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Leadership
Running engineering organizations: hiring and keeping talent, decision-making under uncertainty, and what boards should expect from technology.
63 pieces, grouped by format
July 9, 2025
Customer-Led Engineering: Software Development in the Age of AI
How modern engineering teams should evolve their processes, priorities, and incentives to remain relevant in the era of AI, agents and intelligent systems.
November 1, 2024
Why Machine Attestation is Key in the Age of CMMC
Under the DoD’s CMMC Program, maintaining continuous compliance is crucial, and machine attestation provides the consistency and accuracy human checks can’t match. By automating compliance tracking, contractors can ensure real-time verification, creating a robust audit trail and reducing compliance risks across contract lifecycles.
January 1, 2023
How a Fractional Chief Technology Officer Can Drive Innovation
A Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is a highly skilled and experienced technology executive who works with companies on a part-time or project basis. They provide strategic guidance and leadership in the development…
September 14, 2007
Management 2.0
Are CIOs seen as obstacles to innovation? In a nice interview with Gary Hamel, Allan Alter at CIO Insight writes:
April 22, 2005
Modeling knowledge
These days I’ve been acting as a consulting architect for several federal government and commercial organizations where the problem of *knowledge modeling* has come up over and over again. It seems that the underlying issue at…
November 3, 2004
What is a Service?
Recently I’ve been conducting architecture assessments for a couple of clients (mostly in .NET shops but this topic is equally applicable in J2EE enivronments). I was asked to conduct reviews of newer architectures in which…
May 7, 2004
Get on the Enterprise Service Bus
Over the past couple of years the *Service Oriented Architecture* (SOA) model of system architecture has become a popular way of getting management consultants and technology evangelists like me into enterprise application…
March 21, 2004
AOP, the evolution of OOP
Over the past couple of years I’ve been teaching courses on Aspect-oriented Programming (AOP) and find that developers have a hard time grasping the concepts (as did I when I first encountered it). If we use an analogy, AOP is…
September 30, 2023
Role of a Part-Time Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in Regulated Industries
Explore how a Fractional CTO can navigate the complex technological landscape in heavily regulated industries, making compliant and informed decisions.
September 10, 2023
Enterprise Architecture: A Guide for Tech Leaders
Enterprise architecture is a strategic framework that helps organizations align their business and technology strategies. It provides a holistic view of the organization’s structure, processes, and systems, enabling effective…
September 1, 2023
The Benefits of Hiring a Fractional Chief Technology Officer
A Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is a senior-level executive who provides part-time, strategic guidance and leadership in the technology domain. Unlike a full-time CTO, a fractional CTO works on a contract basis,…
June 1, 2023
The Importance of Chief Information Security Officers in Federal Government Contracts
A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is a senior executive responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy, and program to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately…
October 28, 2006
Technical leadership advice
Many of my younger colleagues often ask about what some of the most important leadership aspects are for technical managers like team leads or architects. There are no hard and fast rules but here are some things I’ve learned…
January 22, 2006
Ship It! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects
*This article is written by Abhay Bakshi, who put together a book review of Ship it! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects. I like the book and what Abhay thought about it and I thank him for sharing his views.*
December 30, 2005
Testing is important, automatically generating JUnit tests is magical
A couple of months ago I was introduced to Joe Ponczak, CEO of Codign Software, by my friend Andrew Glover. We had a great meeting where we discussed the current state of software quality management, test driven development,…
May 30, 2004
How to use VMWare for Software Development
Most CIOs and technical managers think of virtual machine (VM) software like VMware as a server consolidation tool. While it’s great for server consolidation, I’ve been advising many clients to start putting VMware on every…
May 21, 2004
Exploiting Software: How to Break Code
Last night I invited Dr. Gary McGraw to give a talk on his new book Exploiting Software: How to Break Code at our monthly IEEE Computer Society Northern Virginia Chapter meeting. We had almost 100 people attend a wonderful…
May 7, 2004
Learning Java/J2EE and best tools for the job
A friend of mine who was recently put in charge of a decent size programming team talked with me about the best way to consolidate multiple development tools and paradigms (such as PowerBuilder, VB, C/C++, etc) into a single…
March 21, 2004
Automated testing of GUIs
On Friday I attended the annual University of Maryland Technology Fair. Most of the presentations were academic and didn’t seem immediately applicable (due to the fact that I’m a software guy and the presentations were…
July 9, 2025
Why Email and Office Documents Are the Perfect UX for Starting Your AI Journey
It may sound legacy, but email and document-based workflows are the most effective user interface for launching real-world AI solutions. Here's why AI should start where customers already are.
