Sat, 12/09/09 – 9:21 | No Comment

The common thread for all human pursuits is our nature. This is best exemplified in our current economic crisis and the events leading up to the dénouement. Peter Schiff is a market participant and analyst who was scorned and laughed at for his prescient conclusions on the US financial markets and economy.

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Three Stages of Truth
Sun, 22/03/09 – 17:28 | No Comment

All truth passes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed,
second, it is violently opposed,
third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

- Arthur Schopenhauer Read the whole story »

Focus on the Short Term is Dumb
Thu, 12/03/09 – 20:27 | 6 Comments

Corporate obsession with short-term profits has been a contributing force behind the adoption and advocacy of the Agile Software practices. As I’ve argued repeatedly, customer satisfaction and product success isn’t about process or delivering faster, it’s about creating a great user experience. Customer value is a result of building a great product; building a great product is the strategy; customer satisfication is the by-product. In fact, short incremental releases often result in less customer satisfaction, not more.

Discuss Topics on Our Forum
Thu, 22/01/09 – 1:09 | No Comment

A forum has been added to the “You Want it When” blog.  Visit the forum to discuss topics in software developement.  To navigate to the forum, click the menu item between news and about, or …

Establishing Career Requirements
Tue, 30/12/08 – 20:06 | One Comment
Establishing Career Requirements

This is the second in a series of articles about one of the perils of our economic times – finding yourself suddenly unemployed. Unfortunately the recently released official US November unemployment numbers proved that membership has drastically increased by another 530,000 people, raising the overall national unemployment rate to 6.7%. Ouch! So for all you newcomers a quick summary of what we discussed so far.

The Casualties of Today’s Economic Crisis
Tue, 25/11/08 – 20:54 | No Comment
The Casualties of Today’s Economic Crisis

Today’s global economic crisis has affected everybody in some capacity and for some it has cost them their jobs. The October employment statistics from US Bureau of Labor reported unemployment rates at 6.5% that equates to 10 Million Americans on the unemployment rolls, an increase of over 600,000 from the previous month. The total number of unemployed is the largest since March 1994. With all these sobering statistics this is a topic that may be of value to our readers. Therefore this is the first in a series of articles geared towards helping you get through this crisis.

The Old School Manifesto
Mon, 10/11/08 – 22:08 | 2 Comments
The Old School Manifesto

As we saw in the last essay, the 80:20 rule seemingly appears in many circumstances. When I was attending college and working as a programmer during the 80’s, there were some commonly accepted tenets that guided our software development processes and behaviors.

What Methodology Do You Follow?
Thu, 6/11/08 – 19:20 | 3 Comments

I’m curious to know what software process methodology the readers of my material practice. If you would, please take the poll and share your experiences with a comment. In the comment if you can answer the following questions, it would be greatly appreciated.

Pareto Principle (80:20 Rule) and Quality
Wed, 22/10/08 – 22:59 | No Comment

Erik Peterson presents on the 80:20 rule at a Google Talk, which you can view on YouTube.com. He explains how to use the 80:20 rule to improve the quality of your testing with the benefit of delivering high quality software products.

Objectives of Soak Testing
Mon, 6/10/08 – 0:00 | No Comment
Objectives of Soak Testing

Soak testing is the practice of exercising an application continuously under automated test with the primary objective of uncovering defects. In my experience, it’s the best practice for delivering reliable applications: applications that never seem to crash or exit abruptly

Upfront Analysis Saves Time
Mon, 1/09/08 – 8:00 | One Comment

Work smarter, not harder is common wisdom for solving difficult problems. Analysis is the process of applying our knowledge intelligently to solve difficult problems. Upfront analysis saves time. It’s about working smarter, not harder.

Good Design is Important
Mon, 25/08/08 – 23:27 | No Comment

I just stumbled upon a blog posting by Chad Myers titled “Good Design is not Subjective.” It’s hard for me to believe, but apparently this is a controversial subject in the software community today.