This was not decadence: Quote of the Week

Ahh, Joel.  You are a unending fountain of good quotes!

A programmer is most productive with a quiet private office, a great computer, unlimited beverages, an ambient temperature between 68 and 72 degrees (F), no glare on the screen, a chair that's so comfortable you don't feel it, an administrator that brings them their mail and orders manuals and books, a system administrator who makes the Internet as available as oxygen, a tester to find the bugs they just can't see, a graphic designer to make their screens beautiful, a team of marketing people to make the masses want their products, a team of sales people to make sure the masses can get these products, some patient tech support saints who help customers get the product working and help the programmers understand what problems are generating the tech support calls, and about a dozen other support and administrative functions which, in a typical company, add up to about 80% of the payroll. It is not a coincidence that the Roman army had a ratio of four servants for every soldier. This was not decadence. Modern armies probably run 7:1.

Joel Spolsky
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/DevelopmentAbstraction.html

I think this quote brings out two interesting points that are a little bit at odds with each other.

1) The rest of the company lives to serve the programmer’s needs so that he can put out a good product.

AND

2) The programmer cannot exist in a vacuum and needs the rest of the company to support him or it doesn’t matter what kind of product he puts out.

So how to reconcile these two points?  Well, it comes when both sides recognize each other’s roles.  Each had different and important roles in the success of a software company.  I think the important point though is that in the scenario presented by Joel is that everyone is working together on the software, to improve the software, to give the programmers the tools and information that they need to create a delightful experience for the end user.

You won't grown neurons either: Quote of the week

Thanks to his (and Dave Thomas's) awesome and now "classic" book, The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master, I found Andy Hunt's blog.  (Dave also has a blog, and is on Twitter).  I'm actually hoping to read Andy's latest book, Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware in the next few months so I'll post a review once I've gotten there.

This week's quote actually comes from a blog posting from just a week or so ago and was very timely...

But here’s the funny part. The reason researchers had never witnessed neurogenesis previously was because of the environment of their test subjects. If you’re a lab animal stuck in a cage, you won’t grow new neurons.

If you’re a programmer stuck in a drab cubicle, you won’t grow new neurons either.

On the other hand, in a sensory-rich environment with things to learn, observe, and interact with, you will grow plenty of new neurons and new connections between them. A steampunk-etched notebook or a funky new pen is not just inspirational in some abstract way; the increased tactile sensory experience actually encourages growth of new neurons and stronger connections...

Your working environment is a context as well. It needs to be rich in sensory opportunities, or else it will literally cause brain damage.

(emphasis mine)

Andy Hunt
/\ndy (http://blog.toolshed.com/2008/12/science-failure-and-cubicle-brain-death.html)

I've been trying to make some changes in my life, mostly in terms of clutter.  I've actually been trying to apply the principles of lean software development to life in general.  I'll probably post more on that later, but for now, suffice it to say that I'm thinking of ways to be more effective and "live lean".  I was inspired by this zen habits post and have been contemplating Leo's minimalist workspace.  Do I want to have nothing on my desk but my computer?  It sounds appealing in some ways, but according to the study referenced in Andy's post, going to that extreme probably will kill brain cells!

I really like Scott Hanselman's home office.  He does a nice job of breaking down the things that you should have in any office where you spend a significant amount of time.  I actually got some of the Billy shelves from IKEA recently for home and they're pretty nice for how much they cost.

So, I have conflicting advice from two respected sources...  I could reduce the number of papers floating around, probably get rid of a lot of the stuff that I have stored and reduce the amount of unused "stuff" that I have laying around (both my home and work offices).  I have some desk toys at work, including a Ball of Whacks, which is a lot of fun to play with for me as well as for visitors to my office. 

I think the big this is to be more intentional with the things that are on my desk and the things I keep in and around my desk.  I need to do a better job of crafting the space around me, especially where I work.  Being more aware of your space and more purposeful with what you do with it can go a long way to improve productivity and possibly even stimulate brain growth!  I have some other stuff that I plan on bringing in, hopefully to minimize the drab gray colors of the (unpaintable :( ) office walls and create an environment "rich in sensory opportunities", cause I don't have any brain cells to spare.

