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• Quantifying the value of refactoring in commercial terms

  - by Myles McDonnell

  Here is the classic scenario; Dev team build a prototype. Business mgmt like it and put it into production. Dev team now have to continue to deliver new features whilst at the same time pay the technical debt accrued when the code base was a prototype. My question is this (forgive me, it's rather open ended); how can the value of the refactoring work be quantified in commercial terms? As developers we can clearly understand and communicate the value in technical terms, such a the removal of code duplication, the simplification of an object model and so on. But this means little to an executive focussed on the commercial elements. What will mean something to this executive is the dev. team being able to deliver requirements at faster velocity. Just making this statement without any metrics that clearly quantify return on investment (increased velocity in return for resource allocated to refactoring) carries little weight. I'm interested to hear from anyone who has had experience, positive or negative, in relation to the above. ----------------- EDIT ---------------- Thanks for the responses so far, all of which I think are good. What I want to develop is a metric that proves (or disproves!) all of these statements. A report that ties velocity to refactoring and shows a positive effect.

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• How best to keep bumbling, non-technical managers at bay and still deliver good work?

  - by Curious

  This question may be considered subjective (I got a warning) and be closed, but I will risk it, as I need some good advice/experience on this. I read the following at the 'About' page of Fog Creek Software, the company that Joel Spolsky founded and is CEO of: Back in the year 2000, the founders of Fog Creek, Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor, were having trouble finding a place to work where programmers had decent working conditions and got an opportunity to do great work, without bumbling, non-technical managers getting in the way. Every high tech company claimed they wanted great programmers, but they wouldn’t put their money where their mouth was. It started with the physical environment (with dozens of cubicles jammed into a noisy, dark room, where the salespeople shouting on the phone make it impossible for developers to concentrate). But it went much deeper than that. Managers, terrified of change, treated any new idea as a bizarre virus to be quarantined. Napoleon-complex junior managers insisted that things be done exactly their way or you’re fired. Corporate Furniture Police writhed in agony when anyone taped up a movie poster in their cubicle. Disorganization was so rampant that even if the ideas were good, it would have been impossible to make a product out of them. Inexperienced managers practiced hit-and-run management, issuing stern orders on exactly how to do things without sticking around to see the farcical results of their fiats. And worst of all, the MBA-types in charge thought that coding was a support function, basically a fancy form of typing. A blunt truth about most of today's big software companies! Unfortunately not every developer is as gutsy (or lucky, may I say?) as Joel Spolsky! So my question is: How best to work with such managers, keep them at bay and still deliver great work?

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• Software management for 2 programmers

  - by kajo

  me and my very good friend do a small bussiness. We have company and we develop web apps using Scala. We have started 3 months ago and we have a lot of work now. We cannot afford to employ another programmer because we can't pay him now. Until now we try to manage entire developing process very simply. We use excel sheets for simple bug tracking and we work on client requests on the fly. We have no plan for next week or something similar. But now I find it very inefficient and useless. I am trying to find some rules or some methodology for small team or for only two guys. For example Scrum is, imo, unadapted for us. There are a lot of roles (ScrumMaster, Product Owner, Team...) and it seems overkill. Can you something advise me? Have you any experiences with software management in small teams? Is any methodology of current agile development fitten for pair of programmers? Is there any software management for simple bug tracking, maybe wiki or time management for two coders? thanks a lot for sharing.

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• What's the best version control/QA workflow for a legacy system?

  - by John Cromartie

  I am struggling to find a good balance with our development and testing process. We use Git right now, and I am convinced that ReinH's Git Workflow For Agile Teams is not just great for capital-A Agile, but for pretty much any team on DVCS. That's what I've tried to implement but it's just not catching. We have a large legacy system with a complex environment, hundreds of outstanding and undiscovered defects, and no real good way to set up a test environment with realistic data. It's also hard to release updates without disrupting users. Most of all, it's hard to do thorough QA with this process... and we need thorough testing with this legacy system. I feel like we can't really pull off anything as slick as the Git workflow outlined in the link. What's the way to do it?

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• How is architectural design done in an agile environment?

  - by B?????

