The Mindset

Over the years I have seen numerous variations of code naming conventions. I have also heard a similar number of debates on which notation is better. In most of these discussions no one bothered to define what it should be better for.
In this post I am not going to get myself involved in this futile war. […]

My Are Your Code Reviews Effective? post raised some fine questions. The most popular question regarding Professional Reviews argued that reviews conducted by a professional mentor will not provide the benefit of knowledge sharing that other reviewing methods seem to provide.
Knowledge sharing among team members is an important goal. Having only a single developer who knows […]

I read a lot of articles and blog postings about software development, management and quality. My “favorite” articles are characterized by their ability to present some idea or concept with a sound voice, while blurring other important aspects of the subject. Most of them are not doing that on purpose. But the innocent reader might still get a wrong […]

I was working on my book yesterday. I read one of the chapters I had written and I wasn’t happy with it. It wasn’t the grammar, nor was it the phrasing. It just didn’t feel right. Something in its flow was awkward, although I couldn’t just put my finger on it.
So I started working […]

A Coding Standard is a common document defining a set of simple, mainly structural, rules for writing code. Software companies tend to sanctify this document and see it as the ultimate answer to their quality problems.
In 1990, the Software Coding Standards Consortium (SCSC) has decided that words in the name of software-related consortiums should be […]

In a recent article James Shore describes Software Design as context sensitive. He rightfully claims that every practice and guideline should be questioned and adapted to the specific context we are currently working in.
This is more than true. Design is context sensitive. Context sensitivity, however, is not unique to the design domain. Many other software development activities […]

For many people in the software industry the term Code Reviews is automatically interpreted as an activity done internally within a development team. Some see it as an activity done by peers – reviewing each other’s code. Others see it as the job of the development team leader to review his team members’ code.
Is […]

Everybody seems to love TDD (Test Driven Development). Writing unit tests can be a lot of fun, and a real productivity enhancer. Writing tests before writing a piece of code is also a great idea. It sure helps you shape your interfaces and think about their usability even before implementing them. It also has the […]

When you write an article or a book, you know you have to maintain clarity, simplicity, flow and coherence of your written artifact. You know your creation has to be well written (and even well designed) because people are going to read it. At least you hope they will. You know you are writing for […]

There are two questions I am being asked quite often. The first question is how to structure code such that it will be easy to read and manipulate; the second question is how to read code effectively (in a review or as part of a maintenance task). Clearly, these two questions are related. In fact, […]