Automation & Integration1 min read
Stop trying to build one genius agent
Everyone wants the one super-agent. It falls over. The teams winning with agents in 2026 build small crews of specialists with a manager.
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Thoughts from our technology experts.
Articles, opinions and frameworks from the people at First Digital, on generative AI, low-code, and what it all means for your business.
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AI1 min read
Most agentic AI projects will be quietly cancelled. Don’t be one of them
Gartner expects over 40% of agentic AI projects to be cancelled by 2027. The survivors share one dull trait: they chase value, not novelty.
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AI2 min read
The day your AI stopped answering and started doing
Generative AI answered questions. Agentic AI takes action. When a wrong move books the flight or issues the refund, autonomy needs a blast radius.
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Security & Compliance2 min read
You don’t have an AI problem. You have an agent sprawl problem
A year ago you could count your company’s AI tools. Now you can’t. Agent sprawl is the new shadow IT, and you cannot govern what you cannot see.
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AI1 min read
Raw IQ is not business IQ
AI may be approaching PhD-level intelligence, but raw intelligence and business intelligence are not the same thing.
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Security & Compliance1 min read
The biggest AI risk in your business sits in the corner office
The people most likely to expose your business through AI are not junior staff experimenting in the dark. They are senior leaders chasing the appearance of innovation.
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AI1 min read
AI context is king, and AI education is the king-maker
AI in business is a double-edged sword. Context is what makes it useful, and education is what makes your people able to wield it.
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AI1 min read
Why My AI Loves Me (and Only Me)
A short, self-aware take on "AI Selfishness": the moment generative AI makes the writer feel brilliant while everyone else drowns in recycled sameness.
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AI1 min read
Give your child a good grounding
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, scaffolding, and what grounding a generative-AI system really takes, tested on First Technology’s own data.
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Automation & Integration2 min read
The year is 2030, it’s all about low code
A futuristic view from Chris Botha: a Digital Workplace team in 2030 building on SharePoint, Power Apps and Power Automate, from Woolworths to a Mars mission.
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AI1 min read
Will AI generated content create our history?
From clay tablets to a digital black hole: what future generations will dig up, and whether they will be able to trust a record increasingly written by AI.
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AI4 min read
Leveraging LLM and Generative AI for Business Success
A plain-English breakdown of how Large Language Models and generative AI become game-changers, from content and customer support to data analysis and product design.
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Data & Analytics3 min read
Maximize Your Database Potential: Benefits of a Comprehensive SQL Health Assessment
A comprehensive SQL health assessment examines your database and OS environment, finds bottlenecks, and delivers phased recommendations for peak performance and reliability.
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DevOps & Agile2 min read
My Automation Adventures: Why It's a QA Game-Changer
A QA tester shares why automated testing changed their work, catching defects early, freeing time for exploratory testing, and improving software quality.
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Data & Analytics3 min read
Elevate Your Data Strategy: Ensuring Compliance, Performance, and Security with a SQL Upgrade
Aging SQL versions create security and support risks. Explore upgrade, migration, and cloud options, including Microsoft Fabric, to modernise your data environment.
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Data & Analytics2 min read
Empowering Farmers with Modern Data Warehouse Delivery
How First Digital built a modern Azure-based data warehouse for a South African agricultural supplier, centralising data and enabling Power BI insights.
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AI3 min read
The risk of AI based decisions
Using the Chevrolet AI bot incident, this piece explores the legal and ethical risks of letting AI make binding customer-facing decisions.
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DevOps & Agile4 min read
Unleashing the Art of Crafting Compelling User Stories
How to write clear, effective user stories using the INVEST principles, and why well-crafted stories keep custom software projects aligned with user needs.
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Digital Workplace2 min read
Improving strategic communication in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
How organisations can improve internal and strategic communication in the digital age by focusing on the individual, emotional intelligence, culture and continuous staff development.
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DevOps & Agile9 min read
Getting started with Test Driven Development
A practical walkthrough of TDD in C# with NUnit, covering unit tests, mocking, the Red-Green-Refactor cycle, and integration tests on new and existing projects.
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Cloud2 min read
Paving the Way for Cloud Migration Success with StratoMetrics
An introduction to StratoMetrics, First Digital's tool for assessing application readiness and simplifying the complexity of cloud migration.
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AI4 min read
Charting the Ethical Course and Navigating the Digital Age
A reflection on the ethical responsibilities of the digital age, covering privacy, digital inequality, and bias in AI tools.
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Software Engineering7 min read
Reviving Legacy Applications Without Starting from Scratch
Why full rewrites of legacy systems fail, and how the Ship of Theseus and Strangler Fig patterns let you incrementally replace old code without freezing features.
