Software Technology Architect

Dumb Things Smart People Do That Limit Their Careers

2023-07-31T21:16:00.000+05:30

[BY GORDON TREDGOLD, FOUNDER AND CEO, LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES]

Just because we're smart doesn't mean that we're not going to make dumb mistakes, mistakes that can hamper our career and hold us back. No matter how smart we are, we won't achieve your full potential until we stop making this seven stupid mistakes.

1.Thinking and Talking are NOT THE SAME as Doing.

Planning and preparation are important ingredients in achieving success, but the most important thing of all is action. We cannot think your way to success no matter how smart you are. At some point, we need to roll your sleeves up and make it happen.

2. Waiting to be promoted before Doing the next level job.

If we want to be a Leader, then we need to start leading. Leadership isn't a title or a position; it's about action, influence and the ability to drive results. Throughout my career, I have seen hundreds of smart people wait to be offered a leadership position before they start to lead. But that's like waiting to be picked for a football team before you learn to be good at football. More often than not it's not going to happen. Lead first, and then the position will come.

3. Fail to Communicate Clearly.

When we communicate, it's the responsibility of the person sending the message to make sure that it's received and understood. We need to explain things clearly and simply. When people can understand, then they can implement. Too often it's left to the party receiving the message to figure out what was being said, and what needs to be done. Just because we're smart enough to know what we have said doesn't mean that the person receiving the message fully understood it. And when smart people get this one wrong, it can result in failure for both.

4. Don't Delegate Enough.

"It would be quicker if I just did it myself" is a phrase we often hear from those who either struggle to delegate or who don't like to delegate. But when we refuse to delegate work we limit your team's achievements to what we can achieve ourself. When we delegate, it allows us to increase the results and impact significantly. If we cannot delegate then we become indispensable at the current level, which might sound like a good thing, but it could actually stop us from being promoted.

5. Don't listen to or ask for feedback.

To improve performance, we need to get feedback. Feedback is the breakfast of champions. It allows us to know what went well and what needs to be worked on. Without feedback, we can develop bad habits that reduce both the effectiveness and efficiency. Don't be the person who, just because they're smart, thinks they know it all. We can all do better, and to improve we need to both ask for and listen to feedback.

6. Wait until they are 100% ready before taking a shot.

Perfect is the enemy of good enough, and if we wait until everything is perfect, then you will never achieve anything. Yes, we can always do a little bit more preparation, but one of the keys to success is starting. Great opportunities don't come along every day, and if we wait until we feel we are ready, we can miss great oppurtunities.

7. Underestimate the value of the not so smart.

Just because someone lacks a particular educational qualification doesn't mean that their ideas or input should be ignored when offered. In many cases, experience is a much more valuable commodity than intelligence. It's great to learn from our mistakes, but it's much smarter to learn from those of others, so we can save time and money by avoiding making them ourselves.

Thanks!

I just read his article and appreciated all the points.
Thanks to Writer.

Kids Movies in English

2020-09-26T21:12:00.001+05:30

Nowadays, The Kids Movies in English have a lot for the elders to Learn. I tried to recollect few that drew my attention.

Example:

[IRON MAN]

“Jarvis, sometimes you got to Run before you can Walk.”

[KUNGFU PANDA - 1]

There is No Secret Ingredient.

To make something special, you just have to believe it’s special.

[KUNGFU PANDA - 2]

You got to let go of that stuff from the past.

Because it just doesn’t matter.

The only thing that matters is What you choose to be now.

[RATATOUILLE]

Dad: Where are you going?

Remy: Back to the restaurant. They'll fail without me.

Dad: Why do you care?

Remy: Because I'm a cook!

I will keep adding the quotes, I like.

Thanks.

Signs that tell you - Quit your Job, Right Now!

2017-03-26T14:30:00.000+05:30

If you only do what you can do,
You will never be better than what you are.
- Shifu: Kung fu Panda

No Growth
Learning and career progression is a big motivation to continue in a job. If you are one of such people and if the thought of stability without any growth scares you, it's time to quit.

