Category Archives: Software Development

Code Mocking? How about business plan mocking?

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Skip Walter

After 40 years of participating in software code reviews, I couldn’t stop laughing when I encountered a recent Scott Adams‘ Dilbert cartoon: Many is the code review meeting that I wished I could stand up and start mocking the fruits of … Continue reading →

Posted in Dilbert, Humor, Software Development | Leave a comment

What if what we know is wrong?

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Skip Walter

Many years ago I came across a diagram of the four boxes of knowing: I was reminded of the box about “what you know that is wrong” while listening to Dana Chisnell’s talk on “Rethinking User Research and Usability Testing … Continue reading →

Posted in Content with Context, Design, Human Centered Design, Innovation, Knowledge Management, Learning, Software Development, Teaching, User Experience | 2 Comments

ConveyUX – Highlights from the cheap seats

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Skip Walter

Last week I managed to squeeze time into my crazy schedule to attend the ConveyUX conference in Seattle sponsored by BlinkUX. I was delighted to see the international turnout and many familiar faces from the UW HCDE program. While I … Continue reading →

Posted in Content with Context, Curation, Design, Human Centered Design, Innovation, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management, Learning, Relationship Capital, Software Development, User Experience | Leave a comment

Find. Copy. Paste. Tweak.

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Skip Walter

“Technology is anything that wasn’t around when you were born.  If it was around, it’s an appliance.” – Alan Kay I keep thinking that nothing can amaze me any more when it comes to technology. Then I come face to face … Continue reading →

Posted in Content with Context, Design, Human Centered Design, Innovation, Learning, Software Development, User Experience, Working in teams | 4 Comments

Graduate Students – Best Knowledge Transfer System

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Skip Walter

Way too many sleeps ago, Russ Ackoff shared that the best information retrieval system and best knowledge transfer system was the collection of graduate students that worked with him at Penn’s Wharton School. “Every morning when I come into the … Continue reading →

Posted in Attenex Patterns, Content with Context, Human Centered Design, Knowledge Management, Learning, Software Development, University, Wine | 4 Comments

Advice to a Non-Technical CEO of a Software Startup

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Skip Walter

One of the challenges of an early stage software start-up is whether to have a non-technical CEO who has a good set of relationships with prospective customers, or to have a CEO who really understands the technology and the art … Continue reading →

Posted in Ask and Tell, Attenex, Content with Context, Design, Human Centered Design, Learning, organizing, Russ Ackoff, Software Development, User Experience, Working in teams | 13 Comments

Visual Search – Please, I’m begging you!

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Skip Walter

At breakfast the other morning, my colleague Alan Wood was excited to try out a software tool, Devonthink, that he’d just read about in Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From:  “Private serendipity can be cultivated by technology as well. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Attenex Patterns, Content with Context, Knowledge Management, Software Development, Visual Analytics, Visual pattern Language | 1 Comment

Software Practice – A PaineFull Discussion

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Skip Walter

One of the joys of teaching graduate school is getting to interact with bright young HCDE PhD students. Recently, I’ve been able to spend quality time with Drew Paine, a software engineering graduate of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Drew reminded … Continue reading →

Posted in Content with Context, Design, Human Centered Design, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management, Learning, Software Development, Teaching, University, User Experience | 2 Comments

Observing Users for Software Development

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Skip Walter

“You can observe a lot by just watching.”  – Yogi Berra Too many years ago, I sat in a sterile conference room at DEC mesmerized by the lecture being given by the talking head on the video, Russ Ackoff.  Ackoff … Continue reading →

Posted in ALL-IN-1, Attenex, Attenex Patterns, Design, Human Centered Design, Innovation, Software Development, User Experience | 5 Comments

Walter’s Laws

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Skip Walter

While creating and developing ALL-IN-1, I wrote down my first law of software development – “Any product not used by its developers ain’t worth squat.” In building our system, we depended on ALL-IN-1 to coordinate the work among the developers. … Continue reading →

Posted in ALL-IN-1, Content with Context, Software Development, WUKID | 2 Comments