Developing with Passion Creating High Quality Applications January 13th, 2009Matt Penner - Inland...

Matt Penner - Inland Empire .Net User Group

DISCUSSIONS:

Developing with Passion

Creating High Quality Applications

January 13th, 2009


Discussion??? I can’t just sit here?

January 13th, 2009


Discussion???I can’t just sit here?

I like to talk but I get self-conscious Audience Involvement Want your input on:

What you love What you hate Everything in between

Hear ideas from everyonebeginner to the experienced

January 13th, 2009


W

January 13th, 2009

hatdoesitmeantobePassionate?


What does it mean to bePassionate?

January 13th, 2009


What does it mean to bePassionate?

Burst with Excitement? Talk to your Family or Friends about? Spend every waking moment

Thinking? Learning? Doing?

January 13th, 2009

What gets you to:


What are you Passionate about?

January 13th, 2009


What are you Passionate about?

FamilyFriends

Religion Money

Music ArtTechnology

Cars

BoatsTravel

Partying Learning

Working???

January 13th, 2009


What does it means to be passionate about development?

January 13th, 2009


What does it means to be passionate about development?

Love what you do Craving to code (at work, school, home) Extracurricular (what do you work on

when you're not at work?)

January 13th, 2009


Why is it so important?

January 13th, 2009



Life is too short to hate what you do

Miserable at work Miserable at home (with self,

family, friends, etc) Stress

January 13th, 2009

Negatives



Low chance of actually being any good at what you do

Hard to create a good product when you don’t care about your product

January 13th, 2009

Negatives



Poor quality work creates a vicious cycle of poor recognition poor customer service poor customer relations which leads to more poor work, etc.

Low chance of promotion in work Low chance of recognitionJanuary 13th, 2009

Negatives



Actually enjoy life Enjoy talking about your work with

others (wife/family/co-workers/etc) Enjoy going into work each day Enjoy when you need to work late

hours

January 13th, 2009

Positives



Enjoy creating good product - what you like to do you will do well

Enjoy talking with customers of your products and helping to improve their job

Enjoy seeing your benefit to others over the long term (long projects, several revisions, etc)

January 13th, 2009

Positives



Self motivating learning new/better techniques increasing your own interest and creativity discussing new ideas and concepts with colleagues

Recognition by: Boss Co-workers Customers Community etc

PromotionJanuary 13th, 2009

Positives


What steals your passion?

January 13th, 2009



Simply not interested in what you’re doing

Not growing in your education/skills

January 13th, 2009

Self



Boring work Boring projects

January 13th, 2009

Self



Bad relationships with your boss/co-workers Bad relationships with customers Little support from other “players”

IT staff Management DBA Co-workers Other departments Etc

January 13th, 2009

Social



Poor environment Distracting environment

January 13th, 2009

Work Environment



Poor quality hardware Poor internet connection Lack of sufficient tools No/poor backup No version control Loss of hours of work

January 13th, 2009

Work Environment


How to keep (or regain)your passion?

January 13th, 2009



Attitude is #1 (don’t laugh!) Especially in this economy

Constant learning Magazines, books, Internet, etc. Certifications Community involvement

User Groups, Open Source projects

January 13th, 2009

Self



Change of job? Change of dept? Change of project? None of these may be realistic

January 13th, 2009

Work – Time for a move?



Interact with your co-workers Even if they are in a different dept or

location Intelligent co-workers learn from and

challenge each other Chances are there is at least two other

people in your company who know more than you about something

January 13th, 2009

Work - Relationships



Cultivate relationships with others Management co-workers IT DBA

January 13th, 2009

Work - Relationships



Work from home? New office? New furniture? Barrowed furniture? Noise cancelling head phones Personal items

Music Pictures Etc.

January 13th, 2009

Work – Pleasing Environment



High-end equipment Computers Internet Access Software Tools

IDE Re-Sharper Photoshop (really)

January 13th, 2009

Work – Great Tools



Selling points Low cost compared to project costs Computers have never been cheaper Internet access has never been cheaper

(FIOS?) Off-lease equip

January 13th, 2009

Work – Great Tools



High quality backup system Poor man’s (personal) backup

USB drives Local svn

Version control system May have VSS in your licensing subscription svn is free!

Continuous integration systemJanuary 13th, 2009

Work – Avoiding loss of work



Agile practices TDD Frequent Deliverables (heartbeat) Customer involvement Flexible design

January 13th, 2009

Work – Techniques


Developing High Quality Software

January 13th, 2009


What does it means to develop a "good" product?

January 13th, 2009


What does it means to develop a "good" product?

Delivered in time Within budget Fulfills customer requirements Iron Triangle? How do you define successful?

January 13th, 2009


When is it good enough?

January 13th, 2009


When is it good enough?

By the deadline no matter what’s finished

When the requirements are done When it’s high quality What if these don’t all happen at the

same time?And they most likely won’t!

The answer is different with every projectJanuary 13th,

2009

When do you say “Stop and ship it!”


Who is the customer?

January 13th, 2009


Who is the customer? The one asking for the product? The one paying for the product? The users of the product (not

necessarily either of the two roles above)?

The one selling the product?

January 13th, 2009


How do you determine when the customer is satisfied?

January 13th, 2009


How do you determine when the customer is satisfied?

They stop calling you for updates/fixes They start calling you for updates/fixes They have signed off on the functional

requirements doc Your competitor’s customers start using

your product Can they really be satisfied? Is it reasonable on every project to

satisfy the customer?January 13th, 2009


What is a bug versus a feature request?

January 13th, 2009


What is a bug versus a feature request?

Bug The system doesn’t work the way the spec

says it should The system doesn’t work the way your

customers want it to The system doesn’t work the way your

customers expect it to Are these Feature Requests?

January 13th, 2009


The 80/20 rule – User Scope

January 13th, 2009



Just analyzes and displays data Drag-n-drop components Little attention to UI or backend Simple "click this" functionality Enough to satisfy the requirements

January 13th, 2009

Simple internal app



Items not directly related to the function are important Scalability UI Help docs etc

January 13th, 2009

Public facing or customer buy-in app



Dramatically different approaches Often cannot be easily switched back and forth Difficult to know which project is which

Today's home grown report app for accounting may be tomorrow's payroll system serving the entire

enterprise. Always develop the 20%?

Rich OO designs, optimizations, and scalability Assume the 3 people using it today will be the 3

million using it tomorrowJanuary 13th, 2009

The dilemma


The 80/20 rule – Dev Scope

January 13th, 2009


The 80/20 rule – Dev Scope When do you develop in house? When do you buy off the shelf?

January 13th, 2009



Get exactly what you want Full control over the future stability

and functionality Potentially hours saved as complexity

increases

January 13th, 2009

In-house positives



Potentially much higher cost up front Delay in rapid development

January 13th, 2009

In-house negatives



Saves initial dev time Allows rapid development Lower training cost (initially) Open to new functionality rapidly

(AJAX, REST, etc)

January 13th, 2009

Off-the-shelf positives



Quality now directly tied to: Potential of lack of updates Lack of documentation Poor implementation

Provider drops the product May not fit your specific requirement

Off the shelf tends to be built for the general population

(the 80%). Potentially very high cost in “tweaking” outside of

it's intended use (styling, custom events, custom rules, etc)

January 13th, 2009

Off-the-shelf negatives


The “hack” versus the solution

January 13th, 2009


The “hack” versus the solution Usually want to develop the solution When is a hack OK?

Time Priority Cost Usage Is it ever OK?

January 13th, 2009


Thanks! Stay Passionate!!!! Develop with quality!

http://MattPenner.infoMy tech blog

January 13th, 2009

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