Communication Articles
Five Strategies for a Happy and Healthy Software Maintenance Team
Software Maintenance Teams provide a broad array of services, customized to the industries they support. As a software development consultancy, our portfolio includes industries like energy, aerospace, healthcare, medical devices, precision agriculture, and others. The products we build live on Desktop, Embedded, Mobile, Web, and Cloud platforms. With such a diversity of industries and platforms, […]
How to Write a Support Ticket Your IT Team Will Love
Hi! 👋 I’m Kishan, a Junior Systems Administrator at SEP since 2022, and I know a thing or two about support tickets. One of the exciting parts about my job is helping SEPeers solve issues that may arise from the services and technologies they are using. An essential component of a modern IT department is […]
Transferable & Soft Skills: The Unjustly Unsung Heroes of Software Development
“If you don’t figure out what you want to do for a career, you will fall behind in life.” I can remember hearing this loaded statement as early as 8th grade. Which, looking back on it, is about the equivalent of attempting to teach a dog new tricks as a squirrel scampers about in its […]
Well-done Writing is Rare
I read a lot. I read for pleasure, and I read for work. I read poetry, fiction, and graphic novels. I even read the occasional textbook on how laws around pornography give us a unique view into the changing social landscape of 19th century England. That one, by the way, is a real page turner. […]
New Leads Need The Engagement Chronicle
On the last day of a 20 month-long project, my customer asked me, “Could you give a brief overview of everything you guys have done for us over the last couple of years?” 😅 As a new lead, I hadn’t thought of starting an engagement chronicle until closer to the end of the project. By […]
Celebrating Two Years of Behind the Product, a Software Development Podcast
We’re celebrating two years of our Behind The Product software development podcast! Since July 2020, we’ve taken you behind-the-scenes on software stories from engineers, innovators, and thought leaders. Read on for an insightful Q&A with SEP’s podcast host extraordinaire, Zac Darnell, and for a peek into the future of Behind the Product. — New to […]
Circumventing The Dark Side of Design
A Tale Old As Time Humans have had the tendency to be deceptive to one another for longer than any existing historical document can recall. One of the most infamous examples of this act being used as a literary device is the myth of the Trojan Horse in Homer’s Odyssey. This victory trophy, given to […]
Fifteen Fives at SEP
Staying Connected While Remote: How the Fifteen Five Helps SEP Maintain Team Culture At SEP, we rely on face-to-face interaction. Team huddles, standups, retros, pairing at a desk, walking by each other in the hallway, playing a game over lunch—we see each other all day, every day. Each of these interactions is an opportunity to […]
Suddenly Remote?
I shared some thoughts with my team last week as we were thinking through what all-remote would look like for us. Now that we are in an all-remote stance (as are an increasing number of companies), those thoughts are more broadly applicable. The tips below are things that have helped me work effectively in the […]
Inviting Clients Into Our Slack Workspace
At SEP, we design and develop software products for our customers. Our ability to do that well is founded on solid technical practices. To take it to the next level, however, we need to be able to seamlessly collaborate with our clients. Over the past few years, we’ve started inviting our clients into our Slack […]
Mind the Empathy Gap: 3 ways to stay empathetic as you level up
The title of this post references the iconic phrase from the London Underground, “Mind the gap.” It’s used to warn passengers about the gap between the train and the station platform. Although hazardous, the gap for these travelers is a natural part of the journey. This post is about another travel hazard, one that I […]
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 […]