The Blog

Leadership and software development

February 1st, 2016

Leadership is one of those tricky words where it can mean so many different things to different people it is hard to know what is meant by it.  I came across this definition several years ago and it is the first one that really resonated with me: You know there is good leadership happening when…

Read More

One Year…

January 22nd, 2016

So a little over one year ago I had a moment of insanity and decided to start my own company.  It has been (and continues to be) a wild ride.  Here are some of my reflections: Life rarely goes according to plan I had a plan, even a strategy on how to establish what I…

Read More

(re)Building a Security Program – part 3

October 16th, 2015

Just the Facts Mam, Where’s the Data? Data is king  Especially when trying to make trade-offs between competing perspectives. Frequently, organizations will understand that they have a gap/need in an area and quickly purchase a tool to solve that issue.  Then, due to lack of time and shifting priorities, never fully implement the tool.  This leaves the organization…

Read More
  • Posted By: Stew Stremel
  • Comments Off on (re)Building a Security Program – part 3

(re)Building a Security Program – part 2

June 16th, 2015

Principles, Capabilities, and Processes – oh-my! Security is not a small topic. And yet, in the modern “knowledge worker” oriented business where practically everyone in the organization is working deeply with technology, security is everybody’s problem.  So how to re-build a security program to meet this challenge? Now, there are LOTS of security and risk…

Read More

(re)Building a Security Program – part 1

April 16th, 2015

(re)Building a Security Program With the ever increasing pace of technology and daily life increasing, so has the rate of cybercrime. This is no longer just an issue for I.T. departments, security is now a regular topic on board room agenda’s. I recently had the opportunity to help an insurance company re-build their security program….

Read More

Challenge Accepted – define Enterprise Architecture in three words

February 25th, 2015

Enterprise Architecture – what is it?  What value does it provide?  What’s the dreaded “elevator pitch”?  EA as an industry is struggling to redefine itself and to understand what role it plays in the modern organization.  Is it apart of IT or is it a function of the CEO office?  Or perhaps with the EPMO…

Read More

Productive meetings happen by design

February 23rd, 2015

Time is the most precious resource we have, much more so then money.  It is possible to make more money, but time, once spent is forever lost to us. And yet, every organization that I have ever been in talks about how bad meetings are.  How many meetings everybody has to attend, never knowing what…

Read More

Question Craft – how to lead with the power of a good question

February 6th, 2015

Leadership is the art of mobilizing people to achieve a common goal and comes in many forms.  Sometimes with authority, sometimes with ability to articulate a vision, and sometimes with the ability to ask the right question. I began to develop my own leadership style after learning a taxonomy of question types: Open: These questions take more than…

Read More