Under-Valued
Even highly paid employees feel undervalued when there is lack of appreciation. If you are unappreciated and undervalued, it hampers your performance too. Quit before it's too late

Under-Paid
Don't sell yourself Cheap! They really start ill-treating you. If you feel that your compensation does not match with your skills and you know the industry benchmarks for your position are higher, it is time to look for better opportunities outside.

Don't like your boss
It's true that people join companies but they quit their bosses. Having a bad manager is extremely taxing and impedes productivity. You should not go through such stress and leave the job for good!

Feel Gloomy
The day you walk through the doors of your office without any excitement and there is always a sense of sadness and bitterness, you should quit the job immediately.

Thanks.
From: jobbuzz-timesjobs

Useful Google Tools

2014-12-15T15:45:00.005+05:30

from Times of India - Agatha Christie

There’s hardly a day that goes by without most of us using at least one Google tool,
be it search, YouTube, Maps, Translate, Gmail, Android, News or Analytics.

But Google is much more than just these commonly-used products.
In fact, Google actually has a bunch of incredibly useful online tools that you might not even have heard of.

Let’s take a look…

You can set a timer on Google (and get an alarm to sound when time is up) by looking up any amount of time on the website, followed by "timer."
Google.com/sky - lets you explore the far reaches of the universe using images from NASA satellite, Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Hubble Telescope.
Getting married? Google will help you plan your wedding, by guiding you through breaking the news, locating a venue, making a website and more.
Google nGrams is a fun tool that lets you search for words in 5.2 million books published between 1500 and 2008 so you can see how they've been used and changed over time.
Intimidated by huge numbers? Google will help you figure out how to pronounce that 12-string behemoth if you type "=english" after it. 1 234 567 890 = one billion two hundred thirty-four million five hundred sixty-seven thousand eight hundred ninety
There's a "Manual" feature in Google Translate that lets you draw characters or symbols.
Similarly, Google Input Tools lets you type in over 80 different languages without having to download a special keyboard.
Find a gorgeous font that you can use for free using Google.com/fonts.
Google Scholar makes it incredibly easy to search for information in professional journals and papers.
Brush up your cultural knowledge by using Google Art Project to check out super high-resolution photos of artwork from the world's greatest museums.
Think Insights is Google's "digital cheat sheet" for marketers, where it uses its data to glean what's on deck for the industry
Want to get a pulse on what people care about at any given moment? Google Trends shows the most searched terms every day.You can even plot how different search terms have waxed or waned in popularity over time.
Panoramio combines Google Maps with your personal photos, thus letting you plot their pictures over the real-world locations where they were taken.
The Google Sound Search widget works like Shazam to help you identify songs you hear. It will also link you to buy each track in the Google Play Store.
Google Keep is a killer notes and reminder app that works across both desktops and smartphones.

Thanks.

Most Common Interview Questions...

2014-11-20T12:29:00.001+05:30

Prepare for the below questions generally asked in the job interviews.

Tell me a little about yourself
Why are you looking (or why did you leave you last job)?
Tell me what you know about this company.
Why do you want to work at X Company?
What relevant experience do you have?
If your previous co-workers were here, what would they say about you?
Have you done anything to further your experience?
Where else have you applied?
How are you when you're working under pressure?
What motivates you to do a good job?
What's your greatest strength?
What's your biggest weakness?
Let's talk about salary. What are you looking for?
Are you good at working in a team?
Tell me a suggestion you have made that was implemented.
Has anything ever irritated you about people you've worked with?
Is there anyone you just could not work with?
Tell me about any issues you've had with a previous boss.
Would you rather work for money or job satisfaction?
Would you rather be liked or feared?
Are you willing to put the interests of X Company ahead of your own?
Explain why I should hire you.
Finally, do you have any questions to ask me?

~ All the Best ~
Ref: jobbuzz.timesjobs.com

Top Skills Professionals Need to Master

2014-11-20T11:56:00.004+05:30

What do professionals really need to know?

All working individuals and professionals need significant competency and skill in all of the following eight areas in order to be successful, and most are sorely lacking in several if not most of them. Research shows that most are lacking in at least three of these skills at the same time.