Important is not a binary thing: Quote of the week

Joel Spolsky doesn't really need an introduction.  He's one of the rare people that you can refer to by their first name, people know who you're talking about.  He's so famous that there are people selling shirts referring to the man.

He hasn't been as chatty lately on his website as he was in the "golden years" of Joel on Software, so this is from a few years ago:

More importantly, I should have realized that "important" is not a binary thing, it's an analog thing. There are all kinds of different shades of important, and if you try to do everything, you'll never get anything done.
So if you want to get things done, you positively have to understand at any given point in time what is the most important thing to get done right now and if you're not doing it, you're not making progress at the fastest possible rate.
Joel Spolsky
Joel on Software (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SetYourPriorities.html)

I suggest you read that post, along with all the other old posts that he has in his archive.

As for the content, I find it interesting that this is one of the primary components of Agile development.  You don't do things in random order just cause they need to eventually get done, you work on what's important now.  Scrum gives you specific points to inject changes to the "what's important now" list but allows you the chance to focus for a sprint.

In any case, I think the challenge is being able to identify what is the "most important thing to get done right now".  I don't have all the answers and will probably post later with more thoughts on the subject, but since my "quote of the week" was quickly becoming a "quote of the month", I figured I should post something :)

Foosball: Quote of the week

This week's quote comes from Neil Davidson of Red Gate software.  They have some nice looking software that I've evaluated but haven't quite convinced my company to purchase licenses for us yet :(.  In any case, this isn't about Red Gate's software, but about Neil Davidson's opinion on foosball at software companies.

But the importance of interactions is wider than that. You need to encourage interactions between people in different teams, even different parts of the company. This needs to go beyond formal, sit-down meetings. It’s the random interactions that are valuable - conversations overheard in the kitchen and throw-away comments made over lunch at the pub. That’s why - once you reach a certain size - a foosball table, and a foosball league, are just as important as source control.

Neil Davidson
Business of Software Blog

One thing that I think my current workplace is failing at is facilitating a way to have those "random" interactions.  We recently moved offices (still need to post on that) and development (with QA) has their own section of the building with a separate break room.  This has resulted in little to no interaction between development and the rest of the company.

Now some of my co-workers would call this a win, but the more that I've thought about it, the less I agree with that sentiment.  Interacting with all aspects of the company is similar to the Agile philosophy that developers should actively engage with their users.  It gives you fresh perspective and helps you to see those other departments as people, not as a faceless mob that does not have your best interests in mind.

When I first started here, I decided to start up a weekly development group lunch in order to get to know people.  It's been a positive experience as I've gotten the opportunity to know many of my fellow developers that I haven't worked with and gotten to know those that I do work with in a non-work setting. 

One thing that is already in place is a quarterly department or company activity (alternates quarters, Q1 and Q3 are company, Q2 and Q4 are department).  That has been nice since it's company sponsored which means that we usually get everybody there.  They usually consist of lunch and then some activity.  They've included going to see a movie (Iron Man), snow tubing and laser tag which have all been fun.  It's been nice to interact with co-workers, especially from other departments, that I might not have otherwise interacted with.  Our recent annual user conference provided a similar experience as we worked together at conference.

I'd be nice if those sorts of activities (lunches, movies) were more regular though (and maybe more spontaneous?), at least on a department level (It'd be hard to spontaneously shut down customer support one afternoon).  A random "hey we're going to go grab some lunch and see a movie this Wednesday afternoon" or "we'll have pizza in the break room at noon today" would be pretty cool, probably more on a morale level then on a team building level, but in my opinion they are related.  I don't think you can have a great team without a certain level of morale...

(We actually did get the random pizza for the company once and it was really nice!  Hopefully we can see that again.)

I hope to continue to find new ways to facilitate random interactions among our developers and with the rest of the company and help our departments and company grow stronger as a team.  Maybe we can get a foosball table...

Your brain is too small - Quote of the Week

This week's quote comes from the classic, Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction.  If you're not familiar with McConnell's body of work, I suggest you get on that... as per the quote:

Once you admit that your brain is too small to understand most programs and you realize that effective programming is a search for ways to offset that fact, you begin a career-long search for ways to compensate. In the development of a superior programmer, curiosity about technical subjects must be a priority.

