If you're stuck in a boring meeting and having trouble paying attention, there's an unlikely activity that could help you focus: doodling. Sketching or drawing keeps the brain active during ...

It seems to defy all logic, but the best programmers have two usually undesirable traits: They’re lazy and dumb. That’s the point of a classic post by web developer and blogger Philipp Lenssen that I ...

We all have mannerisms: things we say or do that are harmless but that might annoy others. These could be physical mannerisms such as cracking your knuckles, adjusting your glasses, or twisting your ...

In matters of communication, more is not necessarily better. Sure, too little communication can result in low morale, confusion, and mistakes, but too much communication can be just as bad. If ...

Steve Berczuk is a Principal Software Engineer with experience as a manager, Scrum Master and technical lead in Boston, MA. The author of Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork ...

Well, back in 1976, a software engineer named Barry Boehm said defects are more expensive to fix the later they are found, and we’ve been agreeing with him ever since. His “curve” represented the ...

Java is one of the top programming languages. One of the choices Java developers often have to make is the Java version to install. The choice becomes complicated due to the multitude of ...

Team norms—sometimes known as ground rules—revolve around how members of a team will interact, communicate, and conduct themselves as team members. Norm setting gives team members an opportunity to ...

Getting promoted is great, but when it means you'll have to manage your former coworkers, it can get awkward. It would be ideal if you could maintain the friendly, gossipy, tell-all relationship ...

Apache Sqoop, Flume, and Kafka are tools used in data science. All three are open source, distributed platforms designed to move data and operate on unstructured data. Each also supports big data in ...

Because agile favors lots of short meetings, it may seem like they take up a lot more time. But when you compare it to time spent meeting in the pre-agile days, it's usually actually less. However, ...

Are projects ever completed ahead of schedule? It turns out the answer is yes, and interestingly, just as with projects that fall behind, issues can arise with projects completed ahead of schedule.