  I have read Principles for the Agile Architect, where they defined next principles : Principle #1 The teams that code the system design the system. Principle #2 Build the simplest architecture that can possibly work. Principle #3 When in doubt, code it out. Principle #4 They build it, they test it. Principle #5 The bigger the system, the longer the runway. Principle #6 System architecture is a role collaboration. Principle #7 There is no monopoly on innovation. The paper says that most of the architecture design is done during the coding phase, and only system design before that. That is fine. So, how is the system design done? Using UML? Or a document that defines interfaces and major blocks? Maybe something else?

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• Where can I hire local programmers with very specific skillsets?

  - by Lostsoul

  I have been browsing the site and haven't found a exact fit to this question so I'll post it but if its already answered(since I'm sure its a common problem, then let me know). I have a business and want to create a totally different product in a different industry than I'm currently in, so I learned how to program and created a working prototype. I have a bit of savings and am getting some cash flow from my current business so I can go out and hire a developer(in the future hopefully it can be permenant but right now I just need a person willing to work on contract and code on weekends or their spare time and I just want to pay in cash instead of equity or future promises). At first I wasn't sure what kind of developer to hire but this question helped me understand I should target specific skills I need as opposed to general programmers. This poses a problem for me since general programmers are everywhere but if I want specific skills I'm unsure how to get them. I thought about a list of approaches but it doesn't feel complete or effective since it seems to be assuming good developers are actively looking. If it helps I want someone local(since this is my first developer hire) and looking for skills like cuda, hadoop, hbase, java and c. Any suggestions? As a FYI, I have been thinking of approaching it as: Go to meet ups for one or more skills I need. Use LinkedIn to find people with the skills I need Search for job postings that contain skills I need and then use linkedIn to reach out to that firms employees since many profiles on linkedin are not very updated or detailed but job postings generally are. Send postings to universities and maybe find a student who loves technology so much they learned these tools on their own. Post on job board. Not sure how successful it will be to post to monster. Use Craigslist, not sure if a highly skilled developer would go here for work. What am I missing? I could be wrong but it seems like good/smart/able developers aren't hunting for work non-stop(especially in this tech job market). Plus most successful people I know have work/life balance so I'm not sure if the best ones really care about code after work. Lastly, most of the skills I need aren't used in big corporations so not sure how aggressively smart developers at small shops look for work. I don’t really know any developers personally, so but should I be using the above plan or if they live balanced lives should I be looking outside of the regular resources(and instead focus on asking around my gym or my accountant or something)? Sorry, I'm making huge assumptions here, I guess because developers are a total mystery to me. I kind of wish Jane Goodall wrote a book on understanding developers social behaviour better :-p

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• Advice: How to convince my newly annointed team lead against writing the code base from scratch

  - by shan23

  I work in a pretty reknowned MNC, and the module that I work in has been assigned to a new "lead". The code base is pretty huge (~130K or more, with inter dependencies on other modules) , but stable - some parts have grown ugly over the years, but its provably in working state. (Our products are running for years on them, even new ones). The problem is, our lead wants to rewrite the code from scratch, to encompass "finer granularity and a proactive design". I know in my guts thats not a very good idea, but how do I convince him/the rest of the team(who are pretty much more senior than me in terms of years of exp), without sounding too pedantic myself (Thou shalt not rewrite , as Joel et al have clear articles prohibiting it)? I have a good working relation with the person concerned, and don't want to ruin it, but neither do I want to be party to a decision which would surely plague us for years to come !! Any suggestions for a milder,yet effective approach ? Even accounts of how you have tackled such a situation to your liking would help me a lot! EDIT: The code base I'm talking about is not a product/GUI, but at kernel level with all the critical functionalities for our product. I hope now you know why i sound so apprehensive !!

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• Why is programming sometimes viewed as a second-rate role?

  - by CaptainCodeman

  I've been a programmer for most of my life. I recently interviewed for a management job in a company and the interviewer looked at my CV asked me "How do we know you're not just a programmer". Which in my opinion is quite a rude thing to say, but it's not an isolated incident and I've heard other similar things in other settings. It does seem that for some reason being a programmer is viewed as having a lower station, especially in settings where they have a separate IT department which is viewed as a support role. Is a career in software development doomed to being a second-rate support citizen?

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• In a multidisciplicary team, how much should each member's skills overlap?

