I was a long-time Evernote user and advocate almost from the beginning. I left the application shortly after Phil Libin left the company. Rounds of layoffs, management changes, and many wrong UX decisions have worked against them. Finally, laying off their entire US staff builds a strong case for no…

MediaWiki is many IT professionals’ first exposure to wikis. By virtue of being the platform behind Wikipedia, MediaWiki’s familiarity makes it a compelling open source alternative to proprietary technology like Atlassian Confluence, which is common with developers, and SharePoint, the default corporate collaboration platform. If you would like to bring…

A continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline is an anchor for every DevOps initiative. The CI/CD pipeline breaks down traditional silos and enables development and operations teams to collaborate throughout the entire software development lifecycle. Better yet, moving to DevOps and a CI/CD pipeline can help your organization deliver software more…

DevOps teams were rounding the bend of eight months of remote work when this article was originally published. Some teams were remote by design. Other teams had remote work forced on them. It was an excellent time to take a refresher on what it means to be a high-performing DevOps…

Writers, marketers, and content creators always get hit when a downturn hits the economy. It’s the nature of the business. Layoffs can be devastating to a creative person’s psyche and self-worth. There’s been a lot written about how to separate your self-worth from your work. I’ve had cause to think…

It’s common for enterprises to leave the technical writer’s role out of the DevOps discussion. Even the marketing department joins the discussion in some DevOps-first organizations — so why not the writers? Our industry doesn’t ask enough of its technical writers. Documentation is an afterthought. Companies farm out technical writing…

I often describe myself as a slow, fast writer, but that doesn’t mean I’m not productive. I may not hit those high word counts like other writers, but I’m still doing the job in my way. Being thrust back into freelancing full-time again has gotten me thinking more about my…

Post-pandemic DevOps and how it aligns with the future of work are becoming increasingly apparent as DevOps teams and product delivery organizations continue to pivot to adjust to the pandemic and the new normal of work in whichever way their organization defines it. Here are some of my recent thoughts…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is suddenly everywhere in my professional writing life. I remain unsure if that’s a good thing or not. My goal is to never reference myself as an AI expert, much less an AI enthusiast, in my LinkedIn headline. AI will help and hurt workers and organizations regarding…