This is part 3 in a 3-part series.

Laura Lee Rose, who is a business coach and corporate exit strategist, shares how testers, developers and project managers can think like an entrepreneur in their current corporate position. She explains how “thinking like the owner” paves the way for advancement within the company and beyond.

In my recent interview with SSWUG.ORG’s Stephen Wynkoop regarding ‘thinking like an entrepreneur, in any position’, I had several viewers ask me for additional examples to illustrate points that were made.

Let’s play with these three typical development scenarios.
1) There is an unhappy client that you are working with in regards to a reported defect in your code area.
2) There is a happy client after you have delivered a fix in a quick and professional manner.
3) You have been using speaking engagements to gather sales leads.

Previously we explored scenario #1: Unhappy Client and scenario #2:  Happy Client.   Today we will explore scenario #3: Using Speaking Engagements.

Using speaking engagements

Your company sends you to various development conferences to speak on your area of expertise or demo your product.  You may even present work-around tips and techniques for some typical client problems. Most developers and testers share their email address, but rarely have their business cards with them.

Conclusion

I’ve touched on just a few of the software development defect responses that we encounter every day. Although these responses seem reasonable in the development conference room, they don’t hold much water with the clients.   Keeping a client’s perception in mind brings us back to the right road.