The Software Journal

Advanced automation is a trend which is only set to accelerate, and even faster now companies will not only attempt to optimise their manufacturing processes to reduce cost but also limit human involvement which has proved so difficult during the Covid pandemic.   These aims lead to increased automation, including the advanced robotic and vision systems we are now encountering. Jeff Chapman has his own recruitment consultancy specialising in advanced automation, and discusses his unique insight during an interview on the Robot Nation podcast (Chapman, 2020). His observations are relevant to both engineers seeking employment in the industry, and to employers. The employment market is changing, with job seekers now able to easily research a company online, build a good understanding of the organisation, including the products and services it offers, its current business  position, and even how employees who work their rate the company and it's working environment. In the m...

A few embedded software development resources I have found useful : Feabhas is an embedded software development consultancy, with a great blog and free whitepapers, to which co-founder Niall Cooling regularly contributes.   https://www.feabhas.com/   Industry Magazine EE Times is here  and the Embedded website is here

A few robotic resources I have found useful The Robotic Industries Association has useful free resources, including a blog, podcasts, and webinars, with automation industry focused information - including safety standards.  https://www.robotics.org/

Reflections on a move to MS Teams™ to support home working during the Covid-19 Pandemic We hired a new IT manager just before the recent Covid-19 pandemic lock-down, who completed a project moving us to MS Teams. This has proved inspired, enabling an almost seamless move to remote working for an R&D staff of around 15 engineers. We use MS Teams™ for meetings, and I believe the video is important for small team or one to one conversations because otherwise the facial expressions and body language which we as humans use to interpret the emphasis of verbal communication is lost. Screen sharing has proved useful to facilitate group work on a document, and for presenting. In larger meetings video can be switched off ( to save bandwidth of course), enabling involvement in a meeting by listening whilst also rapid typing in order to attend to other important tasks. MS Teams™ supports effective communication management because all information (conversations and documents) is accessible in o...

Software is truly ubiquitous, just look around and you will see just how important it is to our every day lives - in our mobile phones, smart watches, cars, TVs, and all the equipment required in our hospital intensive care units. There is a place for everyone within software development, you just have to find out what really interests you. I think an very broad initial classification could be business or embedded development. Do you love playing with one or more of the single board computers which have appeared over recent years, such as the Raspberry Pi (TM,  Arduino (TM), Beaglebone (TM), with their associated hardware plug-in adapters and then diving into low level drivers and enabling these boards to sense and interact with their environment ? Or, do love developing websites, WindowsTM or mobile applications, and their associated business layers, and database backends ?   Of course, you don't have to decide between these fields - you could dabble in both. There are s...

The latest PM Podcast is an interview with Shyam Ramanathan who discusses some of the leadership traits explored in his article ' 27 Traits of Strong Leaders in Times of Crisis and Turbulence '  The article is a comprehensive and perceptive list, which would prove useful for stimulating any debate on this topic.   During the podcast,  the interviewer Cornelius Fichtner focuses on possibly his favourites, namely:  Leaders are visionaries Leaders grow other leaders  Leaders are generalists Leaders are brutally honest Leaders are quitters (yes really - read the article to understand why this is included.) Leaders are continuous learners Leaders are high on self-care Shyam in his summary states the emphasis of the traits will vary depending upon current conditions, and individual situations, however in his opinion the most critical are always : Leadership is having a big vision, inspiring others and leading by example. References Fichtner, C. (2020) Specia...

The 'younger' generation have grown up with the internet, and are adept at finding information (or just browsing humorous social media postings.) Whereas some people prefer to find written, and perhaps illustrated, information, others will jump straight to online video tutorials.  However, when you are unable to read, or to watch videos or just as an alternative, there are many excellent podcasts which can be listened to at any time. If you are commuting or walking the dog, and don't just want switch-off time, then podcasts are invaluable. There are a number of podcast applications available for mobile devices, such as  Castbox   which is available for Android and Apple iOS(TM) operating systems, and many other platforms. There are many podcasts to which you can subscribe, such as Software Development Project Management Link from the apple podcasts website  here  References Castbox (2020) [Online]. Available at  https://castbox.fm/  (Accessed 9 Ju...