Life is full of commitments. It requires time, effort, and devotion. It requires that one be accountable and responsible. It is a big deal! It is a commitment from which others benefit but it is really only for yourself.

Commitments define you. They illustrate your work ethic, your personality, your trustworthiness, and your belief in your self. Your commitments to yourself are always visible by the business community and management. They ALL take notice.

What type of commitments do you make? Do you keep them? Do you write them down to revisit them? Do you share them with others? Are any of them work related?

Work commitments clarify your goals and potential. Those individuals that make commitments, illustrate them publicly, and keep to them; are those that succeed in life. They could be short-term commitments like providing the business community an update every 48 hours on a problem. They could be long-term such as a multi-year project that is to deliver specific business value. In either scenario, making and keeping a commitment to the business community illustrates your work ethic, your personality, your trustworthiness, your believe in your self. Again, those are the technologists that succeed.

I hear many excuses about what caused the software failures:

• Not enough staffing.
• Not enough time.
• Ever changing scope.
• Offshore developers.
• Poor quality testers.
• So-in-so who left the company.

My response is always, "How well did you do your job?" Truth be told, that is the only excuse you can make. If you didn't do your best, you are part of the problem. If you did your best, then the failure was experience. You learned something that will help you prevent a similar outcome.

There has been a growing sense that each person is not accountable or responsible for the software failures. I beg to differ. In the words of Walt Disney, "If you did the best you could, why worry?" To paraphrase, if you did the best you could, then you were accountable and responsible. Everything else was out of your hands. You did, however, set a good example that was witnessed by the business community. If you didn't do your best, that was witnessed by all as well…and will be remembered. No excuse will adjust that memory.

If you are an analyst, it is your responsibility to clarify the requirements and stretch the business user's mind to avoid as much scope creep as possible. You are responsible for ensuring that the developers fully understand the requirements and that each one is incorporated.

If you are a developer, it is your responsibility to write quality code. You are responsible to unit test your own work. You are responsible to validate that what you were to develop matches the requirements.

If you are in quality control, it is your responsibility that the combined code works with all the other codes. You are responsible to validate that the system works as it has been requested and has not upset the apple cart of all the other systems.

If you are a project manager, it is your responsibility to manage the quality of your staff. It is your responsibility to train them. It is your responsibility to inspire and motivate them to do the best job they can.

I can go on and on with all the different roles. The point I'm making is that if you agree to perform a role, you must do your best. If you know you lack expertise in an area, it is your responsibility to get help and learn. It's time to stop providing excuses and look in the mirror. If more people took responsibility for their own efforts, I suspect that the software failure rate would drop dramatically.

The current trend is to:

• Not take any responsibility for doing less than your best.
• Not being assertive in obtaining the training necessary.
• Not going that extra mile to double-check they have satisfied the business.

This is why Information Technology has such a bad reputation with the business community. Yes, the business community needs to understand the effort it takes to build quality systems. They must be willing to provide the staff, tools and funding to build quality systems. Truth be told, they've done that so many times and IT has still delivered poor software. So why do you think they are looking for cheaper methods to build what they want?

Want to keep working with the best technology and get high pay?

Here's the secret...do your best at the role you've been assigned. Always keep the business needs in mind every day. If you believe you can do better but do not know how, ask for help. Find books, blogs, classes, and videos online to teach you what you need to learn to do a better job. Validate your work with others that understand what the business needs. Ask questions if you have any doubt that something does not exceed the business expectation.

This takes commitment. A commitment to do your very best at every task. It's a commitment to continually say to yourself,: "How good am I at this task? What can I do to learn more?" This is a commitment to yourself that you will keep a positive attitude that allows an open mind for possibilities to do better.

Make your commitment to be your best, always, right now. Write it to yourself. Tell others who will help you. Your commitment is your personal promise to yourself. Keep it at all costs. By doing so, you will be recognized by management and the business community.

Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. Keep to your commitment for 30 days…see what changes occur. If you lose faith and find yourself not doing your best with a positive attitude, start the 30 day counter again. This isn't easy but the rewards are limitless. That is what is in it for you.

Don't do this for me. Don't do this for your manager. Don't even do it for the business community. Do this for yourself! It is the one commitment that you can take from position to position. It is the one commitment that will give you what you want out of your job, career, and life.

Make the commitment to be the best.

SBDi speaks both Business and IT languages. Bring SBDi in to help communication between both organizations. Let us help you find the right flexible solution that will help business increase revenue.

Pat Ferdinandi, Chief Thought Translator