Tag: Automation
-
The Unmaintainable Future—Or Not
We’ve been automating labor for millennia—but only now can we skip understanding completely. Millwrights in ancient Persia and medieval Europe captured the steady push of wind and water to grind grain and saw lumber—turning the brute labor of entire villages into the quiet arc of a wheel. Coal and steam amplified that leverage; the Industrial…
-
Why We Celebrate Firefighters but Forget the Architects
A Meeting for a Colleague’s Promotion David sat in the company’s all-hands meeting, waiting for the big announcement. The CEO beamed at the podium, congratulating Eva—a project manager from the operations group—on her well-deserved promotion. For months, Eva had led a frantic effort to fix performance and integration issues following the launch of a new…
-
Unpacking Procedural Thinking & Pattern Recognition for the Modern Business Maverick
Recommended Listening: Ever found yourself stuck in a maze of spreadsheets, tangled in a web of processes, or running into walls in a labyrinth of strategic decisions? Fear not, dear reader, for the solutions to these modern business challenges might just lie in the toolbox of a programmer. That’s right, thinking like a coder isn’t…
-
Mastering the Game: Pattern Recognition and Process Mining in Your Automation Strategy
While our modern lives may not require us to track animals or predict weather changes, our brains continue to seek patterns in the environment, and not just in the physical world but also in the sphere of our daily tasks.
-
Fostering Confidence in the Age of Automation: Building Trust in Automated Systems
In our progressively digital era, automation is no longer a mere buzzword; it has become an essential part of successful, efficient business operations spanning a multitude of environments. From robotic systems streamlining industrial production lines to software solutions like Selenium automating application testing, or tools like Microsoft’s Power Automate revolutionizing business processes – automation is…
-
A Flexible Macro For Automating Report Export and Distribution
In today’s digital age, a significant amount of our time at work is spent processing and communicating data. For many of us, this often involves updating reports with new information and sending regular updates via email. The process can be time-consuming and repetitive, especially if we’re manually copying tables into emails or exporting and attaching…
-
Elementary, My Dear Data Analyst: Unraveling the Mysteries of Data Acquisition
The Great Data Hunt. In the vast labyrinth of modern business processes, data comes in all shapes and sizes, from your conventional CSV files to the high-tech world of APIs. We don’t always get to dictate how data is handed to us, but fear not, for every data format presents a thrilling puzzle waiting to…
-
Project 2 – Codename: ‘Whirlwind’: Twirling Through Excel to Conjure an Automated Data Storm
Recommended Song for this breezy project: Buckle up, data enthusiasts! Today, we’re going on a whirlwind adventure. We’re stepping away from the safe haven of our data centers and stepping right into… the heart of a tornado! Oh, no need to look so terrified – we’re not really going to put you in the path…
-
Project 1 – Codename ‘Deep Below’: A User-Friendly Voyage through Excel, Power Query, and Power BI
Ahoy there, fellow data sailors! Recommended song for this project: “Sleeping in the cold below?” Not us, not today. We’re about to set sail on an adventure as exciting as any sea shanty, with a treasure more valuable than gold doubloons: data. Yes, my brave companions, today we embark on a journey that spans the…
-
VBA for Excel: Unleashing the Power of Automation
Hello, and welcome back! Today, we’re venturing into the magical realm of Excel automation with a look at Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), the programming language that turns Excel from a simple spreadsheet application into an automation powerhouse. Quick note here – I typically use VBA in this setting, as it just fits better with…
Abstract Foundations 