Steve McConnell
Code Complete 2nd Ed. p822

Well, he doesn't say you have to be curious about his books specifically, almost every book he's written could be considered a software development classic, so I'd say that it's definitely a good place to start.

I firmly believe that being a software developer is like walking the wrong way on a moving walkway.  If you aren't consistently working to improve and expand your skills and knowledge, then you're falling behind.  Unfortunately that means that one day you could wake up and realize that you've just been laid off and your skill set is 10 years behind the current state of the art.  Or that the development practices that you picked up in school might not be the best ones in the world.

I've been happy that at my current company we have a department reading program (not as developed as I'd like, but it's a start) where we read a book together as a department and then discuss it in our weekly department meeting.  I think that it's been a real eye opener to some as we've read Code Complete, The Pragmatic Programmer and are currently reading Head First Design Patterns.

But aside from whatever your company sponsors, make sure that you're constantly exploring new programming topics.  This can be via books, blogs, trying new languages, attending user groups or code camps and picking the brains of those around you that have more experience.  If you're not curious about what's going on in your field, you're never going to be a superior programmer.

What do you do to scratch your curiosity itch?

What a shame. What a waste.: Quote of the Week

This week's quote actually comes from marketing guru Seth Godin.  I love his blog because his posts are usually short, focused and insightful.  This morning I was reading through my mountain of unread posts in Google Reader and found this post from Seth for this week's quote:

Growth is frightening for a lot of people. It brings change and the opportunity for public failure. So if the astrological signs aren't right or the water is too cold or we've got a twinge in our elbow, we find an excuse. We decide to do it later, or not at all.

What a shame. What a waste.

Seth Godin

As I mentioned before, I post this quote outside my office (we've moved to a new space where I now have an office... more on that later) each week so I didn't include the rest of the post (didn't want them getting too nervous that I'm going to bolt) which says:

Inc. magazine reports that a huge percentage of companies in this year's Inc. 500 were founded within months of 9/11. Talk about uncertain times.

But uncertain times, frozen liquidity, political change and poor astrological forecasts (not to mention chicken entrails) all lead to less competition, more available talent and a do-or-die attitude that causes real change to happen.

If I wasn't already running my own business, today is the day I'd start one.

One of my goals is to start my own business.  I've actually done it once (the now defunct DressModestly.com, Inc.) with my friend Rich Arthur and it was a good experience, but I'd really like to work on something I'm passionate about instead of something that just seems like a good opportunity.

In any case, I've been thinking about it off and on for some time but with everything going on in the world started to think "dang, this probably isn't the best time to be doing things like starting a business" but of course Seth proves me wrong.  My recent birthday has caused me to reflect on what I'm getting done with the time I have.  A line from one of my all time favorite movies, The Music Man, came to mind, "You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays."  I don't think today I'll be doing anything :(, but I have been discussing things with another good friend, Jon Turner (also known as theparticleman) and we have a few ideas and we're going to start working on something in the coming weeks.

So, don't be scared of growth, personal or professional.  Don't look for excuses not to do things because you'll always find one.  Don't waste away your career and your life "prudently" wasting opportunities.

Inventory of Software Development: Quote of the Week

This comes from the Poppendieck's book Implementing Lean Software Development under the section on "Eliminate Waste".

The inventory of software development is partially done work. Partially done software has all of the evils of manufacturing inventory: It gets lost, grows obsolete, hides quality problems, and ties up money. Moreover, much of the risk of software development lies in partially done work.

Tom and Mary Poppendieck

I really like the whole idea of minimizing the tasks that are "in process".  If you think about it, if I have 3 tasks that will take me 3 days each and work on them all "simultaneously" there are a few problems.  One, at the end of 3 days you still have nothing done, and if you are truly working on them in parallel you won't see any results until the 7th day.

Even more dangerous is work that is perceived as "done" but isn't really done.  One of the great things about Scrum is that you need to think about what "done" really means.  Many projects out there don't get anything "done" and, as such, end up with the hare's problem and must "declare bankruptcy" frequently to clear out the "excess inventory".

Now this doesn't mean that you "get it right the first time".  Often you will need to redo something that was previously "done", but leaving things undone because they might change is just a recipe for disaster.