  - by spade78

  I've been working in embedded software development for this small startup and our team is pretty small: about 3-4 people. We're responsible for all engineering which involves an RF device controlled by an embedded microcontroller that connects to a PC host which runs some sort of data collection and analysis software. I have come to develop these two guidelines when I work with my colleagues: Define a clear separation of responsibilities and make sure each person's contribution to the final product doesn't overlap. Don't assume your colleagues know everything about their responsibilities. I assume there is some sort of technology that I will need to be competent at to properly interface with the work of my colleagues. The first point is pretty easy for us. I do firmware, one guy does the RF, another does the PC software, and the last does the DSP work. Nothing overlaps in terms of two people's work being mixed into the final product. For that to happen, one guy has to hand off work to another guy who will vet it and integrate it himself. The second point is the heart of my question. I've learned the hard way not to trust the knowledge of my colleagues absolutley no matter how many years experience they claim to have. At least not until they've demonstrated it to me a couple of times. So given that whenever I develop a piece of firmware, if it interfaces with some technology that I don't know then I'll try to learn it and develop a piece of test code that helps me understand what they're doing. That way if my piece of the product comes into conflict with another piece then I have some knowledge about possible causes. For example, the PC guy has started implementing his GUI's in .NET WPF (C#) and using LibUSBdotNET for USB access. So I've been learning C# and the .NET USB library that he uses and I build a little console app to help me understand how that USB library works. Now all this takes extra time and energy but I feel it's justified as it gives me a foothold to confront integration problems. Also I like learning this new stuff so I don't mind. On the other hand I can see how this can turn into a time synch for work that won't make it into the final product and may never turn into a problem. So how much experience/skills overlap do you expect in your teammates relative to your own skills? Does this issue go away as the teams get bigger and more diverse?

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• How do bug reports factor in to a sprint?

  - by Mark Ingram

  I've been reading up on Scrum recently. From my understanding, a meeting is held before the sprint starts, to decide what gets moved from the product backlog to the upcoming sprint backlog. Once a feature is completed in the current sprint, it will go into the "Ready to QA" bucket, and it's at this point that I'm getting confused. Do bug reports go back into the product backlog? I assume they can't go back into the sprint backlog as we've already decided what work will be done for this cycle? What happens when QA finds a bug? Where does it go?

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• Finding a mentor online [closed]

  - by Athena Santos

  Possible Duplicate: How to find programming mentor? I'm a programming intern, but I want to "transition" into a product manager role after graduation. I just know that I will never be a super A++ Rockstar programmer, but from my internship I know that I can be a great program manager..one of those presumably rare people who can code well (enough)/speak programmer-ese and management-ese. Being a girl, I am looking for both male and female mentors. Female, because they know what its like to be a minority, and male, because..well, you guys are tough, and I believe to succeed in tech, a girl's gotta know how to act like a man (when appropriate). I've found some really amazing people I'd like to ask to be my mentor (in blogs, magazines, etc), but sadly, I live far, far away from them. Will be awkward/rude if I shoot them an email about being a mentor? What is the best way to establish a relationship with people like these that I admire? Any volunteers? :) Thank you in advance, and I hope you all have a great day/night.

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• Getting started with Team Foundation Server

  - by joe

  At work, we recently started using Team Foundation Server to manage our source code, i have no idea how to use this system. I do not know even know how to check source code in and out. Does anyone know of a step-by-step tutorial on how to work with TFS? Just for basic operations e.g. get latest version, upload your changes, etc. I am accessing it from Visual Studio 2010. I also have access to the TFS web interface.

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• How can I reduce the amount of time it takes to fully regression test an application ready for release?

  - by DrLazer

  An app I work on is being developed with a modified version of scrum. If you are not familiar with scrum, it's just an alternative approach to a more traditional watefall model, where a series of features are worked on for a set amount of time known as a sprint. The app is written in C# and makes use of WPF. We use Visual C# 2010 Express edition as an IDE. If we work on a sprint and add in a few new features, but do not plan to release until a further sprint is complete, then regression testing is not an issue as such. We just test the new features and give the app a good once over. However, if a release is planned that our customers can download - a full regression test is factored in. In the past this wasn't a big deal, it took 3 or 4 days and the devs simply fix up any bugs found in the regression phase, but now, as the app is getting larger and larger and incorporating more and more features, the regression is spanning out for weeks. I am interested in any methods that people know of or use that can decrease this time. At the moment the only ideas I have are to either start writing Unit Tests, which I have never fully tried out in a commercial environment, or to research the possibilty of any UI Automation API's or tools that would allow me to write a program to perform a series of batch tests. I know literally nothing about the possibilities of UI automation so any information would be valuable. I don't know that much about Unit testing either, how complicated can the tests be? Is it possible to get Unit tests to use the UI? Are there any other methods I should consider? Thanks for reading, and for any advice in advance. Edit: Thanks for the information. Does anybody know of any alternatives to what has been mentioned so far (NUnit, RhinoMocks and CodedUI)?

