Alexander Pope once opined that a little learning can be a dangerous thing. When we learn just enough to hear something that suits our agenda, we have a cognitive bias that encourages us to stop right there. Quit while you’re ahead, as it were. This dynamic gives rise to misconceptions. They go by various names:…
Not surprisingly, software development teams have a propensity to automate. After all, most of what we do involves automating formerly manual processes. Stop keying that data in by hand! Let’s write a script that loads it automatically. As software developers, we thus become connoisseurs of automation opportunity. Come on. Tell me you’ve never wandered around…
How many development shops do you know that complain about having too much time on their hands? Man, if only we had more to do. Then we wouldn’t feel bored between completing the perfect design and shipping to production … said no software shop, ever. Software proliferates far too quickly for that attitude ever to take…
In an ideal world, software developers look forward to peer code review. The practice helps them catch potentially embarrassing mistakes before they leave the dev environment. But beyond that, it also gives them an opportunity to showcase their work and to learn tips and tricks from peers. Again, in the ideal world, code review offers…
Many of us have a natural tendency to let little things pile up. This gives rise to the notion of the so-called spring cleaning. The weather turns warm and going outside becomes reasonable, so we take the opportunity to do some kind of deep cleaning. Of course, this may not apply to you. Perhaps you…
I like variety. In pursuit of this preference, I spend some time management consulting with enterprise clients and some time volunteering for “office hours” at a startup incubator. Generally, this amounts to serving as “rent-a-CTO” for startup founders in half hour blocks. This provides me with the spice of life, I guess. As disparate as…
I can almost sense the indignation from some of you. You read the title and then began to seethe a little. Then you clicked the link to see what kind sophistry awaited you. “There is no substitute for peer review.” Relax. I agree with you. In fact, I think that any robust review process should…
Today, I’d like to offer a somewhat lighthearted treatment to a serious topic. I generally find that this tends to offer catharsis to the frustrated. And the topic of code review tends to lead to lots of frustration. When talking about code review, I always make sure to offer a specific distinction. We can divide…
I have long since cast my lot with the software industry. But, if I were going to make a commercial to convince others to follow suit, I can imagine what it would look like. I’d probably feature cool-looking, clear whiteboards, engaged people, and frenetic design of the future. And a robot or two. Come help…
For years, I can remember fighting the good fight for unit testing. When I started that fight, I understood a simple premise. We, as programmers, automate things. So, why not automate testing? Of all things, a grad school course in software engineering introduced me to the concept back in 2005. It hooked me immediately, and…
