points – new-comers benefit from a “guide” to help get over the hurdles of being new; seasoned folk can benefit from the energy that a new person brings. While […]
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Rocket Surgery really is easy

I just finished reading Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug (perhaps you know him from his other book Don’t Make Me Think).  Here’s what I thought. What’s the point? Learn how to do usability testing yourself to gain most of the benefits of hiring someone to do it, and losing most of the negatives […]
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Book Club: ProGit

Book Club Foreword A couple years ago I brought up the idea of doing a book club here at SEP because I had participated in a couple before coming to SEP, but we called them SEDG (coined by Steve McConnell in Professional Software Development).  I don’t really like that term, so we called it book […]
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Book Review – Beautiful Teams

I got beautiful teams a few months ago and tore into it hoping for lots of wonderful insights about how to help culture/foster/create functional and beautiful team environments. Instead, I ended up with a collection of stories from some people (some of which I’ve heard of, most of which I haven’t) that have been on […]
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3Q Book Review: Linchpin

I really hate opening a blog post and seeing that it’s five pages long, 7 point font, dense text. Even if the author is awesome, it’s asking me to make a relatively big commitment. I’ll try not to be part of the problem … from now on, I’m going to do any book reviews in […]
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