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Digital Workplace13 min read
The Microsoft Power Platform - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A comprehensive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages across the Microsoft Power Platform stack: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, Power BI and Dataverse.
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AI3 min read
Unleashing your AI Superpower: A Star Wars Guide
Using Luke Skywalker's journey as a metaphor for learning to wield AI effectively, from novice basics through training, ethics, balance and lasting impact.
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Digital Workplace3 min read
COM add-ins - The tip of the Iceberg
Microsoft's new Outlook drops support for COM add-ins, exposing risk for IT managers whose third-party and line-of-business integrations may not migrate to web add-ins in time.
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Digital Workplace4 min read
Finding the perfect Task Management tool
A tour of the 8+ task management tools in the Microsoft stack, from Project Online to Azure DevOps, and how to choose the right one.
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AI3 min read
The Impact of AI on Jobs: A Cautionary Tale
AI is best seen as augmented intelligence and a strategic partner rather than a job replacement, echoing how past disruptive technologies ultimately created new opportunities.
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DevOps & Agile4 min read
Context Switching, Agile Development, and the OODA Loop: Unleashing Developer Focus
How the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act framework helps developers transition through context switches swiftly and maintain focus within Agile development.
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DevOps & Agile4 min read
Context Switching: The Silent Productivity Killer for Developers in the Agile Development Lifecycle
Context switching erodes developer focus, productivity, and code quality in Agile teams; protecting uninterrupted time helps developers reach flow and deliver better software.
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DevOps & Agile3 min read
The Importance of Continuous feedback in Software Development
How continuous feedback throughout the software development lifecycle improves quality, reduces rework, and optimises the developer's inner loop for greater value.
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Cloud2 min read
5 Reasons Why Migrating from SharePoint On-Premises to the Cloud is Essential for Your Business
Five reasons to move from SharePoint on-premises to SharePoint Online, covering scalability, cost, automatic updates, integration, and security.
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Software Engineering5 min read
Revolutionising Cross-Platform Development: Microsoft MAUI
How Microsoft's .NET MAUI framework lets developers reuse Blazor, Angular, React, and Vue code to build native cross-platform mobile apps from a single codebase.
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Digital Workplace3 min read
Modern Employee Engagement – Powered by Microsoft Viva
How Microsoft Viva improves employee engagement, learning, knowledge sharing and well-being by integrating with existing tools like Teams and SharePoint.
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Data & Analytics4 min read
How edge computing will revolutionise how we process and analyse data
An overview of edge computing: what it is, its benefits, real-world applications across industries, and the challenges of adopting it.
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DevOps & Agile5 min read
The "Ops" trend in the Tech industry
How the DevOps mindset expanded into EverythingOps, and how its core actions of team management, tooling, effort and continuous improvement guide digital transformation.
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Automation & Integration4 min read
Easy steps to develop and deploy WebJobs (Azure SQL to D365)
A step-by-step guide to building a console app that pulls data from Azure SQL into Dynamics 365 CRM and deploying it as a scheduled Azure WebJob.
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AI5 min read
Rise of the machines: How AI will change data engineering
How AI and tools like ChatGPT are reshaping data engineering and data warehouse work, the benefits and challenges, and why AI will supplement rather than replace data engineers.
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Automation & Integration7 min read
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Blue Prism
An introduction to building RPA bots with Blue Prism, covering Process and Object Studio, comparisons with UiPath and Automation Anywhere, and K2 and Power Platform integrations.
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Digital Workplace6 min read
Effective Change Management in organisations
A framework for effective organisational change management, covering behavioural, structural and operations strategies, common pitfalls, and tools like PESTEL and Kotter's model.
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Software Engineering3 min read
.NET MAUI, not just another cross-platform tool
Why .NET MAUI, the evolution of Xamarin.Forms, is a write-once-run-anywhere framework worth adopting to future-proof cross-platform apps.
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Security & Compliance5 min read
How to secure the Software Development Life
How to minimise security risks through monitoring, vulnerability testing and training, and best practices for securing every stage of the Software Development Life Cycle.
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DevOps & Agile3 min read
Continuous Improvement with DevOps in 8 easy steps
An introduction to why DevOps started and a walk through the eight phases of the DevOps lifecycle, from Plan to Monitor.
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AI3 min read
Will Artificial Intelligence dominate the world?
AI is reached in phases through big data and automation milestones. The question for businesses is no longer whether to adopt AI, but when.
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Software Engineering3 min read
Being a Business Analyst: What we do and how we do it!
What a Business Analyst does in an IT context, the importance of clear communication, and the WHAT/WHO/WHERE/WHEN/WHICH/HOW modelling methodologies.
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Data & Analytics5 min read
Data Warehouse Projects vs Software Projects
Comparing data warehouse projects and software projects across design, ownership, complexity and culture to help manage expectations and ensure success.
