my blog. for you.

Let’s talk digital.

I’m an independent IT consultant and entrepreneur in the Internet and software business. I’m interested in design, enterprise applications, web apps and SaaS products. I design and develop business solutions and applications. I help companies in terms of software quality and knowledge transfer, e.g. with Angular and Spring Boot.

What is a (business) process, actually?

The terms process and business process, in particular, are sometimes used lightly and without thinking too much about what those terms actually mean. Drawing upon and thinking in terms of the concept of a value chain (i.e., a set of activities designed to create a product or service that has value to a customer) some time ago I came up with this definition of what constitutes a process, not just when it comes to business and market value, but also with regard ... Read more

2020 in Review

May you live in interesting times. - claimed to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse - Usually I refrain from writing one of those end-of-the-year reviews because they often amount to little more than self-involved navel-gazing (been there, done that ...). However, 2020 was a truly interesting, extraordinary and in many ways remarkable year. So, here goes, navel-gazing and all ... In December 2019 (or thereabouts) what we today know as COVID-19 or the Coronavirus pandemic started to spread causing a global crisis ... Read more

Stephen Fluin @ ng-conf 2018: Angular for Designers

At ng-conf 2018 Google Angular developer advocate Stephen Fluin gave this highly interesting talk on making Angular - and web development in general, for that matter - more accessible to designers: Sadly, what we often see in software development industry today is largely artificial boundaries being set up between roles that define themselves by the programming languages they use, e.g. front-end development vs back-end. In other words: Paradoxically, additional information silos are created, while software is actually meant to tear down information ... Read more

Wesley Grubbs – The Importance of Failing Successfully @ beyond tellerrand Düsseldorf 2018

The Importance of Failing Successfully - Wesley Grubbs - btconfDUS2018 from beyond tellerrand on Vimeo. Read more

Recommendation: The Freelancer’s Show

If, like me, you're an independent consultant or freelancer I can highly recommend the podcast The Freelancer's Show, which is about the business of consulting and freelancing in the IT / software development industry. More than 300 episodes in it covers a wide range of subjects that are vital if you want to run a successful and sustainable software consulting business. Some of the questions the show tries to answer or at least help the listeners with are: How do I position myself? How ... Read more

Jens Oliver Meiert – The Dangers of Being a Web Developer @ beyond tellerrand Düsseldorf 2018

Read more

Work Culture and Enabling Software Developers to Contribute

This article by Marcus Blankenship tries to answer the question why programmers become disaffected with a company and its goals and ultimately turn to just wanting to code. As I wrote in an earlier article about paying for developer tools with developers, particularly in larger organisations, I frequently encounter a feeling of powerlessness and not having significant say in that organisation’s direction. Marcus is spot on in that he attributes this far too common attitude to an often dysfunctional work culture that doesn't ... Read more

Rules of Acquisition

From the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition: 3. Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to. 35. Peace is good for business. 125. You can't make a deal if you're dead. ... In a recent online discussion involving ethics somebody only somewhat jokingly said something along the lines of "Most people only abide by the Rules of Acquisition anyway." and I thought to myself: Would that really be so bad? In case you don't know him, this handsome gentleman is Quark, bar ... Read more

Survey for IT freelancers: How do you approach marketing and sales? – The results!

Ten days ago I published a survey for IT freelancers asking various questions about how they approach marketing and sales. As promised here are the results of the survey. Thanks a lot to everybody who participated: The survey was filled out by 31 freelancers, 22 of whom came via a link both posted on several forums and emailed to personal contacts directly. 8 participants clicked on the survey on Facebook while 1 filled it out on this website. Save for the last ... Read more

How to succeed in business as an introvert

In this article entrepreneur Michael Shreeve provides an interesting "Introvert’s Guide To Success In Business". The cliché of a typical entrepreneur still is something like an alpha-type salesperson who's always on the phone, in sales meetings or otherwise presenting and selling his or her product. While it's absolutely true that as an entrepreneur you always have to be selling to succeed there are many different approaches of doing so. Don't do things that don't work for you just because you feel obligated by ... Read more
Next Page »