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• How to visualize the design of a program in order to communicate it to others

  - by Joris Meys

  I am (re-)designing some packages for R, and I am currently working out the necessary functions, objects, both internal and for the interface with the user. I have documented the individual functions and objects. So I have the description of all the little parts. Now I need to give an overview of how the parts fit together. The scheme of the motor so to say. I've started with making some flowchart-like graphs in Visio, but that quickly became a clumsy and useless collection of boxes, arrrows and-what-not. So hence the question: Is there specific software you can use for vizualizing the design of your program If so, care to share some tips on how to do this most efficiently If not, how do other designers create the scheme of their programs and communicate that to others? Edit: I am NOT asking how to explain complex processes to somebody, nor asking how to illustrate programming logic. I am asking how to communicate the design of a program/package, i.e.: the objects (with key features and representation if possible) the related functions (with arguments and function if possible) the interrelation between the functions at the interface and the internal functions (I'm talking about an extension package for a scripting language, keep that in mind) So something like this : But better. This is (part of) the interrelations between functions in the old package that I'm now redesigning for obvious reasons :-) PS : I made that graph myself, using code extraction tools on the source and feeding the interrelation matrix to yEd Graph Editor.

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• Expected time for an CakePHP MVC form/controller and db make up

  - by hephestos

  I would like to know, what is an average time for building a form in MVC pattern with for example CakePHP. I build 8 functions, two of them do custom queries, return json data, split them, expand them in a model in memory and delivers to the view. Those are three queries if you consider and an array to feed view for making some combo box. Why? all these, because I have data from json and I split them in order to make row of data like a table. Like that I changed a bit the edit.ctp but not a lot. And I created a javascript outside, with three functions. One collects data the other upon a change of a combo returnes the selected values, and does also some redirection flow. All this, in average how much time should it take ?

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• can you have too many dto/bo - mapping method

  - by Fredou

  I have a windows service, 2 web services and a web interface that need to follow the same path (data wise). So I came up with two ways of creating my solution. My concern is the fact that the UI/WS/etc will have their own kind of DTO (let's say the model in ASP.Net MVC) that should be mapped to a DTO so the SL can then map it to a BO then mapping it to the proper EF6 DTO so that I can save it in a database. So I'm thinking of doing it this way to remove one level of mapping. Which one should I take? Or is there a 3rd solution?

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• Delivering estimates and client expectations?

  - by FishOrDie

  When a client asks for an estimate on how long it would take to develop different sections of an app, is it best to give them a total amount or what it would take for each section? Is it better/more common to give a range of hours/days or just a single number? Do you think most clients feel that if a programmer says it should take 50 hours that they should be billed for 50 hours? If I say it would take 50 and it actually takes 60, do I tell them in advance that I'm going over on my estimate or just charge what was originally quoted?

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• New website - best practice for requirements specs? [closed]

  - by Alex K.

  Possible Duplicate: Extracting user requirements from a person who does not know how to express himself As a hobby freelancer I'm new to this. I've never had a non-technical client before explain to me what his future website is supposed to do. A person wants me to make a website for him and he basically explained to me what's it about. However, he's not a technical person and he just doesn't understand what I need to know and how to properly describe/explain it to me. When I ask him how a user is supposed to submit an entry to the website he told me "He fills out a form.", which is not really helping me. This was just an example, it goes on for other sections of the website as well which are a lot harder to explain. The website will be aimed at a specific professional user demographic and I have no clue about their profession and how their industry works. I tried to find some good Product Requirements Document templates on Google but none of them really seemed like they could help him understand how to write it so I can understand what he wants/needs. Can somebody please give me a hint on how to deal with such non-technical clients?

