Comments for George Dinwiddie's blog http://blog.gdinwiddie.com Effective software development Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:43:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.6 Comment on What would you like your software developers to learn? by George Dinwiddie http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/04/03/what-would-you-like-your-software-developers-to-learn/#comment-28194 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:00:11 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/04/03/what-would-you-like-your-software-developers-to-learn/#comment-28194 Zeb, Tim, What about the followup questions? Zeb, Tim,

What about the followup questions?

]]> Comment on What would you like your software developers to learn? by Tim Walker http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/04/03/what-would-you-like-your-software-developers-to-learn/#comment-28184 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:52:29 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/04/03/what-would-you-like-your-software-developers-to-learn/#comment-28184 Executable requirements and other agile best practices. Executable requirements and other agile best practices.

]]> Comment on What would you like your software developers to learn? by ZebZiggle http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/04/03/what-would-you-like-your-software-developers-to-learn/#comment-28040 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:18:19 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/04/03/what-would-you-like-your-software-developers-to-learn/#comment-28040 1. Learn the business. How do we make money? How do our customers make money by using our products? Why are these features important? 2. Sort of a variation of Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY) in code but Don't Do It Manually (DDIM) with business processes. Are you collecting metrics manually? Are you doing builds manually? Are you setting up/tearing down manually? Automate it and never do it again. 3. Don't get attracted to shiny objects. It's easy to go down a technical rabbit hole because something is cool & new. Keep focused, stay on the task at hand. When the core work is done ... go play in the woodshed. 4. Don't make broken windows. There is a business process for a reason. If you aren't contributing to making it better or maintaining it, you are making broken windows. Before long the process fails and it's chaos. 1. Learn the business. How do we make money? How do our customers make money by using our products? Why are these features important?

2. Sort of a variation of Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) in code but Don’t Do It Manually (DDIM) with business processes. Are you collecting metrics manually? Are you doing builds manually? Are you setting up/tearing down manually?

Automate it and never do it again.

3. Don’t get attracted to shiny objects. It’s easy to go down a technical rabbit hole because something is cool & new. Keep focused, stay on the task at hand. When the core work is done … go play in the woodshed.

4. Don’t make broken windows. There is a business process for a reason. If you aren’t contributing to making it better or maintaining it, you are making broken windows. Before long the process fails and it’s chaos.

]]> Comment on It’s all code by Agile Jedi http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2007/07/30/its-all-code/#comment-27445 Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:29:52 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2007/07/30/its-all-code/#comment-27445 I never discount Stored Procedures but we try to avoid them because it just adds another layer of stuff to keep track of. What really surprises me is that you have people working on the LIVE database. Wow! This is an old post so I can only hope that you have been able to convince your team to implement better configuration management. I never discount Stored Procedures but we try to avoid them because it just adds another layer of stuff to keep track of. What really surprises me is that you have people working on the LIVE database. Wow! This is an old post so I can only hope that you have been able to convince your team to implement better configuration management.

]]> Comment on What Test-Driven Development is… by Agile Jedi http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/01/29/what-test-driven-development-is/#comment-27442 Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:47:53 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/01/29/what-test-driven-development-is/#comment-27442 Another great point! No matter how often I try to make this point is seems, for some, to always fall on deaf ears. Thanks, Dan Another great point! No matter how often I try to make this point is seems, for some, to always fall on deaf ears.

Thanks,
Dan

]]> Comment on Short-term profit or long-term prosperity by George Paci http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/03/11/short-term-profit-or-long-term-prosperity/#comment-26953 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:45:43 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/03/11/short-term-profit-or-long-term-prosperity/#comment-26953 Yeah, I have to agree with Chris that "Imagine it’s getting late, and you’re tired from a long day’s work" implies "don't do anything important". You know you'll be smarter in the morning (or, in my case, noon the next day). Not sure why he recommends throwing the code out, though -- like George[1], I'd probably leave it around for Smarter Future Me to examine. Yeah, I have to agree with Chris that “Imagine it’s getting late, and you’re tired from a long day’s work” implies “don’t do anything important”. You know you’ll be smarter in the morning (or, in my case, noon the next day).

Not sure why he recommends throwing the code out, though — like George[1], I’d probably leave it around for Smarter Future Me to examine.

]]> Comment on Short-term profit or long-term prosperity by George Dinwiddie http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/03/11/short-term-profit-or-long-term-prosperity/#comment-25748 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:20:14 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/03/11/short-term-profit-or-long-term-prosperity/#comment-25748 Chris, that's a very good suggestion. I have to admit I've never been brave enough to do that, but I have left the code on my machine (not checked in) overnight and deleted it in the morning--when I already had the Much Better Approach in mind. (Or, when with a clear head, the muddle of the previous day was totally obvious.) Chris, that’s a very good suggestion. I have to admit I’ve never been brave enough to do that, but I have left the code on my machine (not checked in) overnight and deleted it in the morning–when I already had the Much Better Approach in mind. (Or, when with a clear head, the muddle of the previous day was totally obvious.)