September 23, 2023
Staff Retention Might Be More Important Than Recruiting
Staff retention refers to the ability of a company to retain its employees over a period of time. It is a crucial aspect of any organization, especially in the technology sector where skilled professionals are in high demand.…
April 29, 2004
Resume Driven Development (RDD)
Last week I had lunch with a non-technical manager customer of mine who is using our Netspective Enterprise Frameworks Suite for develoment of some heavy-duty mission-critical web applications. After choosing our NEFS, the…
January 20, 2004
Why do we all want to be architects now?
I’ve noticed that the term software architect, a term I use quite often to describe myself, is in vogue these days. It’s interesting to hear that many developers who used to call themselves senior software engineers are doing…
September 5, 2008
How To Demo Your Startup
This is an article I wish I wrote. It’s about how to demonstrate your startup or business idea to a stranger on the phone or in an audience. Since people pitch me their products (which I enjoy, of course), I see lots of demos…
September 4, 2008
The Evolution of Virtualization: Qumranet joins Red Hat
I saw this press release that caught my eye (thanks, Rich):
August 27, 2008
XTS’s Citrix reporting tools just keep on getting better
It has been some time since I last wrote about XTS, a rapidly growing virtualization management vendor focused on the Citrix market. In my recent interview with Eric Spiegel, CEO, I found out that XTS has had many important…
January 30, 2007
Running ColdFusion applications on Java using the smith project
I’ve written thousands of lines of ColdFusion in my web-career (the last line being around 2001) and I was always impressed by CF’s capabilities. I just ran across this new freeware (not open source yet, though) project that…
September 9, 2006
The Benefits of Working With Tech Startups
My friend Eric Spiegel’s just finished a nice article on working with startups. It’s a great explanation to customers on why they should do it and what some of the challenges are.
August 16, 2006
Event: Profiling the Agile Architect
As many of you know, last year I co-founded the International Association of Software Architects’ (IASA) Mid-Atlantic Chapter and we’ve had some great events in the DC area. This Thursday we’ve got Jeff Nielsen, Chief…
August 4, 2006
Can’t We All Get Along?
I read a nice article on QA groups: Can’t We All Get Along?.
April 14, 2006
Prejudging Talent Can Cost You
My friend Eric Spiegel has just published his most recent article *Prejudging Talent Can Cost You* at Datamation.
April 14, 2006
AgileDraw “Virtually Notation-Free Modeling Technique”
I just ran across this interesting site, AgileDraw.org, that helps agile modelers and programmers produce diagrams. Here’s how they describe it:
February 23, 2006
SaaS (Software as a Service) single instance, multi-tenancy architecture
The Microsoft MVP Architect’s mailing list today had a pleasant surprise: Fred Chong’s WebBlog : SaaS is a journey, walk with us.
January 18, 2006
Blogging Your Way Up the Career Ladder
Eric Spiegel writes in Datamation’s online magazine about *Blogging Your Way Up the Career Ladder*. The article discusses how professionals, especially in IT, can enhance their careers through blogging. The column features…
January 11, 2006
Knowing When to Quit
As a serial entrepreneur, I found this *Knowing When to Quit* very useful. I advise new startups regularly and sometimes I give them this same speech that Jim wrote about:
December 23, 2005
IBM Buys Web Services Pioneer Bowstreet
The recent purchase of Bowstreet, who tried to ride the wave of web services and later service oriented architecture, demonstrates how hard it really is to succeed in enterprise software in general but especially in software…
December 18, 2005
It’s Time to Start Networking
I interviewed Eric Spiegel and blogged about him a couple of weeks ago. He’s written a great piece recently called *It’s Time to Start Networking*.
November 30, 2005
Tax credits from R&D investments
I spoke with the BizDev manager of Fortis TCS today. They are an interesting company that focuses on the tax side of technology. That is, if you spend money on R&D and would like to get tax credits (refunds of what you’ve…
November 29, 2005
Eric Spiegel’s got the cure for Citrix reporting blues
I met with Eric today to talk about his company and what it does for its customers and came away thinking “why didn’t I think of that?” Eric Spiegel is CEO and co-founder of eXpert Technology Solutions, which provides turnkey,…
November 23, 2005
ESB vs. BizTalk Debate Heats up in Barcelona
Check out this link a friend of mine sent: ESB vs. BizTalk Debate Heats up in Barcelona. Dave Chappell writes:
November 19, 2005
Microsoft Touts New Ajax Tools
There’s a nice interview on Microsoft’s new found respect for AJAX: Q&A: Microsoft Touts New Ajax Tools. Microsoft says:
November 19, 2005
Does “Web 2.0” mean anything?
