Leadership – How to measure the performance of your team

It is extremely important that you measure the performance of your team in some way. It is beneficial for each individual member in your team as well as yourself. Here is what I have used in the past which has worked wanders for me.

I have setup Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the team carefully considering the culture of the company along with the required dynamics of the team. I have provided a maximum score of 10 to each KPI. Please note that the score is based on both perception and raw facts.

Here is the scoring guide:

  • 1 to 4 is concerning
  • 5 to 6 is ok
  • 6 to 7 is good
  • 7 to 8 is very good
  • 8 to 9 is excellent
  • 9 to 10 is outstanding

Read more

2011
03/01
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Best Practices
Development Management
Leadership
Software Engineering
Tools
TAGS




2 comments

SQL Server – Performance Tune Checklist

Here is the performance tune checklist for SQL.

Schema

  • Normalize first and then denormalize for performance.
  • Define all primary keys and foreign key relationships.
  • Define all unique constraints and check constraints.
  • Choose the most appropriate data type.
  • Use indexed views for denormalization.
  • Partition tables vertically and horizontally.

Read more

2011
03/01
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Best Practices
SQL Server
TAGS


2 comments

Watch Out – Pryon and Harvey Norman combined gives bad user experience

Two weeks ago I bought a Pryon desktop computer from Harvey Norman. In the first week of use I used to get about 5 blue screens over 2 hours of work each day. I took the desktop back to Harvey Norman and got a brand new replacement – another Pryon. In the second week I again received around 2 to 3 blue screens a day over 2 hours of work each day. What are the chances of getting two faulty Pryon desktops in a row! Read more

2011
02/21
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Watch Out
TAGS



4 comments

Extension Methods – DataRow

Here are some useful extension methods for DataRow (System.Data.DataRow). The extension methods help you to convert a value inside a DataRow into Int32, String, DateTime and Bool.

using System;
using System.Data;

public static class DataRowExtensions
{
    public static int ConvertToInt(this DataRow row, string columnName, int defaultValue)
    {
        int value = int.MinValue;

        try { value = Convert.ToInt32(row[columnName]); }
        catch { }

        if (value == int.MinValue)
            return defaultValue;

        return value;
    } Read more
2011
02/19
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
.NET
C#
Extension Methods
TAGS



Write comment

Visual Studio 2010 – How to show default solution file for a single project

Here is how you can show the default solution file for a single project in Visual Studio 2010:

Step 1: Click on Tools -> Options

Visual Studio 2010 - How to show default solution file for a single project - click on tools and options

Visual Studio 2010 - How to show default solution file for a single project - click on tools and options

Read more

2011
02/19
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Tools
Visual Studio 2010
TAGS


1 comment

Development Management – Role of a Development Manager

Being a Development Manager I have hardly had the time to blog! But I could not keep this one in anymore and had to let it out. But I don’t have much time so I am resorting to bullet points. Here it is broken down into categories:

Business

  • A development manager will need to be flexible. He will need to understand the business domain fully and also should carry the vision of the future of the domain.
  • A development manager must bridge the gap between the business and the development team.
  • A development manager must also be aware of situation outside his team. If a QA Team is not setup then he must take the appropriate actions to setup a QA Team. If a Product Management group does not exist then he should take appropriate actions to setup a Product Management group which will take ownership of the strategic development of the products. Read more
2011
02/18
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Development Management
Leadership
Software Engineering
TAGS


Write comment

Tools – OpenWrap an alternate to NuPack

I was firstly disappointed by the fact that NuPack was not compatible with VS2008. However Sebastien Lambla the founder of OpenWrap removed that disappointment. Apparently OpenWrap is an open-source project which achieves similar goals as NuPack – package management.

You can learn more about this from the following sites:

In the meantime I will experiment with this and will get back to you with blog articles on this.

2010
10/19
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Tools
TAGS



1 comment

Tools – NuPack cannot be installed on VS2008

NuPack cannot be installed on VS2008.

This has not been explicitly specified anywhere. However I have posted a question on StackOverflow and the response to this is below:

 

NuPack cannot be installed on VS2008

NuPack cannot be installed on VS2008

 

Read more

2010
10/18
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Tools
TAGS



3 comments

Social Media – The Tools

This blog has been composed to reflect on the conference setup by Vodafone to address How Social Networks Can Drive Your Business.

The venue was fantastic – Eureka 89. The people were great. Everyone was buzzing around two words – social media. The main question ringing in everyone’s mind – How can they improve the exposure of their business through Social Media?

Laurel Papworth kicked off the evening with great presentations on online communities and social media. A representative from RIM also showed off a few tools found in the upcoming Black Berry models that will help promote social media.

Well here is how it all came together in my mind. Please note that the following content is generated from my mind, the tweets on the Twitter wall at the conference and the presentations from the delegates:

Also I will only be talking about The Need and The Tools in this article. More articles will be published in the future to outline the big social media empire. This has been intentionally done so that you are able to consume this knowledge effectively. Read more
2010
10/15
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Social Media
Web 3.0
TAGS










3 comments

Poll – Is NuPack helpful to you?

2010
10/12
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Polls
TAGS

2 comments
profile for Salman Jamal at Stack Overflow, Q&A for professional and enthusiast programmers

Follow me on WeeWorld

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.