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T-SQL Tuesday #112 – Facing the Unknown With Confidence

The topic for this months T-SQL Tuesday #112 hosted by Shane O’Neill (Blog / Twitter) is about “dipping into your cookie jar”. This reference means “when times get tough how do you dip into your reserves to keep going”. Shane asks the following:

That is what I want from the contributors of this T-SQL Tuesday, those memories that they can think back on for sustenance. Like the humble cookie, I want a humble brag.

Read on as I share some stories…

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T-SQL Tuesday #107 Invitation: Death March

There is a famous book in our field written in the 2000’s by Ed Yourdon called “Death March“. In it he details the phenomenon in project management of death march software projects. He observed a trend in organizations who plan software projects to estimate so poorly that completion becomes overwhelming and unlikely.

More companies than ever before could be considered “software companies”. Project planning hasn’t gotten much better over time and we still have terribly managed projects. The best reason to explain this I found on Quora – Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3? In particular, read the answer by Michael Wolfe midway through the page. It is both a humorous and scary analogy.

On this month of Halloween we are going to discuss our death march project horrors!

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T-SQL Tuesday #100 – The Future of SQL Server 2026

The topic for this months T-SQL Tuesday #100 (hosted by Adam Machanic Blog/Twitter) is:

“…put on your speculative shades and forecast the bright future ahead. Tell us what the world will be like when T-SQL Tuesday #200 comes to pass.”

Big thanks to Adam for starting this monthly blog party and keeping the energy going!

Let’s predict the future of SQL Server! I will share with you my best guesswork about how it will be to work with SQL Server 2026.

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T-SQL Tuesday #97 – Setting Learning Goals for 2018

The topic for this months T-SQL Tuesday #97 (hosted by Malathi Mahadevan Blog/Twitter) is:

Setting Learning Goals for 2018

I like to think of year end goal setting in terms of inhaling and exhaling. Reflecting back on the year and planning ahead for the next year is exciting to me. I think a lot about these things – sometimes too much. Like breathing there is a balance between thinking about something and taking action to do it.

Let’s see about a healthy balance by looking first at 2017 then ahead to 2018.

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