Published in Tapendium Engineering·Nov 5, 2021When midnight isn’t midnightThe Tapendium Engineering Team recently encountered a bug when submitting a request to a third-party API. The timestamp submitted with a request used “24” instead of “00” for the hour beginning at midnight. This is a summary of what was found. The problem was first noticed when a failed order…Bugs2 min readBugs2 min read
Jun 4, 2021Why Cold Approaches from Recruiters Miss the MarkIt’s a challenging market for recruiters at the moment. There are a lot of open roles, but not many candidates. It seems like some recruitment strategies will need to change to increase the response rate to cold recruitment approaches. Every few months I update my LinkedIn profile. It’s usually an…Recruiting8 min readRecruiting8 min read
Jun 2, 2021Almost InclusiveLet me start by stating that I don’t drink alcohol. This isn’t due to religion, it isn’t due to alcoholism, it’s just purely a personal choice. When I first made this choice in my late teens I felt like there was something wrong with me. So many social activities in…Inclusion6 min readInclusion6 min read
Jun 1, 2021Our Leaders are FailingWelcome to the world of IT, a world in which we have significant problems with our leadership. This is by no means a problem at all companies, but it is a fairly wide-reaching problem within the industry. …Management6 min readManagement6 min read
May 16, 2021Top Tips for Driving Your Career GrowthOn May 12, 2021 I sat down with Yana Martens to talk about driving career growth. This article is loosely based on what we discussed, but focusses on the bits I think are most important and going in to a bit more detail about some of my experiences. Introduction None of…Careers16 min readCareers16 min read
May 16, 2021SMART Goals, HARD Goals, OKRs: Which One When?Working at a variety of companies I’ve often been pushed to set goals or OKRs. In some companies it’s been dictated what I must use a specific goal setting framework, in others they’re adopted OKRs, but seem to have botched the implementation. I’ve seen some people that believe only one…Goals11 min readGoals11 min read
May 16, 2021Are the 3 Scrum Questions Output Focussed or Outcome FocussedBefore the most recent release of the Scrum Guide there were 3 questions documented in the Daily Scrum section of the guide. These questions were: What did I do yesterday that helped the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal? What will I do today to help the Development Team meet…Scrum3 min readScrum3 min read
May 16, 2021Coding Bootcamps — What Should I Expect?So you’ve just paid more than $10,000 for a course that heavily implies you’ll be job ready when you’ve finished. When you graduate you’ll feel like you’re on top of the world, they’ll help to place you in a job, but is it what you expected? Having talked to a…Bootcamp4 min readBootcamp4 min read
May 16, 2021Dictating Scrum Alignment and the Meeting Room ProblemI’ve worked at a few organisations that have tried to coordinate their sprint length and the start and end days of each sprint. Although there are some benefits for the business, there are some significant issues this creates for the teams. Many businesses push their development teams to align Sprints…Scrum4 min readScrum4 min read
Apr 21, 2021What I Learnt Resigning as a Leader/ManagerBefore I get in to my learnings I feel it is important to cover off the difference between a leader and a manager, and why I included the term “Leader” in the title of this post. From my perspective “manager” is a role title that is assigned by a company…Leadership6 min readLeadership6 min read
