If someone asks/tells me to use a tool, process or technique to develop software (or do anything for that matter) I always ask myself if the use of that thing will add value to the product I’m developing. No matter who said it, no matter what guru wrote it in a book, no matter how […]
Ok, now that I’ve got your attention, let me just say this. I’m not a millionaire, so I have no idea how to become one for sure. I do, however, have a theory on how to become a millionaire and I’m trying it out as we speak. Before I divulge this theory, let me just […]
The two main ideas being bandied about these days in regards to the best environment for software developers are private offices and open bullpens. Both these extremes are being promoted heavily in the industry. The likes of Spolsky and Microsoft are into the private office thing (or so I’ve read) and most agile methodologies such […]
Since the beginning of time (for this blog anyway) comments have been turned off. When I originally installed WordPress, it took all of 30 seconds to get comment spam. Now as much as I want ads for online poker all over my blog, I decided to turn comments off so I could buy illegal software […]
I’ve been reading Agile Software Developer with Scrum by Schwaber and Beedle, and as opposed to my earlier opinion of daily standup meetings, the scrum meeting is something I could get onboard with, at least as described in the book. I guess it comes down to whether the meeting is productive or not. I’ve suffered […]
There are so many other software development methodologies out there that are just such a pain of process that one might wonder why I pretty much only write about the deficiencies in agile methodologies. Aren’t there easier targets out there? The answer is yes, but then again, easy targets are no fun. I really do […]
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 […]