Developers are a naturally optimistic bunch when asked to estimate how long their tasks will take. This study in the Journal of Systems and Software examines the phenomenon, and offers a great bibliography for those interested in reading more deeply.
The take away point, which is actually stated in the abstract of the paper, is [...]
The major project that Walter dragged his ass on for six weeks is not yet complete. There was a brief and uninteresting delay in the middle that was Ideal’s fault — some logistical issues with getting the infrastructure ready — but unfortunately that has not been the only problem.
I went into work recently feeling really [...]
I’m going to tell you the secret of being a top developer. It’s the actual foundation that underlies the various advice you may have read in the past about how to improve your craft. It’s a subtle epiphany, so it may require that you read this a few times for it to really sink in.
Before [...]
Building a tight knit, productive development team is not a science. It’s actually measure of dark voodoo and dumb luck. More charitably, it’s an “art.”
When I arrived at Ideal, the team was nothing of the sort. They worked separately, had no common vision, built crappy software, and were driven, like lemmings, toward an uncertain fate [...]
I am faced with a conundrum, caught between two schools of thought.
There’s a saying that goes:
Bad programmers are not good programmers who are slow.
This means that good programmers create not only faster, but better code. Their code is more stable, more maintainable, more extensible, more readable, and it slices bread and poaches eggs. Bad programmers [...]
Don’t be stuck with a failed project — find the rockstar software vendor that will make your boss swoon!
I was faced with a problem. I needed to implement a development ticket system for my department that could talk to both the support call center software and the accounting software. David also mentioned wanting it to support the future sales tool, and I knew there were people in accounting who needed it to fill [...]
Facing a threat to your career can be terrifying. Find out how to us Game Theory to take calculated risks, keep your cool, and get ahead.
As I discussed previously, Ideal needs a complete overhaul of its technology systems. There is an unintended consequence of making everyone believe I’m solving only their individual problem, as I explained in Technical Bankruptcy post. It is that they all conceive of my project and the effort involved with it in terms of only the [...]
As of this writing, Walter has been dragging his ass for three weeks on a new information system that I’m trying to get implemented for Ideal. The system is fairly complex in that it must meet the requirements of several different departments with existing infrastructure, and be able to handle future needs as well.
This is [...]
KenSharpe.net is a chronicle of the climb to the top of the technology business ladder, one rung at a time.
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