Sanjay V Sharma

One of the most amazing things about  working in software development  is the ability to work in many different industries - especially if you’re a consultant. Most software development skills you learn while working within one industry are directly transferable to any number of other industries, companies, projects, and niches. I’m speaking about topics like database design,  design patterns ,  GUI layouts , event management, etc. Then, of course, there are topics specific to one particular industry, company, or project. SME Meets IT, Knowledge Transfer Begins This is where the Subject Matter Expert (SME) comes in. A SME will typically be very involved in the design stage of the project. The SME has been working within the industry for a long period of time, knows the lingo, and understands the business logic behind the coding. The SME may have some understanding of software development, but this is not necessary for the project to succeed. For many projects, unless...

If you ask me, working remotely rocks. I’m currently writing from a small beach bar located on a remote island in southern Thailand. Looking up from my laptop, I see nothing but the endless ocean and its crystal clear blue waters. I’ll be enjoying this morning undisturbed and focused on my work because the rest of the team hasn’t even gotten up yet. Time zones work out really well for distributed teams. My colleague Thomas recently  talked to 11 thought leaders in project management  about the impact of remote work on a company; some scrum experts argued that distributed teams could work together effectively while others came out strongly against it. I understand the concerns; you can’t just open up the office doors and release everyone into the wild. It’s not guaranteed that you’ll end up with a thriving business. Marissa Mayer at Yahoo famously  axed remote work  in 2013 after feeling that some employees abused it. So how does a tech company get this working remote...