Category Archives: Opinion

Opinion

Google Programming and the Dangers of the Cargo Cult

Posted on February 1, 2008 by Shine Technologies

A while ago Mark blogged on his experiences learning Rails using screencasts. Around this time he also confessed to me that he accomplished many things in Rails simply by doing a Google search for it. I thought I’d try a … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Nokia Test – Are you doing Scrum ?

Posted on December 4, 2007 by Shine Technologies

If you think you are doing Scrum, how do you know ? There are lots of good books around, but – whilst Scrum is deliberately quite simple – it can sometimes be easy to lose sight of the principles. Over … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion | Tagged | 1 Comment

Book Review: Domain-Driven Design

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Shine Technologies

I’ve just finished reading Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software by Eric Evans. Or to be more honest, I’ve finished skimming through it over the last couple of weeks whilst eating my lunch. This book was recommended … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion | Leave a comment

Is the Java application server dead ?

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Shine Technologies

First came light-weight containers such as Spring which provide some of the useful features of application servers, but with less constraints over both design and deployment. Now we have Web Beans: A Web Bean does not have to be an … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion | Tagged | 3 Comments

Does quality assurance need more attention?

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Shine Technologies

Technology is always making our lives easier. In fact a lot of the time we completely forget what it was that technology is doing for us. I believe that one of these areas is software quality assurance (QA). Tools such … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion | 1 Comment

Agile Development with CMMI … ?

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Shine Technologies

One of the common criticisms levelled at Agile development – particularly by those who haven’t experience it for themselves – is that it is little better than hacking. In particular, that the reduced focus on documentation is evidence that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion | Tagged | Leave a comment

Video killed the Idiot’s Guide

Posted on July 30, 2007 by Shine Technologies

For the first time in many years I am learning a new programming language – Ruby. I started about 6 months ago and it occurred to me the other day that they way I go about acquiring knowledge now is … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion | Tagged | 2 Comments

Fixed Price or Agile ?

Posted on June 16, 2007 by Shine Technologies

Mark raised some very good points in his comment against my recent post on welcoming change in projects: “One main barrier to these approaches being adopted in the past was the engagement/contract models that our clients dictated. If the project … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion, Project Management | Tagged | 2 Comments

Does Sun make money out of Java?

Posted on June 7, 2007 by Shine Technologies

… or is that the wrong question? It has been bothering me for a while that I can’t understand why Sun spends money on Java.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that they do.  But surely there is … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Change is good

Posted on May 29, 2007 by Shine Technologies

My last post on Agile software development ended on one of the Agile Manifesto key principles – “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.” But surely that leads to chaos – how can we possibly build something if we’ve got … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion, Project Management | Tagged | 4 Comments