According to a new report by Forrester Research, Inc. the technology sector will see a recovery in 2010 as businesses and governments in the US and around the world begin spending again on information technology. After declining 8.2 percent in 2009, US IT spending will grow 6.6 percent in 2010 to $568 billion. Global IT spending, which dropped 8.9 percent last year, will rise 8.1 percent in 2010 to more than $1.6 trillion.

photo credit: Ultor83

Try to recall the last talk you had with some friends in the bar or colleagues over lunch? What was it about?

In the case of a group of women I don’t know it. If related to cars I guess you mentioned the nice but, the great look & feel, the rounded shapes, beautiful striping, nice and special color, the safety and the great seat covers.

If not about women or money you and your male friends talked about cars. Especially about horse power, engine size, fuel type, fuel consumption, acceleration, maximum speed, tire size and more technical and impressive specs.

Do you ever have such talks about the software you have just bought?

In the software development world employers always look for creative coders. Such employees come up with innovative ideas which may save a lot of time when developing functionalities that are hard to create. They see doors where others see walls. My colleague once said that all best ideas result from coders’ laziness. They use their creativity to make their life simpler. As I mentioned in my previous post, the best coders don’t aim for complexity while missing the obvious solutions. They usually are faithful to simplicity. But this requires creativity.

I believe we all agree that 2009 has been a horrible year for many of us. But not necessarily for all of us. Despite or maybe even thanks to the economic downturn the IT outsourcing market didn’t lose that much, or even gained. To save cost companies started to outsource their software development to low-cost nearshore and offshore locations.

Today the future looks brighter, it looks like the economy will recover, although many things are still uncertain. Whatever happens, for sure it will have a big impact on nearshoring and offshoring. Below I will show you my personal forecast. Please don’t blame me in a year time if my forecast tuns out to be either right or wrong.

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It’s been estimated that almost 50% of newly hired employees fail in their jobs within the first 2 years and the first 3 months are the most crucial for their success. As I discussed in my previous post there are various reasons why newbies fail. Is it only dependent on their own behavior or attitude? Is it only down to the internal reasons? What about the external factors such as the impact of the company they start working for?

Just imagine yourself being the world famous painter Rembrandt van Rijn. Somebody hired you to prepare a nice painting of his company. Once you show him your almost finished painting, he requests you to remove a person and to move another one. And of course in his opinion this isn’t a big job.

Are you still there? How would you feel? Who’s the artist here? Who can decide whether something is easy or not?

You can often read about software development projects that failed. The presented figures vary from about 35% up to 75% of the total amount of projects. There is no need to argue these figures. Let’s better try to fight the causes. So, first we need to find the biggest traps in software development.

[Picture credits: Stock.xchng]

If you have just started a software developer’s career or changed a workplace these tips may comae in handy while establishing yourself in a new environment. It’s not easy to earn colleagues’ respect and reach the “core” of the company. Many fresh graduate developers fail at the very beginning for a variety of different reasons. I already presented a few tips on how to succeed in a new workplace in my previous post. Below you can read more tips that may help you survive in a new job.

Are you starting your developer’s career? You stand 50% chance of losing this job within the first two years, the study revealed. Surprisingly, many great and talented people fail. I can imagine that after so many years of studying you don’t feel like getting fired. More importantly, it’s becoming the place you start spending 1/3 of your life at. You try to make yourself comfortable here and make other people feel the same with you around. How to settle yourself smoothly into the job? How to win colleagues’ respect?

According to the study by Leadership IQ around 46% percent of newly-hired employees will fail within the first 2 years in the new job. By failure they mean terminations, leaving under pressure, receiving disciplinary action, or receiving very negative performance reviews. This rate is also nothing different among software developers. Why people who have the right skills to do the job fail? They were carefully screened and made their way into the company. Then they get quite successful at the very beginning and suddenly something changes. Is it their fault or the company’s? Based on our experiences below I’m presenting the possible explanations for their failure and the examples of fatal mistakes when starting a new job: