The Mindset

The issue of professionalism keeps showing up. I believe there’s a good reason for that: we as an industry really have to put more focus on professionalism.
In his latest article, Michael Feathers raises an important issue on the matter of doing a job right. Even if the code is going to be thrown away […]

I had an interesting conversation with a development lead today. The conversation was about the need for unit testing in a project which was about to start.
I suggested that the project would benefit from thorough unit testing starting from day one. He, on the other hand, argued that it would not be necessary for this […]

How many professional books have you read this year? A real book. Not a blog posting (like this one). Not the complete Java 2 reference. A real book, with coherent, mind-opening ideas. A book that changed your perception, or at least added something new to your knowledge or understanding (hopefully something that lasts longer than the time it […]

In yet another great article J. Timothy King describes the importance of passion at work, how it motivates people and make them do great things. The last section in this article is titled Don’t take it for granted:

“When we take passion for granted, we discourage the best motivator we have.”
No one should stay indifferent when […]

Last night I saw an amazing show. It was like nothing I have ever seen.
Imagine ten people on one stage dancing, moving, creating music, singing and even making you laugh while doing so.
With every move they made, they created music. Every note they played, was part of a magical choreography. They used common artifacts […]

Is there one? Well, that depends of course on where you work and who you work for.
Sometimes, what you and I might define as professionalism is far from being appreciated. If the organizational subtext does not promote professionalism, you might find yourself being tagged as a trouble maker just for trying to do things […]

Everybody seems to be looking for professionals. At least that’s what everybody is saying. With the ever-growing development costs and the increasing complexity of projects, you cannot afford settling for less.
Some organizations seem to start realizing that the way they are currently developing software will not meet these increasing needs for long. They know they […]

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 […]

I’ve just came across this advertising for driving lessons:

Join the revolutionary driving course!
A unique learning method will teach you to drive a car in no time. Our driving course was developed by the best experts in the field. It includes numerous hands-on exercises starting from day one.
Day 1: Hello CarYou will learn about the car’s ignition […]

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 […]