software quality

software development concepts

Version 1 Sucks, But Ship It Anyway

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

By Jeff Atwood ·
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software development

What is "Modern Software Development"

Joel Spolsky came up with a twelve-item checklist [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html] in August, 2000 that provides a rough measure of – in his words – "how good a software team is": 1. Do you use source control? 2. Can you make a build in one step?

By Jeff Atwood ·
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code refactoring

The real cost of performance

I don’t usually get territorial about modifications to “my” code. First of all, it’s our code. And if you want to change something, be my guest; that’s why God invented source control. But, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t take working code and

By Jeff Atwood ·
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software development

We Make Shitty Software... With Bugs!

I saw this really funny, if somewhat ancient, Dave Winer blog entry on Scoble’s blog and I just couldn’t resist: An old software slogan at Living Videotext: “We Make Shitty Software... With Bugs!” It makes me laugh! We never ran this slogan in an ad. People wouldn’t

By Jeff Atwood ·
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