community engagement
You know how interviewers love asking about your greatest weakness, or the biggest mistake you've ever made? These questions may sound formulaic, maybe even borderline cliche, but be careful when you answer: they are more important than they seem. So when people ask me what our biggest mistake
software development concepts
I've been unhappy with every single piece of software I've ever released. Partly because, like many software developers, I'm a perfectionist. And then, there are inevitably … problems: * The schedule was too aggressive and too short. We need more time! * We ran into unforeseen technical
open source
The book Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0596007590/?tag=codihorr-20] is a fantastic reference for anyone involved in a software project – whether you're running the show or not. [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0596007590/?tag=codihorr-20]
software development
Although I love reading programming books, I find software project management books to be some of the most mind-numbingly boring reading I've ever attempted. I suppose this means I probably shouldn't be a project manager. The bad news for the Stack Overflow team is that I
open source
In Where Are All The Open Source Billionaires? I used this chart as an illustration: Because open source code is freely distributable, anyone can take that code and create their own unique mutant mashup version of it any time they feel like it. Whether anyone else in the world will
software development concepts
Mistakes are inevitable on any software project. But mistakes, if handled appropriately, are OK. Mistakes can be intercepted, adjusted, and ultimately addressed. The root of deep, fatal software project problems is not knowing when you're making a mistake. These types of mistakes tend to fester into massive, systemic
software development
Since I started at Vertigo, here are a few of the projects I've worked on: * Michelangelo * Nash * Whiskeytown * Gobstopper These are our internal project code names. The names are chosen alphabetically from a set of items; every new project gets a name from the set. We start with
software development concepts
I often trot out Steve McConnell's doghouse analogy [http://stevemcconnell.com/articles/art03.htm] to illustrate how small projects aren't necessarily representative of the problems [https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-long-dismal-history-of-software-project-failure/] you'll encounter on larger projects. > People who have written a few small programs
software development concepts
Most software projects fail. But that doesn't mean yours has to. The first question you should ask is a deceptively simple one: how big is it? Steve McConnell explains in Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art: [For a software project], size is easily the most significant determinant of
software development
You may think you've completed a software project, but you aren't truly finished until you've conducted a project postmortem. Mike Gunderloy calls the postmortem an essential tool for the savvy developer: The difference between average programmers and excellent developers is not a matter of
software development
In Microsoft Project and the Gantt Waterfall, many commenters wondered why software projects can't be treated like any other construction or engineering project: I am not sure why it is so difficult to estimate software development? Is it a mystery, magic, is there a man behind the curtain
software development concepts
I've been using Microsoft Project quite a bit recently with a certain customer of ours. They bleed Gantt. I hadn't used Project in years, and after being exposed to it again, it really struck me how deeply the waterfall model is ingrained into the product. Take