Articles About Software Practices and Management
Is this you?
- You feel that your computer is a “necessary evil,” that's not doing even a fraction of the things that it could be doing for you. You're not alone.
- You feel that your endlessly-overtaxed software development organization shouldn't have to be consistently missing deadlines and breaking important promises (as it right-now consistently is...). We agree.
- You want to use computer technology to bring your company greater benefits and competitive advantages, but you're not sure who to talk to. You need the unbiased opinion of someone who's not just trying to sell you something. We can help.
- The computer industry is changing so fast, you're nervous that you might undertake a new project and spend a lot of money on it, only to find either that “somebody else has already done it better” or that “the train has left the station” before you have a chance to arrive. You might be right.
- Youth, Exuberance, and Passion
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There are plenty of articles out there which state, quite matter-of-factly, that the only kind of person you should hire is someone who is “passionate” about their programming-work... the sort of iconoclast who can be relied-upon to “get into the zone” and stay there. But is this really what you should look for? We don't think so... in fact, we think it could be harmful. (Read more...)
- What Should You Do, When You Don't Know What To Do?
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Sooner or later, this will happen: you're tasked to do a project in a subject-area that you know nothing about, or to take charge of a project that is headed faster-and-faster for an inevitable cliff. What do you do? (Read more...)
- The Rebirth of the Internet. (And the Death of the “Web Site”)
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Are you ready for “the Internet as we know it” to disappear and re-invent itself again? Those who are ready for it will prosper, but a lot of present-day Perl, ASP and PHP programmers are going to be stunned... and (briefly) out of work. (Read more...)
- Fractals, Mother Nature, and Software Development
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Fractals are curious mathematical structures that exhibit endless levels of apparent detail and produce arbitrarily-complex structures through the repeated application of a small set of simple rules. We see that Nature exhibits the same set of rules. We posit that a software-development project does, or should, exhibit much the same structure, and that virtually all “software development methodologies” in vogue today stumble for lack of that recognition. If you grasp that idea and fully-exploit it both in the design and in the execution of your projects, as we describe, you'll see better and more consistent results, faster. (Read more...)
- Working Conditions
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It doesn't consist of free espresso, bean-bag chairs and ping-pong tables. “Good working conditions” that will attract the brightest and best workers truly consist of a successful environment in which success is designed-for and promoted in every practice. Good working conditions produce happiness and success. But not just because of the lava-lamps. (Read more...)
- It's All In How You Do It ...
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Let's face it: the software-industry today has a very-spectacular track record of failure. Not “little, containable” failures, but big ones. Whether the project in question is a new software project or “simply” an implementation and deployment of an existing package, such projects consistently fail, whether that failure is a total fail-to-complete or “just” a massive schedule- or budget-overrun. We think we know why. Our industry has consistently failed to observe the project-management practices that are taken for granted .. or even legally-required .. in other professional endeavors. When these principles are applied to software development, the “consistent outcome” changes dramatically ... for the better. (Read more...)
- Don't “Design at the Keyboard!”
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Take it from my fishin' buddy, Frank: the best way to get somebody to do something is to tell them not to do it. Maybe this is why hard-working computer programmers spend so many late nights on “death march” projects that they never have time for fishing... (Read more...)