Paul’s a great writer and he’s just posted a grea piece on Web 2.0. Some of my favorite snippets:
November 1, 2005
IEEE Seminar on Transition from Practicing Engineer to Manager
On Saturday, November 12, 2005 IEEE will be hosting the “Making the Transition from Practicing Scientist, Engineer or Technologist to Practicing Manager” seminar. Details:
October 7, 2005
.NET test automation getting serious
As a consultant with clients that are on both the .NET and Java platforms (and many other legacy ones, too) I follow Microsoft’s progress closely. Over the past few years the test automation and test early (unit testing,…
September 25, 2005
Finally, someone else takes care of physical mail
For those of us that are tired of spam in our snail mail and haven’t quite found the equivalent of a physical bayesian filter for their real postal mail, take a look at Remote Control Mail. I found their idea of a permanent…
September 24, 2005
How blogging is shaping the tech debate
Most small companies don’t think they can afford a PR firm but Alice Marshall of Presto Vivace is looking to change all that by giving top-notch PR advice to small and medium sized businesses. She recently interviewed me for…
September 16, 2005
A few hours with Michael Keith, EJB 3.0 co-Spec lead
This week I was in San Diego attending JavaPro Live! 2005. I found the conference cozy (small :-)), informative, and for the most part useful. One of the highlights of my trip (aside from attending with a client of mine, Mr.…
September 5, 2005
Documenting your databases
As we all know, one of the most important aspects of our complex systems architecting and design phases is documentation. But, given the challenges created by high-speed development where code (both application and database…
August 25, 2005
This year’s visit to the US PTO
Every year I teach a few classes to patent examiners at the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO). In the past I’ve taught topics like “Agile Software Development” and “Aspect-oriented Programming” but this week the topics were…
June 16, 2005
“Typesafe, Ontology Driven RDF Access from Java”
I’ve blogged recently about ontologies, semantic frameworks, and other knowledge management tools like Protege. If you were interested in those topics, check out Jastor, which allows OWL (an XML format for ontology storage)…
April 30, 2005
What is an ontology and how to develop one
These days my consulting work is taking me more and more into the area of *Knowlege Modeling* (see my blog from a few days ago). After my clients read that blog additional questions came up and two of the most prevalent were…
April 23, 2005
Meta data and semantic/conceptual data storage
Check out Kowari, an open source database specifically designed to store knowlege-type semantic, conceptual, or meta-data. Instead of being built on top of a relational database designed for loading small amounts of larger…
April 21, 2005
Authenticating Java users using underlying operating system
We all need the ability to have our Java programs talk to the underlying operating system for many aspects just as file system management and user interface population. Java abstracts those pretty well but one thing that’s…
February 16, 2005
Version Control System Comparison
I’ve been a longtime user of CVS and am still generally happy with it. However, to keep up to date on the latest technologies I’ve been considering moving to something more modern. While studying up on the subject of revision…
November 22, 2004
Simple but effective Software Project Management
I just discovered the TargetProcess web based project management tool. It’s described as an “Agile Project Management System” and states that “The Primary Goal of TargetProcess system is extremely clear ? fast feedback about…
November 21, 2004
Automate and manage your builds
Just ran across another open source build management tool called LuntBuild. Seems like it’s similar to AntHill and CruiseControl but somewhat easier to use as is doesn’t require any edits of configuration files (fully…
November 19, 2004
Monitor Java applications’ Windows memory usage
Contrary to popular belief, you can’t just forget about memory management if you’re using Java. I’ve been meaning to write an article on memory usage and how developers can monitor their applications’ memory footprint for some…
May 18, 2004
Throwing away the first version of a project
This afternoon I was contemplating the idea of “throw away” applications and whether that was a Good Thing. One of my clients is just training new developers who are more versed in desktop computing applications (like VB,…
May 3, 2004
Simulaneously running Linux and Windows
Over the past few years I’ve been using PC virtualization software such as VMware and Virtual PC to run multiple operating systems simulatneously (I’ve got a dual-CPU AMD with 2GB RAM and about 400GB disk space so computing…
April 29, 2004
AppRocket helps keep your hands on the keyboard
If you’re a heavy keyboard user (and what programmer or technical person isn’t) you probably get tired of grabbing the mouse to go to the quick launch bar or click the start menu to start an application. If you want to keep…
April 24, 2004
UMD Netcentricity Conference was useful
I attended the Robert H. Smith School of Busines Fourth Annual Netcentricity Conference yesterday at the University of Maryland. I expected it to be a stuffy academic conference without much applicability to my life as a CEO…
March 22, 2004
Java + Perl + Ruby + Python + JVM = Groovy
My goal is to learn a new language or two every year and this year i’ve focused on scripting languages. Being an expert in Perl and having used Ruby and Python off and on for a while, I was very intrigued when I saw an…
December 24, 2003
Who’s Shahid Shah and what’s this blog about?
I am the founder and CEO of Netspective Communications LLC and an expert software engineer, systems architect, and technology evangelist. This blog is about my personal opinions on software development, the state of software…