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Software Engineering4 min read
Simple 6 step process to Test Driven Development
An introduction to Test Driven Development, its six-step process, advantages and disadvantages, and how it compares with Behaviour Driven Development.
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Data & Analytics2 min read
Modelling data with Microsoft SQL and PowerBI
How First Digital built a central SQL data warehouse and Power BI semantic layer for Belgotex, unifying scattered data into dynamic, automated reporting.
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Automation & Integration4 min read
A modern and practical guide to Automation & Integration Part3
Part 3 explores integration for low-code platforms: what integration is, what differentiates platform connectors, and how to design and test integrations effectively.
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Automation & Integration3 min read
There are levels to this
A model of the levels of business process automation, from fully manual to full automation, adapted from Tesla's autonomous driving levels.
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DevOps & Agile3 min read
Another overrun? Again!
Most project overruns stem from underestimation. Investing properly in analysis and a Business Requirements Specification leads to accurate budgets and less technical debt.
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Data & Analytics5 min read
"Arrr!" There be a treasure. Finding the x in data warehouse projects.
A pirate-crew metaphor for the roles needed in a successful data warehouse project, from project manager and BI analyst to architect, modeler and developers.
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Digital Workplace3 min read
Hybrid Endpoint Management
How Microsoft Endpoint Manager unifies and secures device management for hybrid work, combining Intune and Configuration Manager within a Zero Trust strategy.
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Software Engineering3 min read
Snip development time with snippets!
How to create and use custom code snippets in Visual Studio to speed up development by avoiding repetitive typing.
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Automation & Integration3 min read
Five must-have Power Platform solutions
Five practical Microsoft Power Platform solutions, from employee onboarding to helpdesk ticketing, that help organisations digitise and automate processes.
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Automation & Integration4 min read
A modern and practical guide to Automation & Integration Part2
A practical look at digital process automation: understanding, modelling, and reporting on business processes using low-code tools like Nintex Promapp to cut costs.
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DevOps & Agile4 min read
Agile Software Investments
Why fixed-price software contracts hide risk and cost, and how an agile, budget-controlled approach keeps the customer in charge of scope, time and spend.
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Data & Analytics4 min read
Step by step guide for using Python in Power BI
A step-by-step guide to enabling Python scripting in Power BI, importing data, creating visuals and training a machine learning model for data-driven decisions.
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Security & Compliance1 min read
A Quick Introduction to Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection
An overview of how the Microsoft Defender suite secures on-premises and cloud workloads, from Active Directory and Exchange to BYOD and endpoint protection.
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Security & Compliance5 min read
Oh no, not another POPI checklist! Let POPICheck confirm your POPI Act compliance instead
Why POPI checklists fall short, and how First Digital's cloud-based POPICheck tool helps South African businesses assess and achieve POPI Act compliance.
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DevOps & Agile4 min read
Warning! A lack of quality can be bad for you
Skipping dedicated quality assurance invites UAT disasters. A proper QA process, planned early from the requirements phase, saves time and protects project delivery.
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Digital Workplace4 min read
What does Hybrid Workplace mean?
How the pandemic reshaped work into hybrid models, the pros and cons of remote working, and how Microsoft cloud tools bridge the gap.
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Automation & Integration3 min read
Unlock the full potential with automation
Why business process automation is essential for productivity and growth, the barriers organisations face, and why failing to automate ultimately leads to failure.
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Data & Analytics2 min read
Build your own weather dashboard
A sample IoT project using a BME280 sensor and Raspberry Pi to stream sensor data into Power BI and build a live weather dashboard.
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Digital Workplace3 min read
Empowering Front Line Workers with SharePoint Online
How Office 365 tools such as SharePoint, Yammer, StaffHub and Teams help connect, engage and empower frontline workers through a digital intranet.
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Software Engineering4 min read
Knowing code makes you better at no-code
Why basic coding knowledge and an understanding of common patterns make citizen developers far more effective when building and maintaining no-code solutions.
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DevOps & Agile5 min read
Azure DevOps: The Shelveset Validation Build
How shelveset validation builds in Azure DevOps let developers back up local changes to the server and validate that code builds on the build agents before check-in.
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Automation & Integration3 min read
Process Management and the Modern Workplace
How Microsoft 365 tools like Power Apps, Power Automate and SharePoint make affordable business process management accessible, with a First Digital RFQ example.
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Software Engineering2 min read
Low code solutions: Pain or gain?
Low-code platforms promise fast, cheap delivery, but complex requirements and reliance on non-technical builders carry real pitfalls worth understanding upfront.
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DevOps & Agile3 min read
Agile principles that contribute to the Success of your Project
Five core Agile Manifesto principles, from satisfying the client and embracing change to daily collaboration, working software and sprint retrospectives, that drive project success.
