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.

Well, here we are with the aftermaths of a stock market bubble and a housing bubble. Traditional truths that were formerly ridiculed are suddenly accepted as being self-evident.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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

Software metrics, when used properly, is a tool for measuring the project not individuals; it’s a tool for controlling project deliverables, assessing and communicating status, and making better decisions.

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.