Of agile Goats and Agile Hippos
Published: 05/16/2012
Today there are many (too many) software development methodologies that all claim to provide a path to better software development. Many of them can trace themselves back to the original 2001 Agile Manifesto but there are examples that date back at least a decade before then.
The problem with all of these is that often they start off with some good ideas and then become rigid and formalized and complicated and often become not much better than whatever people were using before them. When I start seeing companies spring up to "help" you understand how to do them better or provide tools (usually expensive) to make them easier I start tuning out. It's such a growth industry you can't throw a rock without hitting someone who is more than willing to take your money and tell you how to write better software. Most of them probably know less about writing real software than your grandmother. I can remember enough presentations from companies who promised Nirvana where I wanted to run away and join a circus; most of the time they vanish into oblivion when they run out of suckers to sell to.
When I think of agile I think of a mountain goat. Amazing animals that never seem to lose their balance, bounce from rock to rock, and hardly notice whatever apparent peril they might appear to be in. I never think of a hippo on land who though they can run fast aren't very nimble at all and can't turn or run very far. Can you turn a hippo into a mountain goat? No, but feed a goat enough and they can bloat until they resemble the hippo (with tragic consequences on a mountainside).
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Interviews Can Be a Terrible Way to Identify Good Programmers
Published: 05/02/2012
After reading this article and comments, I really really wanted to laugh. Or maybe cry. Or even throw up.
In a nutshell the author of the article seemed to think you should hire a programmer on the spot if they went way overboard on the coding tests and other challenges, like the guy who at the end of a two hour coding test was seen feverishly adding HTML to his Javadoc comments.
I wouldn't hire this person under any circumstances. No, really. I've hired and interviewed enough people in my life that I want nothing to do with someone who fails to comprehend reality. Heck I've never made anyone write code in an interview and probably wouldn't hire someone who demanded to do so.
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Your Customers Don't Care About What's Wrong With Your Technology
Published: 04/19/2012
Imagine you offer a service to the public over the Internet. Users push a button on a website to get or start whatever you want them to eventually pay for. It takes 10 seconds or more before anything comes back. Frustrated with you they go to a competitor and they deliver less but do it in under a second. Who gets the business?
Now they complain in emails, tweets and comments about how crappy your service was. So you tell your CEO when he/she asks why: "Our servers are too slow; our caching systems aren't aggressive enough; the mainframe can't keep up with traffic; our database needs tuning; our software is too old".
You know what, the users could care less! They want service and you offer great (and maybe even truthful) excuses. Your competitors take advantage and you look like a chump.
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Is Technology Getting Too Complicated For Security To Keep Up?
Published: 04/10/2012
I've always wondered if there will come a time when our interconnected world becomes so complex it turns sentient.
Oh wait, that's a movie plot. I meant to say that things get so complex that we can't figure out how to keep them secure any more. That's not as interesting a plot but far more likely to happen, if it hasn't already.
In the old days before credit card numbers and the internet existed you had to actually go to a bank and point a gun at a teller and generally all you could get was a bag full of money. Security generally involved a gun-toting guard a donut shy of a hundred dozen. Today there are millions of people on the internet looking for any tiny crack in your systems hoping to snag millions of credit cards, personal identity data or company or government secrets. This isn't your great great grandfather's old west anymore.
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Too Much Specialization Is Making Programming a Poorer Experience
Published: 04/03/2012
When I started my programming career as a professional back in 1981, virtually everyone involved in making computers do things was a programmer. Now everywhere I go there are more specialized roles than I can keep track of. Whether you think that is good or bad one thing seems inevitable — the general purpose programmer is becoming obsolete.
Two major changes over the years make me wonder if the next generation of programmers will be one trick wonders.
Division Of Labor
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