This little discussion was initially prompted by an old Information Week’s article of “Stay Ahead With Soft Skills” aimed at computer programmers and “techies”; however, while project management and such are great skills—especially in agile development–the most important skill is communication.

Now that the initial configuration is taken care of (see part 1), the real interesting stuff awaits in part 2.

As I mentioned before, SQL Operations Studio is my new favorite SQL digging tool for queries. It loads fast, is portable, and, most of all, has user-configurable widgets.

Learn several practical takeaways to help you design and build things, that go far beyond screen reader compatible, in this presentation from Open Web Camp.

Whether in job searches or on resumes, “DevOps” has become one of the coolest buzzwords to throw around. However, are you using it correctly and does it even matter? According to Wired’s J. Wolfgang Goerlich–it isn’t a job, but DevOps is still important.

During my first year in graduate school, I had an epiphany about mathematics that changed my whole perspective about the field.

Given the time and expense associated with implementing a large-scale solution, it’s worth considering whether building small programs around specific problems and then scaling up is the right approach for your organization.

In the movie Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope, the Death Star was designed to be the perfect weapon, with enough firepower to destroy a thousand star systems. Yet a small, ragtag group was able to blow it up. If only Emperor Palpatine had consulted with testers, all of the Death Star’s vulnerabilities could have been found and addressed!

Are certifications becoming a think of the past in development shops and startup companies? What does it really take for a developer to stay on track for growth and job success?