Free Learning for Technical Team Members: What You Need To Know About .NET 5.0 And Microsoft’s Accelerated Release Schedule!

It’s easy to delay adopting new technologies, even when the stakes are high. In so many cases, the energy is spent on improving business strategies (building more widgets, increasing quality, refining services). At the same time, technology updates take a back seat when it comes to corporate reinvestment, even when security is a priority, and using older technologies is often the weak link when it comes to protection and slower performance. As your business grows and to maintain a competitive edge, you should watch and consider the latest tools and frameworks for your current technology stack.

If You Work With A .NET Framework, You Can’t Afford To Miss This Presentation!

Enter .NET 5.0, Microsoft’s new version of the .NET framework scheduled for release in November 2020. Prerelease versions of .NET 5.0 are available now. The .NET 5.0 release is a fully encompassing version of .NET that includes almost all of the other development libraries (Xamarin, etc.) that sprouted around the original .NET framework, which makes it impossible for developers to ignore new releases of .NET. The past lack of urgency in keeping up with .NET updates (only seven major releases since 2002) is a thing of the past.

Take a look at Microsoft’s new release schedule:

As you can see, Microsoft is changing its release strategy for .NET. After .NET 5.0 is released, they will continue to release a new major version every year in November. Microsoft is also changing its support strategy for .NET with Long Term Support (LTS) versions. Specifically, going forward, even-numbered version releases will be LTS versions with odd-numbered releases being General Availability (GA) releases. This new rapid release schedule can easily be overlooked by teams maintaining software solutions. It’s a significant shift in the release strategy for .NET by Microsoft. Software using the .NET framework will need to be updated to maintain security and performance.

You can’t afford to miss this one-hour presentation by Davin Mickelson of Intertech, Inc. if your company is on the .NET framework!

Missed last week’s presentation? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Watch the video and download the slide deck from Davin’s presentation. Questions? Reach out to us! We’re here to take the worry out of software development.Watch This Must See One-Hour Seminar or Download Slide Deck

About Intertech

Founded in 1991, Intertech delivers software development consulting and IT training to Fortune 500, Government, and Leading Technology institutions. Learn more about us. Whether you are a developer interested in working for a company that invests in its employees or a company looking to partner with a team of technology leaders who provide solutions, mentor staff, and add true business value, we’d like to meet you. 

Executive Brief: Machine Learning, What You Need to Know Now

This Executive Brief highlights some prominent industries effectively using machine learning today, along with some guidelines for evaluating the potential usefulness of machine learning in your organization. Specifically, this Brief covers specific examples where machine learning is categorizing people or things, predicting likely outcomes, identifying new patterns, and detecting unexpected behaviors.

View the Executive Brief, Machine Learning, What You Need to Know Now.

Executive Brief: Finding and Retaining Stellar IT Employees

Retaining great employees also helps your bottom line. A study by the Center for American Progress found that “very highly paid jobs and those at the senior or executive levels tend to have disproportionately high turnover costs as a percentage of salary (up to 213 percent!).”1 Replacing highly paid people is expensive, not to mention the negative impact of turnover on production, training and employee morale.

How big of an issue is employee retention in the IT industry? Based on LinkedIn member data from 2017, there is a worldwide turnover rate of 10.9 percent; the tech sector (software, not hardware) showing the most volatility with 13.2 percent turnover rate.

What does this look like on a day-to-day basis in your IT workplace? Committed employees:  

  • Care deeply
  • Understand company goals
  • Support and embody company values
  • Feel challenged by their work
  • Use a broad range of skills
  • Practice autonomous problem solving and decision making
  • Take responsibility for whole processes
  • Receive clear and consistent feedback

To learn practical, implementable ideas for each of the above to up your game in hiring and retaining, read our Executive Brief: Finding and Retaining Stellar IT Employees.

Executive Brief: The Pillars of Software Development Success

A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which reviewed 10,640 projects from 200 companies in 30 countries, found that only 2.5 percent of the companies successfully completed 100 percent of their projects. Another more recent study was slightly more upbeat, but far from great news. We’re referring to a 2017 report by the Project Management Institute (PMI), which found that 14 percent of IT projects fail and of the projects that didn’t fail outright:

31 percent didn’t meet their goals

43 percent exceeded the budget

49 percent were late

Intertech works with hundreds of companies every year on a wide range of software development projects. We’ve learned a lot about how to avoid these predictable project roadblocks. This Intertech Executive Brief shares our best thinking, and the thinking of recognized software development experts, to help you avoid these issues – as well as “bonus success tips” for your next software development project.

Click here to read Executive Brief: The Pillars of Software Development Success