Seems to me with the whole agile thing, we are going back to mandatory 9-to-5 with two fifteen minute breaks at 10am and 3pm and an hour for lunch at noon. I mean how else are people going to do 100% pair programming unless everyone is there at exactly the same time? All the mandatory […]
If you’ve read through this blog you may have noticed two seemingly conflicting ideas that I try to adhere to in my software development. The first is “Do it right the first time” and the second is “Be open to and learn from your mistakes”. Now you may be asking yourself, how I can I […]
I went to see Mary Poppendieck, of “Lean Development” fame at CAMUG last night. Good speaker with a lot of good ideas about how to make software development processes more valuable and less wasteful. She has quite a bit of experience in the manufacturing industry which is applicable to software development. Key Thoughts: You can’t […]
Could people please stop using XML for every single software problem they have? PLEASE? Between the latest ideas of binary xml, extensible programming languages and C-omega one of Microsoft’s latest research projects involving the integration of XML and the object model, I’ve had enough of people ramming XML down the throat of every problem they […]
I don’t like meetings. I like useless meetings even less and I especially don’t like being interrupted for useless meetings. The idea of a daily meeting, what are currently being called “stand-up meetings” within the agile realm, is a questionable one to me. The context change alone required for these meetings is staggering. Assuming a […]
Every software development group should have a lead software developer. Someone has got to be in charge of the code. This has to be a highly skilled technical resource that has the responsibility and authority to make descisions about the code base at multiple levels. They need to be able to mentor junior developers, produce […]
I’ve been watching more Holmes on Homes this week, and the more I watch the greater my respect gets for Mike Holmes. There are lessons in this show which should be learned by anyone who is building or renovating anything. Here are some of the principles I’ve gleaned from Mike Holmes. They are just as […]
One aspect of some of the agile methodologies that has been bothering me, is this insistance that everyone needs to be involved in every aspect of the system from one end to the other. For example, in developing a web application, the idea would be that each developer (or pair of developers as the case […]
Ok, so there is a New Year’s Day marathon of “Holmes on Homes” on HGTV today and it has got me thinking a bit. Basically, this contractor, who clearly knows what he is talking about, goes around to botched building and renovation projects and points out what was done wrong by the original contractor through […]
Lately I’ve been wondering if I fully understand the agile methodologies movement. There are some things I like, such as iterative development, quick response to changing requirements, and daily (or better) builds. There are also some things I’m not so sure about, such as daily meetings, 100% pair programming and bullpen type work environments. Those […]