Software development
Refactoring: Replace Exception with Test
Exceptions are mechanism to transport information about errors in object-oriented code. But they come with performance hit when not used carefully. Still we find a lot of code when exceptions are not avoided but used as a control mechanism in code flow. This post introduces replace exception with test refactoring that helps us to avoid at least some exceptions.
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
Although I bought refactoring book by Martin Fowler years ago it is still valid. I call it one of the timeless books about coding and I consider it as a mandatory reading specially for novice programmers who are entering the field. Of course it is also useful handbook for those already in business. This refactoring book covers and organizes most of changes we are doing to source code every day and it greatly helps us to understand the nature of those changes at crafting level.
Why NOT measure progress using subjective percents
The first busiest part of year is successfully survived and it’s time to go on with business tuesday blog posts again. As I’m working on some progress measuring features for some time I will document here my ideas about this topic on more general level so business people can also read about my experiences and ideas. This time we make deep-dive to percents that describe how much task in progress is completed.
Working at home
Working at home is modern way to work but it is often very challenging too. Over years I have heard different stories from different people about working at home. Some of there people have been successful on it while others went back to office quickly after couple of days of trying. Let’s see what makes working at home challenging and what you need to get your home office running.
Ten keys to successful outsourcing
It’s business Tuesday again and this time I will share with you some of my experiences on getting started with successful outsourcing. Outsourcing may sound like something simple or something too troublesome but if you do your home work well then it is possible to succeed and have a cooperation that really makes your life more rich by many aspects you maybe don’t expect at first. Here are some of my experiences.
Software rescue services
Time for business Tuesday post. Source code gets rotten, systems get slower, every fix takes a lot of time, estimates for implementing new functionalities get more and more utopic, customers are mad, users are mad, developers are exhausted – struggling with problem like this? Maybe it’s time to use some software rescue services?
Microsoft .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise
Enterprise applications need good architecture to survive ever-changing demands of customers. At same time these systems must be stable, convenient and easy to use which leads us to need of good architecting skills. Some customers need desktop applications while others need web-based and mobile applications. Making good architectural decisions is not easy and this is where brilliant book Microsoft .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise by Dino Esposito and Andrea Saltarello comes in. (more…)
How innovation can turn to burning hell
During years in software development business I have seen many cases when layering in system architecture is made innovative way and later innovation turns out to be the worst nightmare developers and their managers have ever seen. Years ago I got very painful experience on how things can fail with unapproved bleeding-edge technologies that were selected to support sales to customer. Let’s take a look at hell for a moment. (more…)
Using Visual Studio database post-deployment scripts in practice
Visual Studio database projects support database post-deployment scripts you can use to make additional modifications to database or to insert some test data. In my work I use database projects and post-deployment scripts very often. In this posting I will introduce you how to use post-deployment scripts to make dealing with database and data easier for developers.
Cone of Uncertainty in classic and agile projects
David Starr from Scrum.org made interesting session in TechEd Europe 2012 - Implementing Scrum Using Team Foundation Server 2012. One of interesting things for me was how Cone of Uncertainty looks like in agile projects (or how agile methodologies distort the cone we know from waterfall projects). This posting illustrates two cones – one for waterfall and one for agile world.
Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister is golden classic book that can be considered as mandatory reading for software project managers, team leads, higher level management and board members of software companies. If you make decisions about people then you cannot miss this book. If you are already good on managing developers then this book can make you even better – you will learn new stuff about successful development teams for sure. Why peopleware? Peopleware gives you very good hints about how to build up working environment for project teams where people can really do their work. Book also…
How one decision can turn web services to hell
In this posting I will show you how one stupid decision may turn developers life to hell. There is a project where bunch of complex applications exchange data frequently and it is very hard to change something without additional expenses. Well, one analyst thought that string is silver bullet of web services. Read what happened. (more…)
Common mistakes made when measuring the speed of code
During times I have seen problematic ways how developers measure the speed and performance of their code. There are some easy tricks that help you make your measurements way better and accurate comparing to measurements made not so well. In this posting I will give you some hints how to get more accurate results when measuring the speed of your code.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Writing code that is easy read and test is not something that is easy to achieve. Unfortunately there are still way too much programming students who write awful spaghetti after graduating. But there is one really good book that helps you raise your code to new level – your code will be also communication tool for you and your fellow programmers.
Code Metrics: Number of IL Instructions
In my previous posting about code metrics I introduced how to measure LoC (Lines of Code) in .NET applications. Now let’s take a step further and let’s take a look how to measure compiled code. This way we can somehow have a picture about what compiler produces. In this posting I will introduce you code metric called number of IL instructions.
Why Software Sucks…and What You Can Do About It
How do our users see the products we are writing for them and how happy they are with our work? Are they able to get their work done without fighting with cool features and crashes or are they just switching off resistance part of their brain to survive our software? Yeah, the overall picture of software usability landscape is not very nice. Okay, it is not even nice. But, fortunately, Why Software Sucks...and What You Can Do About It by David S. Platt explains everything.
Agile Database Techniques: Effective Strategies for the Agile Software Developer
Agile development expects mind shift and developers are not the only ones who must be agile. Every chain is as strong as it’s weakest link and same goes also for development teams. Agile Database Techniques: Effective Strategies for the Agile Software Developer by Scott W. Ambler is book that calls also data professionals to be part of agile development.
The Mythical Man-Month
Yesterday I finished reading the classic project management book The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick P. Brooks. Well… this book made me think a lot about nature of software projects, how primitive is our understanding about them and why managing such projects is usually hard fighting with a lot of different issues. The book has also interesting content from the past that is really interesting reading. To understand where you are you should know where you come from.