]]> Comment on Short-term profit or long-term prosperity by chris dollin http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/03/11/short-term-profit-or-long-term-prosperity/#comment-25740 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:36:34 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/03/11/short-term-profit-or-long-term-prosperity/#comment-25740 (3) Bin the code and go home. If I'm tired, anything I do now is suspect. Tomorrow I'll have the advantage of knowing what I learned today. Probably a Much Better Approach will leap into my mind half-way to the station ... (3) Bin the code and go home. If I’m tired, anything I do now is suspect. Tomorrow I’ll have the advantage of knowing what I learned today.

Probably a Much Better Approach will leap into my mind half-way to the station …

]]> Comment on Pair Programming techniques by George Dinwiddie’s blog » Learning from experience http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2007/08/18/pair-programming-techniques/#comment-24617 Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:07:37 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2007/08/18/pair-programming-techniques/#comment-24617 [...] Very reasonable questions, in my opinion. And so I branched the thread to one about pair programming, stating that I did, indeed, think there were valuable gains that were being missed. But rather than start with discussing the value of the practice (which doesn’t necessarily persuade people to try it) or specific techniques of pair programming, I asked about the context in which it had been tried and the experiences that resulted. Rather than give a sales presentation, I wanted to compare experiences so that we could each learn from the other. [...] […] Very reasonable questions, in my opinion. And so I branched the thread to one about pair programming, stating that I did, indeed, think there were valuable gains that were being missed. But rather than start with discussing the value of the practice (which doesn’t necessarily persuade people to try it) or specific techniques of pair programming, I asked about the context in which it had been tried and the experiences that resulted. Rather than give a sales presentation, I wanted to compare experiences so that we could each learn from the other. […]

]]> Comment on What do you know? by George Dinwiddie’s blog » Learning from experience http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/01/22/what-do-you-know/#comment-24532 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:53:38 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/01/22/what-do-you-know/#comment-24532 [...] It is good when we learn from our experiences–much better than when we don’t learn from them. I recently wrote about learning, or failing to learn, from observing others. A recent discussion on the scrumdevelopment yahoogroup got me thinking about another way to learn from experiences, and that’s learning from the experiences of others. [...] […] It is good when we learn from our experiences–much better than when we don’t learn from them. I recently wrote about learning, or failing to learn, from observing others. A recent discussion on the scrumdevelopment yahoogroup got me thinking about another way to learn from experiences, and that’s learning from the experiences of others. […]

]]> Comment on Agile Compensation by 7 tips to compensate your agile team… « Paircoaching’s Weblog http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/01/27/agile-compensation/#comment-23843 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:17:52 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/01/27/agile-compensation/#comment-23843 [...] 7 tips to compensate your agile team… Posted on January 28, 2008 by paircoaching George Dinwiddie wrote about agile compensation yesterday. I agree with the idea’s he is writing about, I don’t agree with the link he points to. That compensation list is all about personal compensation. In fact some of them kill team momentum. So I wrote my own compensating tips. [...] […] 7 tips to compensate your agile team… Posted on January 28, 2008 by paircoaching George Dinwiddie wrote about agile compensation yesterday. I agree with the idea’s he is writing about, I don’t agree with the link he points to. That compensation list is all about personal compensation. In fact some of them kill team momentum. So I wrote my own compensating tips. […]

]]> Comment on What do you know? by Jeff Grigg http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/01/22/what-do-you-know/#comment-23289 Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:33:26 +0000 http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/01/22/what-do-you-know/#comment-23289 I learned the driving route lesson /again/ late last month: After attending "the other" caving group's meeting, I "followed" them to the pizza joint (frequented by both groups after meetings), but when they turned one street early, I kept going. Then I learned... These people know a shorter route to a better and more appropriate parking lot a few hundred feet closer to the pizza place. (Slap myself on the head; maybe someday I'll learn to keep learning!!! ;-) I learned the driving route lesson /again/ late last month: After attending “the other” caving group’s meeting, I “followed” them to the pizza joint (frequented by both groups after meetings), but when they turned one street early, I kept going. Then I learned… These people know a shorter route to a better and more appropriate parking lot a few hundred feet closer to the pizza place. (Slap myself on the head; maybe someday I’ll learn to keep learning!!! ;-)

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