My tools

All human beings and many animal species use tools. Tools allow us to deal with problems more easily and efficiently. When implementing IT solutions and dealing with IT issues, mastering the right tools – be it software, hardware, methods or, simply, ways of thinking and handling – can make a big difference. No one tool is right for a certain situation, but some are definitely wrong.

As I state on the homepage, I use DokuWiki for a lot of different applications. Therefore I prefer to call it either a platform or a hub depending on the context and the public it is presented to.

In the first quarter of 2019, I came across LimeSurvey and within an hour I knew it was a perfect complementary tool to DokuWiki by using it in a new way.

When I started working in 1993, I was involved in software development on Unix and grew really fond of the OS. Linux was created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds as a school project and grew out to beat Windows on server machines. Ubuntu Linux is my favorite flavor at this moment, both for servers and desktops.

It is my experience that projects need to be managed closely in order to obtain agreed results within budget and time. Nearly all projects fail in some respect, unless you claim only success . I think that learning from mistakes and minimizing them is crucial when doing projects.

Nowadays, there's no other way than developing software the agile way, I think. Information Technology supports people at doing their work. In fast changing environments with fierce competition and demanding customers, one needs to respond quickly to changes and be agile all the time.