1. Communication Skill

In order to be successful in your job and career, you must communicate powerfully and effectively with confidence and clarity. There's been much written about introverts as leaders and managers, and how they can use their innate skills and gifts to succeed as leaders. Your personality type and level of introversion/extroversion aside, if you can't communicate your ideas in an empowered, clear and engaging way, you simply won't perform or progress as well as your counterparts who can communicate with ease and strength.

2. Building Relationships

So many professionals don't get this one basic point until it's too late - you cannot do what you want in your career, and advance successfully, if you're an island. And you certainly can't achieve what you long for if you've alienated all your colleagues, peers and managers. One terrible boss I had taught me something very smart many years ago. As horrible as he was at leading and managing, he did know one core principle - no matter how talented and gifted you are at your job, if you don't have supportive relationships at work, you won't succeed. Another way to say this is that if you hate who you work with and for, they'll end up hating you back.

3. Decision-Making

Professionals must make scores of decisions every day - from whom they sit with at lunch, to what raise to ask for, to new assignments they'll accept. Do you understand HOW to make a decision so that it 1) aligns with what you really want, 2) adds to your skill base and experience, and 3) creates new opportunities for you that will be beneficial? Further, do you know how to make business decisions that will generate the outcomes that are most desired for the enterprise? Most individuals have never learned how to evaluate with discernment what's in front of them, or how to calculate the risks and benefits of each decision they face.

4. Leadership

I don't know about you, but I never received one scrap of training in my 18 years of corporate life about how to be an inspiring leader and manager. I had no clue about the traits, behaviors and actions that true leaders demonstrate, and what stands them apart from the rest. Key to a professional's success is learning how to empower, inspire and motivate others, to build a vision that's compelling and to engender trust, loyalty and support from others to strive toward that vision. In my corporate life, I didn't understand the importance of being other-focused vs. self-focused, or see how my every action either built on or eroded my leadership and managerial ability and impact.

5. Advocating and Negotiating for Yourself and Your Causes

In business, you have to advocate and negotiate continually - for yourself, for your staff, for your business concerns, for your budget, etc. How many professionals today can say they know how to speak up for their own causes and support their own advancement in effective, productive ways? And how many know how to negotiate powerfully for what they want? In working with women, I've seen that females struggle far more in this arena than men. That said, if you can't advocate powerfully for your own behalf, it's a rare thing that anyone else will.

6. Career Planning and Management

I'm sure you've noticed - your career doesn't tend to grow in the right direction unless you proactively manage it. In doing so, can you answer this question: When you're 90 years old looking back, what do you want to have stood for, given, contributed, taught, created, and left behind? What do you want people to say about you? In your professional life, do you know what you want, and what you really want? Until you can answer these questions (and more), you'll struggle in creating a career path that will lead you to the ultimate destination you want. You'll end up floating in an aimless sea of missed opportunities.

7. Work-Life Balance

While the struggles of balancing life and work continue to hit working moms with young children the hardest, the need and desire for work-life balance is an issue that everyone faces. Do you know exactly how to balance (or integrate) your life and work? Do you understand that it requires fierce prioritization, and a deep and unwavering knowledge of what matters most to you, so that you can act from that knowledge with confidence and power? Have you received training on how to negotiate the conflicting demands of our home and family life with what our employer wants from you? Most would answer "Heck no, and I need it!" to that question.

8. Boundary Enforcement

From my training as a marriage and family therapist, I learned that "boundaries" are the invisible barrier between you and your outside systems (work, school, church, family, friends, etc.). Your boundaries regulate the flow of information and input to and from you and your outside systems. If you are unable to 1) understand yourself, and your own needs and wants, and 2) create an appropriate, protective boundary around these non-negotiables, then success as a professional will be extremely challenging. Developing sufficient boundaries and enforcing them every day in your professional life is an essential behavior, and how you defend your boundaries can make or break your career. Do you know where you end and others (including your employer) begin?

