My friend Andy Glover has written a great article on code coverage: In pursuit of code quality: Don’t be fooled by the coverage report. Definitely worth checking out because it corrects some misconceptions about code coverage.
Following in the recent footsteps of ORACLE, IBM Sets DB2 Database Free. Watch out though, getting hooked is free but once you get beyond the initial small database size the upgrades will cost you a pretty penny.
Good discussion of the relative merits of the Spring Framework are found in Bob Lee: I Don’t Get Spring. It’s worth a look because lots of people are jumping on the Spring bandwagon these days without regard to their architectural and coding requirements.
Nice article on how math is making a resurgence in corporate America: Math Will Rock Your World.
I wasn’t aware it actually went anywhere (my day is usually filled with lots of math) but just in case it did go away, I’m sure happy it’s back :-).
Microsoft recently released the Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0.
I continue to be impressed by Microsoft’s movement in the Enterprise components direction. While .NET still has a way to catch up to the Java camp in the open source community, Microsoft is (as usual) doing a great job supporting developers by giving out this stuff for free.
Here’s what Microsoft says is in EL 2.0:
- Caching Application Block. With this application block, developers can incorporate a local cache in their applications.
- Cryptography Application Block. With this application block, developers can incorporate hashing and symmetric encryption in their applications.
- Data Access Application Block. With this application block, developers can incorporate standard database functionality in their applications.
- Exception Handling Application Block. With this application block, developers and policy makers can create a consistent strategy for processing exceptions that occur throughout the architectural layers of enterprise applications.
- Logging Application Block. With this application block, developers can include standard logging functionality in their applications.
- Security Application Block. With this application block, developers can incorporate authorization and security caching functionality in their applications.
Enterprise Library also includes a set of core functions, including configuration, instrumentation, and object builder services. These functions are used by all other application blocks.
Oracle ADF JSF Components is now open source. If you’ve been looking for a reason to go to JSF, this may be the reason to do it. They have a long list of rich UI components available in their library.
This article is written by Abhay Bakshi, who put together a book review of Ship it! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects. I like the book and what Abhay thought about it and I thank him for sharing his views.
This is not solely a technology book or a software development methodology book – it rather asks the reader to be practical or down to earth when participating in a software project and when making choices and implementing them. The book talks about authors’ experiences in handling simple and complex software projects.
This book is kind of small(er) in size. I think, that’s good and keeps the boring, heavier aspect away. It consists of three major parts:
• Tools Available to You (Chapter 2)
• Techniques that You Can Adopt (Chapter 3)
• Tracer Bullet Development (authors’ own process that is comparable to RUP or XP) (Chapter 4)
The book contents read as if Jared is talking to you. One has to feel the author’s passion. But, more than the passion, I would say that the contents of the book are quite genuine. Jared and William have written in a wholehearted fashion about their techniques. You get a sense that both of them have worked on a reasonably high number of software projects, and have done hands-on development before they accepted their team lead positions.
A software developer keeps moving up the ladder in his (her) career. Once a team-lead, he faces new challenges, may get squeezed between the two layers viz. his team members and his upper management. Those kinds of dramatizations/scenarios in real life are available in the book. They sound like story-telling. That’s entertaining. Keeps your interest. Some other parts are only straight-forward though, at times read like pep-talks!
The Ship It! Effect
In the last three weeks (after I finished reading the book), I wanted to see how much effect the toutings in the book would have on my work activities. I thought that it would be a right test for this kinda book.
I am now happy to say that the book has helped. I also have to give myself partial credit because during this time, I have kept revising the ideas from the book constantly in my mind. Let me say, I have started using The List, and there are more things for me to do in that direction.
There are a few things that the book could improve on, I am confident; but, as is, this is one good book.
The Technical Aspect
The book is technical at its core and talks around the technicality. Here are some interesting details that the book covers:
• Scripting your build process
• Continuous Integration with tools like CruiseControl
• Issue Tracking
• Automating Tests with Mock Objects
• Various tools and authors’ first hand experiences
• The Wiki use of The List
• Impressive team building experiences
• Software Development method (Tracer Bullet Development)
• Six Appendixes with a lot of reference URLs
• Author also clearly differentiates between what he has read, and what he has only ‘heard’ about in his references. I think, that’s good for us to know.
At the end of each section, the book provides goodies such as “How to Get Started”, “You’re Doing It Right If…”, and “Warning Signs”. Those are helpful.
Where the Book Can Improve
As for the author’s writing style, there are some sections where the authors could add some more real-life ‘conversations’ or real-life ‘stories’. For example, ‘X did this, we talked to X, X listened or didn’t, and eventually X got better or suffered losses’. People love stories. If there is another edition, I would request that more ‘stories’ be added.
One other thing that the book does not put as much weight on is the factor of ‘corporate politics’. Sometimes, you get a feeling that author wants to pause a moment and weigh the corporate politics factor in, but, he doesn’t.
No doubt, discipline as touted in the book will work for everyone. I kind of believe that discipline in general is contagious (that is, if somebody notices for a long time that I am being more disciplined and being more productive that way, then they will also try to mimic my habits), but there are still some factors (politics, jealousy!, and more) in the real corporate – whether smaller or larger – that tend to delay your possible adoptions of best (useful) practices.
Lastly, as for the editors, I also think the presentation can be arranged in a better way. There are “Joe Asks…” and “Tip xxx” kind bulbs, but certain advanced pieces of the content deserve just some more effective highlight. I don’t work as a presentation editor, still I can’t help but feel: some small unknown and necessary leg of higher quality presentation is missing. For $19.77, I can’t complain much though.
Overall
The book price is apt. You will start benefiting from Day One; and you will only continue to benefit further if you keep revising the contents and keep implementing ideas from the book. I will be trying to get myself tuned with the methodologies mentioned in the book.
Suvajit Gupta gave a great presentation in which he discussed how to architect software effectively. The talk was co-sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society Chapter I co-chair and our new Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the International Association of Software Architects (IASA). The talk was very well attended (over 100 people registered and most attended).
Suvajit was nice enough to give us his presentation to put up on the IEEE website and it’s now available for download. It will be posted on the IEEE website as soon as our webmaster there can get to it but I figure I’d blog about it and post it here because many of you wanted to access to it tonight.
Also, I wanted to give you an opportunity to leave your comments here about the talk (what you liked, what can be improved) as well as the following questions Suvajit posed during his talk:
Just for convenience, here are the links he provided in his presentation:
Wikipedia
SEI: “Views & Beyond Approach”
IEEE/ANSI: “Architectural Description of Software-Intensive Systems” (1471-2000)
Research by CMU, MIT, UCIrvine, UMass
IASA Mid-Atlantic Chapter (join today!)
Bredemeyer Consulting
If you know of others, feel free to comment and post it here.
Eric Spiegel writes in Datamation’s online magazine about Blogging Your Way Up the Career Ladder. The article discusses how professionals, especially in IT, can enhance their careers through blogging. The column features some of my ideas on the subject as the central interview subject.
As a serial entrepreneur, I found this Knowing When to Quit very useful. I advise new startups regularly and sometimes I give them this same speech that Jim wrote about:
If you still can’t raise the money you need to fund your business, it’s time to decide if you should stay in the game or throw in the towel.
Jim’s advice is useful not only for entreprenuers but also for intrapreneurs (people starting projects within their own firms).