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• Will SRS be sufficient enough for the programmers to do their work, without the additional overhead of FS?

  - by SixSickSix

  We always make 2 documents the SRS (Software Requirement Specification) and the FS (Functional Specifications) documents for the coders aka programmers. As I have examined the SRS is more like containing both functional and non-functional requirements as compared to the FS that deals only with the functional requirements. To cut it short will the SRS be sufficient enough for the programmers to do their work? and not make any FS anymore?

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• How do I hire testers by giving them a buggy app for testing their efficiency?

  - by Jay

  My boss wants to recruit testers based on their testing efficiency (number of bugs identified). So, he's shortlisted 5 people and I need to give them an app full of bugs and see how they fare in reporting obvious bugs, and hidden bugs. I know.... it kind of sounds weird. I guess, this is just like the coding world, where you hire a programmer by assessing his/her programming ability (which is a little easier). Once hired, these testers would be testing a java swing app, so their familiarity of testing frameworks/tools is not really required. So, my question here is - How do I go about finding buggy apps (web/non-web), preferably java ones, that I can have the shortlisted testers have a go at? How would you go about this task if your boss asks you to do so? I am kind of clueless at this point - I googled a bit, thought about finding new apps on sourceforge with lots of bugs, but both approaches didn't work for me.

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• Can/should one record unstructured suggestions and feedback in an issue tracker?

  - by Ian Mackinnon

  I'd like to advocate the use of issue-tracking software within an organisation that currently does not use it. But there's one aspect of their situation for which I'm unsure of what to suggest: their projects frequently receive informal verbal feedback or casual comments in meetings or in passing from a wide group of interested parties, and all this information needs to be recorded. Most of these messages are noise, but they're vital to record and share with developers for two reasons: Good suggestions often come out of this process. It can be necessary to have evidence of clients' comments when they forget previous instructions or change their mind. Is this the sort of information that should be stored in an issue-tracking system, or kept apart in a separate solution? Are there issue-tracking systems that have particularly good support for this sort of unstructured information?

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• Tips/tricks to manage a new team with new code

  - by Fanatic23

  How do you handle yourself in a new team where you are the senior most developer and most others in the team are junior to you by several years. The task ahead of the team is something nobody else including you has accomplished in their career before. Management insists on higher productivity of the whole team, and as senior developer you are responsible. Any tips for coming out trumps in a situation like this? Clearly, the entire team needs time to learn and let's not forget the team's new. However, deadlines are up ahead as well...

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• Are there any additional considerations to make when designing a site structure if you plan to use persistent connection technologies?

  - by Psytronic

  As the title states, I'm thinking of making a simple-card-game based website, using persistent connection technology (Something like signalR) for the actual game part of it. I've never planned a site to use this technology, and wondering for those who have, are there any additional things that need to be taken into consideration for the site structure? I'm planning on using the asp MVC framework for the whole thing, and starting off with some simple game (e.g. card based Rock/Paper/Scissors) for proof of concept (to see if I can get it working how I think it would in my head).

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• How to keep a big and complex software product maintainable over the years?

  - by chrmue

  I have been working as a software developer for many years now. It has been my experience that projects get more complex and unmaintainable as more developers get involved in the development of the product. It seems that software at a certain stage of development has the tendency to get "hackier" and "hackier" especially when none of the team members that defined the architecture work at the company any more. I find it frustrating that a developer who has to change something has a hard time getting the big picture of the architecture. Therefore, there is a tendency to fix problems or make changes in a way that works against the original architecture. The result is code that gets more and more complex and even harder to understand. Is there any helpful advice on how to keep source code really maintainable over the years?

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• What level/format of access should be given to a client to the issue tracking system?

  - by dukeofgaming

  So, I used to think that it would be a good idea to give the customer access to the issue tracking system, but now I've seen that it creates less than ideal situations, like: Customer judging progress solely on ticket count Developers denied to add issues to avoid customer thinking that there is less progress Customer appointing people on their side to add issues who don't always do a good job (lots of duplicate issues, insufficient information to reproduce, and other things that distract people from doing their real job) However, I think customers should have access to some indicators or proof that there is progress being done, as well as a right to report bugs. So, what would be the ideal solution to this situation?, specially, getting out of or improving the first situation described?

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