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Automation & Integration3 min read
Revolutionising Business technology with RPA
The key business benefits of Robotic Process Automation, from employee empowerment and cost reduction to improved accuracy, data, and customer satisfaction.
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Software Engineering4 min read
The best way to approach any coding problem
A simple three-question approach to solving any coding problem: understand it, split it into smaller tasks, then simplify your solution, with a worked example.
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Software Engineering3 min read
Development Trends
An overview of digital transformation and the software development trends shaping the years ahead, including IoT, artificial intelligence, and continuous delivery.
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Automation & Integration3 min read
Cloud-based integration setting the pace
How cloud-based integration and iPaaS connect cloud and on-premise systems, enabling scalable, secure hybrid integrations that drive competitive advantage.
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Software Engineering4 min read
It Is UX AND UI not UX/UI
UX and UI are distinct disciplines; this breaks down the differences across six areas, from design principles and thought process to competencies and skill sets.
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Cloud5 min read
Navigating the multicloud: how to build a successful strategy and stick to it
How organisations can build and manage a successful multicloud strategy by aligning people, processes and technology, and choosing the right cloud partner.
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Automation & Integration3 min read
Automation & Integration - A Practical approach
A practical look at how automation and integration tame business-process chaos, the industries and technologies they touch, and how continuous improvement drives value.
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Security & Compliance7 min read
Doing business online? Make security a priority
Gabriel Malherbe and Neil du Plessis explain why a holistic cybersecurity strategy is critical for any enterprise moving its business and assets online.
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Security & Compliance2 min read
IT Security and Compliance
As businesses move to the cloud and remote work, securing organizational data and meeting POPIA compliance requirements has become a top priority.
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Digital Workplace4 min read
The Digital Workplace
Using Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a lens, this piece argues that modern productivity tools free time and drive the efficiencies behind a digital workplace.
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Automation & Integration5 min read
The place of Automation and Integration within the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Tracing the industrial revolutions to the 4IR, this looks at how no-code/low-code, integration platforms, and cloud computing help organisations automate and integrate.
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Digital Workplace3 min read
The Importance of Productivity in the Workplace
Why employee productivity matters for customer relationships, engagement, and costs, plus practical ways to raise it through training, task matching, and better communication.
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AI1 min read
Chat Bot
A short primer on chatbots, their history and uses, and how conversational AI automates communication and personalises customer experiences at scale.
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Software Engineering3 min read
Considerations when deciding between .NET Core or .NET framework?
A comparison of the benefits and downfalls of .NET Core and the .NET Framework to help decide which to choose for your development needs.
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Security & Compliance3 min read
Data Security Against Theft
An overview of why hackers steal data, four common motivations, and how the CIA triad of confidentiality, integrity, and availability guides effective data security.
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Software Engineering6 min read
Don't read developer blogs if you want to...
A developer walks through all five SOLID principles, exposing the common misinterpretations that show up in most developer blogs and what the source actually says.
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Software Engineering2 min read
Free e-Commerce solution?
A look at nopCommerce, a free open-source .NET e-commerce platform that ships with admin functionality out of the box and is easy to extend by following its existing patterns.
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Software Engineering3 min read
gRPC vs REST
A comparison of gRPC and REST covering payload formats, HTTP 1.1 versus HTTP/2, and serialization versus strong typing.
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Software Engineering5 min read
How to design software
Lessons learned in software design, from embracing failure and not reinventing the wheel to using UML, SOLID principles, design patterns and TDD.
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Data & Analytics2 min read
SQL - Order of execution
A walkthrough of the logical order in which SQL clauses are processed, from FROM through to TOP, and how knowing it helps optimise queries.
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Digital Workplace1 min read
Teams Auto Provisioning
A PowerApps, Power Automate and SharePoint solution that lets users create and archive Microsoft Teams sites in minutes, rolling out folder structures, columns and tabs automatically.
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Automation & Integration1 min read
The Power Of Process Automation
How process automation transforms paper-based processes into digital ones, cutting human error, eliminating paper, and reducing task times by up to 80%.
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DevOps & Agile6 min read
Why should you practice TDD?
A developer's case for Test Driven Development, rebutting the common objections that it takes too long, isn't real-world, or isn't worth the effort.
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Software Engineering4 min read
Xamarin vs Ionic
A developer's casual, hands-on comparison of building cross-platform mobile apps with Ionic versus Xamarin, weighing flexibility against speed and ease of delivery.
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Data & Analytics3 min read
Sql performance tuning fundementals
Four fundamentals that make the biggest impact on SQL performance tuning: reducing subsequent selects, managing table size, optimising joins, and tightening aggregations.
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