Ref: [jobbuzz.timesjobs.com]

- All the Best -

25 Things Every Young Professional Should Know By 25

2014-09-19T15:23:00.000+05:30

If you want a job straight out of college, don’t knock on Kirk McDonald’s door. McDonald, the president of a tech company in New York City, wrote a brutally honest op-ed in The Wall Street Journal called “Sorry, College Grads, I Probably Won’t Hire You.” He believes most college graduates don’t have the one skill that’s in high demand: computer programming.During your first few years in the real world, what else should you take time to learn? Here are 25 things every professional should know by age 25:

25. “Definitely” is not spelled “definately.” Spell-check always.
24. You should read an entire apartment lease before you sign it.
23. An Excel PivotTable will change your life. Nothing is lesser.
22. A cover letter should add color and personality to your resume—not summarize it.
21. Everyone likes to receive praise, but the smartest young adults actively seek constructive criticism.
20. The days of a college syllabus are long gone. If you’re waiting for someone to give you direction, have a seat. You’ll be there a while.
19. Multitasking is great, but some moments require your undivided attention.
18. Take LinkedIn seriously.
17. Understand the pay-stub that accompanies your paycheck.
16. There’s no such thing as an overnight success, but people who do break through tend to start their days while everyone else is still asleep.
15. There’s a difference between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA. Know what it is.
14. Even though college is over, you should still find extracurricular activities. Among many reasons, clubs and organizations are terrific places to network.
13. You’re never too busy to write a thank-you note.
12. Learn how to negotiate your salary.
11. The ability to follow through on assignments can take you from a 25-year-old newbie to an essential team member.
10. You’ll make more money than some of your friends, and less than others. The only thing that matters is that you pay your bills on time.
9. Bring a lunch to work. It’s healthier and cheaper than eating out.
8. Don’t step into an interview room without having done research on the company and thought of questions for the employer.
7. Learn to use Dropbox and love it.
6. Treat interns with respect. They’ll provide you with management training and ease your workload.
5. To impress older business associates, ask about their career paths. You may also learn a thing or two.
4. Under-promise and over-deliver (vvi).
3. The less you write, the tighter the message. The less you talk, the stronger the speech.
2. The only failure in your 20s is inaction. Everything else is trial and error.
1. You’re halfway through the most formative decade of your life. You don’t need all the answers, but you must keep asking questions.
Start with this one: What’s something new I can learn right now?

(from jobbuzz.timesjobs.com)

Are you hunting for a Job?

2011-04-17T18:07:00.007+05:30

For any professional good/bad, IT/non-IT, he/she will start preparing for the interview only when thay start looking for a change. And probably he might not be able to recollect all the approach/steps he followed previously. I would always suggest them to document all the important things in their career. Off-course, preparing for the interviews is a important one to write a journal on. Few points from mine...

At a regular interval say one year, go and try with few interviews to gain knowledge and confidence.

Keep your resumes always updated for every major change say, learnt new technology, changed project/role, trainig attended, etc... or at some regular interval at-least. Stick to single unique and professional resume format. Don't have more than 3-4 pages.

Update your latest professional resume on job sites like Naukri, Timesjobs, Monsterjobs, etc...

Start preparing the basics in a day or two and start answering the calls & attending interviews.

Please don't expect to clear the interiew in intial stages. Note down the points at each interviews like expectation, area covered, roles & responsibilities, etc...

Start analyzing and identify the areas you are lagging in.

This will create knowledge & confidence in you and will help you to clear your interviews faster.

All the best!

Few things - As technical lead, we should take care.

2010-07-25T20:53:00.007+05:30

The below are only the points.
Read the original article in [www.littletutorials.com].
Really awesome.
In fact, the author of this article inspired me to restart my knowledge sharing activity and started writing few thing in the web.

Sec-1:Set yourself up for success

Define early on what success means for you, the team and the business
Believe in the project: idea, architecture, time, team
Understand the domain, the business requirements and the technical challenges
Know your team: strengths, weaknesses, ambitions and personalities
Have a plan as a result of a planning activity
Be part in the design of everything
Get your hands dirty and code8. Act as a communication proxy for your team
Make sure everybody understands the big picture: their work has implications
Fight for architecture and design consistency
Know the status of everybody’s work and detect slippage
Record technical debt if you need shortcuts but try to maintain architectural integrity; report the debt
Use the process that makes sense in your particular case
Avoid dogmas - question why everything is done the way is done; make sure everybody else knows the reasons
Avoid design by committee; listen to everybody but make your own decisions

