Is Your App Cleared For Takeoff? (February 2010)
Launch On Time, Every Time
We recently interviewed Patrick Copeland - the Sr. Engineering Director of Google - as part of our Testing the Limits series. In addition to other hot topics, we were able to get his thoughts on the barriers to designing, developing and launching high-quality products on a consistent basis. Perhaps you can relate to this. Anyway, here's an excerpt from part II: "Some companies try to normalize their development process. One thread common to formal development models are that they focus on a few of the many variables: improving efficiency, predictable process, estimation of quality, or others. Process-heavy development models may work well for manufacturing airplanes and have been successfully applied by some companies, they have been viewed by many developers as burdensome and contrary to the creative nature of writing innovative software. Conversely, 'process-less process', can lead to a heroic culture that’s unable to repeatedly deliver. There needs to be balance. Consider the physics of flight as an analogy to the software development process. In addition to reasonable flying conditions and an experienced pilot, the key to getting airborne is having an appropriate balance of factors that match the situation: too much weight or too little thrust can be disastrous depending on the situation. Similarly, teams, products and process all have virtual physics. For instance, adding engineers late in a product cycle doesn’t necessarily provide more lift. Adopting a new process may give a team more thrust momentarily, but may also incur a longer term drag that makes them incapable of innovation. The popularity of Agile, while not a wholesale rejection of more rigid processes, indicates that developers desire more balance and creativity. Whatever we do to make software higher quality and more predictable to build, we must maintain a balance that encourages the innovative aspects of the art form. We need to motivate smart minds to solve hard problems and deliver rich features to customers. In other words, we need to be adaptable to stay airborne for the long term." Check out the entire three-part interview for more wisdom, wit and whatnot.
Quotes for Software People
“If McDonalds were run like a software company, one out of every hundred Big Macs would give you food poisoning, and the response would be, ‘We’re sorry, here’s a coupon for two more.’" - Mark Minasi Thanks to devtopics.com for the quote.
You Better Tell a Programmer
"WARNING: Database Logging is currently disabled and is required for production. Please contact the RF Technitian for assistance. Purple Monkey Dishwasher." This error message - and other similarly hilarious software bloopers - can be found here thedailywtf.com.
More Quotes for Software People
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This is NOT the Facebook Login
Good usability testing is both important and difficult. ReadWriteWeb, a popular tech blog, learned that fact the hard way earlier this month after writing a post titled Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login. The post was about the partnership between Facebook and AOL to integrate AIM and Facebook chat/ Pretty standard Internet news stuff. But take a look at that headline – it uses both the words “Facebook” and “Login." For search engines, that was enough to make this ReadWriteWeb article the number two link for those search terms. And after that, all hell broke loose. Continue reading...
Bug of the Month
United States, Population 010100100110010 (or the Census Bureau has a software bug) "The software system for the 2010 census that is about to be fully launched is 'behind schedule and full of defects, and it will have to be scaled back to ensure an accurate count of the U.S. population.'" Read the entire story at fiercegovernmentit.com.