What is backend software?

November 5th, 2020

In software development, we often use terminology that makes sense to us but doesn’t have much meaning to anyone in other fields. A name that often elicits quizzical looks is the term “backend.” 

You are probably most familiar with interacting with the “frontend” or presentation layer in software. Frontend technology generally enables what you see daily interacting with websites, mobile apps, and any other software interface. 

What are backend services, and why should you care? Backends are the invisible elements that power software applications. The backend is a data access layer that powers the presentation layer (frontend). 

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Managing Anything, At All: Pandemic Edition

August 25th, 2020

by Kristen Jourdonais

You might have noticed it has been a while since I should have updated our blog to incorporate Part 2 of our Managing Multiple Projects series. Since those carefree, innocent times, we have all learned a lot about what are possibly the worst conditions to work under during a pandemic. 

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Bike-shedding

December 16th, 2019
Brainstorm Meeting

There is an apocryphal story about a management committee meeting with three items on the agenda: design a power plant, build a bike shed for employee use, supply refreshments for the Welfare Committee. The story goes that the first item was approved in a few minutes. The second item turned into a forty-minute discussion about what color the shed should be and who should get to use it. The third item it was decided, after deliberation, did not have enough information to make a decision, so it was added to the next planned meeting’s agenda. The vast majority of the time in the meeting was spent on the least consequential of the agenda items. This is bike-shedding.

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Ship It

November 20th, 2019
Cargo Ship

Here we have yet another blog article espousing all the ways to break through roadblocks to getting your project over the line and into your customer’s hands. I don’t know how much of this will be new. Probably less than 1%. That doesn’t mean it is irrelevant. Time and time again, I run across teams who have trouble covering the last 10% of the ground necessary to release their project.
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