Sec-2:Build your relationship with the team

Gain the team’s respect with the quality of your work and by doing what you are preaching
Be fair
Admit your mistakes
Publicly recognize both team’s and individual members’ merits
Don’t blame anybody publicly for anything
Build morale and confidence by offering early victories to the team and to its individual members
Match people and tasks based on skills and their personal preference if possible; explain your decisions
Work the estimates with the team don’t come up with them
Mentor people
Listen to and learn from people
Explain your technical decisions

Sec-3:Build your relationship with the management and business people

Be sure you have authority along with responsibility
Be sure you get requirements and not architecture/design masked as requirements
Explain technical decisions in business terms
Try to be accurate in your estimates; avoid being too optimistic and don’t push it with hidden padding; explain the need for padding
Set reasonable expectations
Understand the relationships and dependencies with other teams or projects
Accurately report the status with alarms, explanations and solutions; report any technical debt
Resist pressure for change in requirements, and more important for shortcuts
Be aware of politics
React to surprises with calm and with documented answers

Thanks!

Areas .NET TL's have to update themselves

2010-06-29T20:29:00.004+05:30

One of my friend use to advice me to attend interviews every 6 - 9 months. I gave a try. I could see myself as a [Technology Lead] where I am lagging in the technical and other skills. To help my readers I am listing out few the areas where I came to know a TL has to update/upgrade.

Protocols like SOAP, HTTP, TCP
UML - Views (Process, Sequential, ...)
UML - Diagrams (Collaboration, Communication, ...)
Ajax - Internals, Architecture, Scenario, ...
.NET tools - FxCop, NUnit, ...
Profilers - CLR Profiler, ANTS, ...
Estimation techniques
Build Tools - MSBuild
ASP.NET Performance Counters
SOA concepts
SDLC Process
Unit Testing, Integration Testing, etc...
EAI - BizTalk exposure
Collaboration - MOSS concepts

All the best!

97 Things - Software Architect should know

2010-05-29T08:10:00.009+05:30

I got a chance to search for the things that a software architect should be capable of and I came across the following link from O'Reilly.

http://architect.97things.oreilly.com/wiki/index.php/97_Things_Every_Software_Architect_Should_Know_-_The_Book.

It has many topics and I first looked into "Architects must be hands on". It really impressed me. Thanks a lot to the author of that topic. I liked few points that I enlisted below.

- Architects should be bought into the team at the earliest part of the project.
- Architects should not sit in an ivory tower dictating the way forward.
- An architect is like an airline pilot, he might not look busy all of the time.
- Architect should have responsibility for the delivery and quality of the projects.

They gave clear picture on the roles of a software architect. There are two ultimate statements we can never miss. I copied them below.

(1)The project manager (co-pilot) performs the day-to-day management tasks leaving the architect free from the hassles of mundane tasks and people management.
(2)A good architect should be able to fulfill any of the positions within his team from wiring the network, and configuring the build process to writing the unit tests and running benchmarks.
Keep watching this BLOG. I am planning to be active towards topics on architectural & design concepts. Please share you comments an bring out the topics which we can brief here.

Thanks!

Software Architect related sites…

2009-11-02T22:21:00.001+05:30

Sometimes I search for the sites related to Software Architecture. I use to check the articles in the following sites.

http://www.opengroup.org/togaf/
http://www.iasahome.org/web/home/home
www.bredemeyer.com/whatis.htm
www.handbookofsoftwarearchitecture.com
www.softwarearchitectureportal.org
http://www.codingthearchitecture.com
http://softwarearchitecture.com/
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/
http://www.handbookofsoftwarearchitecture.com/index.jsp?page=Main

I keep checking the tech news…

2009-10-23T22:16:00.001+05:30

I use to check few tech sites regularly for every 15 days. Even though it does not matters in terms of developing my programming skills it created a kind of awareness and confidence in me. If I sit in a technical discussion, it would look like me reading a new news article on a new topic. But before me starting this kind of habit, I will be little uncomfortable and will hesitate to open my mouth.

I wish to list out few of those site…

I don’t check all the sites at a single stretch. During a routine work, just spending 5-10 minutes in a day helps me to relax and gain some information.