Growing Software Practices

Showing Appreciation for Great Work

Do you remember in your career when you felt exceptionally proud of a work project or effort?  Your may have put in extra hours, come up with a great idea, or delivered a high quality product ahead of schedule. Remember when you were last thanked or congratulated for your efforts?  If you felt the congratulations were sincere, it probably encouraged you in your next effort.

As a manager, when was the last time that you praised someone working for you for doing great work?  Has anyone done really great work for you lately? 
Many managers fall into the trap of accepting great work that is done without a comment and get in the habit only speaking up when somebody makes a mistake.  This approach encourages cautious behavior instead of encouraging people to push for excellence.

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

If you have worked for small growing software companies for any length of time, you will eventually find your company under the microscope by a perspective purchaser.  For some rapidly growing companies, you may find yourself on the other side of the table -  examining a company you might want to buy.  Either way, technical due diligence is required when you examine a software company to assess its value. Real due diligence requires looking at more than the source code and the product. It requires examining all of the company’s intellectual property.

Intellectual property (IP) describes the data and information that you have spent time and money creating.  People who wouldn’t think about not having the proper insurance will take huge risks by not protecting their company’s IP.   Many small growing companies are so busy getting products together and dealing with the demands of growth they don’t have time to examine how well they are protecting themselves.    Even when IP is valued,  managers don’t understand the extent of the IP that they need to protect.