I had an insight a few weeks ago that I thought was worth sharing. First some context.
On the Jazz project, one of my jobs is leading the software development for our platform-level web UI stuff [1]. Erich Gamma is the overall Jazz technology lead. Twice a month we have a sync up meeting where we [...]
In the last week of the most recent Jazz milestone, I realized that I was running out of time to give one of the web features a UI overhaul. Jen Hayes, the primary web UI designer, had sent me a spec more than a month before but I hadn’t implemented it because I was [...]
The other day, I thought of a clever solution to speed up an important Jazz function by perhaps 20-40% (depending on a set of environmental factors). I eagerly documented the solution in a bug report and CC’d several teammates. Several times over the past week, I almost went ahead and just coded the [...]
I first came in contact with the Jazz project back in 2005 while I was working as an IT architect in IBM Global Services. A couple of IGS and Rational managers agreed that it would be a good idea if I shared with the Jazz team some of my experiences working on large IT [...]
My wife Chunhui was born and raised in Jinan, China. One of the fun challenges of an American-Chinese marriage is to recognize the subtle cultural differences so that you don’t unintentionally violate the other person’s cultural assumptions and mores. Recently we had an interesting discussion with another American-Chinese couple on the different customs with regards [...]
Marcus Aurelius begins his Meditations by giving thanks for the qualities he gained through observation of others who exhibited those qualities. On a much humbler scale, I recently reflected that my personality has changed as a result of observing the constructive behavior of my project leaders.
One example of this happened at the end of [...]