I was sitting in a technology conference session recently and, rather quickly, started focusing more on the presenter than the content (perhaps because the content was less than stellar). Either way, this started me thinking how much easier it is to find faults than fix our own.

This may seem obvious, but just think about it – even in positions of inferiority (in a session to learn or discovering how to create a product) – it is more natural for us to find faults in others or a process than actively work on resolving our own or helping others to improve.

I consider myself lucky to have a varying group of individuals that I have met over the years with whom I can speak rather frankly about products - not just delivery but discovery.  I have seen an interesting pattern evolving - people want evangelists.  Gone are the days where it was enough to be a solid developer, great requirements writer, or an effective manager.  The times - they are a changing - and that is a really good thing.

I was speaking with a colleague a few weeks back who was working on somewhat of a startup and was using outsourced development.  He asked me a seemingly loaded question - 'How come the developers only care about me telling them exactly what I want, then they hide off and come back with something I don't need?' 'Well,' I responded, 'you are working with the wrong developers.'  By nature, the outsourced model is designed to remove any collaboration and focus strictly on savings based upon contractual obligations.  Perhaps a better name would be 'sunkcosting'.