Latest Posts - Page 101 of 200

March 9, 2020March 1, 2020 Special Topics

Milestones An Excellent Tool For Marking and Driving Progress

As we reach a milestone episode number (350), it is a good time for us to look closer at milestones. These project management tools may appear to be tags or labels along our path. However, they are more than that and are a valuable way to drive us through to completion. Also, they can be points in time that allow us to take a step back and ensure we are still on track. Milestones can be a clean start One of the best values of a milestone is that it allows us to define a before and after. We can often get a fresh start as we pass one of these points. Nearly everyone embraces this fact. Even when we... Read more

March 6, 2020February 26, 2020 Special Topics

Best Practice Mistakes – Process Drift

We all make mistakes. Even our best intentions can lead to errors. Thus, we can make best practice mistakes. While this may seem like an impossible situation, you will soon see that it is common. Knowing the recommended approach does not mean we will follow it nor even that we should. Rules Are Meant To Be Broken The first thing to consider in avoiding best practice mistakes is whether your situation is applicable. There are extreme examples like knowing to wait thirty minutes after eating before swimming is no help in designing software. We need to apply these wise recommendations properly. The challenge comes when we are asked to determine whether a technology best practice should apply to our specific... Read more

March 6, 2020February 27, 2020 Special Topics

Schedule Adjustments – When To Change Course

We spend a lot of time talking about planning and setting schedules. This activity is a necessary process. However, we should learn from our past and adapt our schedule when possible. There is no sense in scheduling ourselves into an unworkable schedule. Sometimes a few schedule adjustments make the difference between glorious success and burnout. All Plans Go Out The Window In Reality There is a quote that says plans are worthless, but planning invaluable. This simple truth is important for us to take to heart. We can plan all day long to achieve an impressive number of goals. However, planning and doing are not the same. Life happens, and that can throw off even the best plans. We also... Read more

March 5, 2020February 20, 2020 Integrate Testing Into Your Development Flow Testing

Reporting In TestNG: How To Write Custom Loggers And Reporters

Welcome to the next episode in our new series “Integrating testing into your development flow”. Today we are going to be looking at “Reporting In TestNG: How To Write Custom Loggers And Reporters”. In the last two presentations on TestNG, we talked about what TestNG is and have given a thorough walkthrough of where to get the tools, setting up your environment, the different annotations you can use, how to execute your procedures and tests. Then we looked at the different types of suite testing you can do. Such as, how to ignore tests, group testing, exception testing, dependency testing, parameterized testing, and running JUnit tests in TestNG. So far we have covered only the basics of reporting in TestNG.... Read more

March 2, 2020February 25, 2020 Special Topics

Best Practice Urban Legends – Not Quite the Best

Urban legends cover a broad range of topics and often have a feel of being correct, even when they are not. This phenomenon is not restricted to saying “Beetle Juice” three times. There are all sorts of urban legends that we run into, and they extend into the world of best practices. These examples feel like they are the right thing to do, but may even be the opposite. The Foolishness of Crowds Many of the problems with best practices devolving into urban legends territory seem to be rooted in groupthink. We do not always speak our minds, nor do we question enough. When we are worried about looking foolish, silence is often the path to take. However, this can... Read more

February 28, 2020February 23, 2020 Special Topics

The Cost of The Right Decision – Is It Worth It?

Software developers and designers are often asked for a recommendation to approach a solution. The implication is that we know the right decision. We often join in on this assumption and will debate or argue that our way is the best option. While there may be a “best approach” to our problems, it is worth digging deeper into the costs associated with the right decision. Arguing For The Right Decision The first hurdle to overcome in assessing cost is debating the options. When there is a clear-cut approach that is the best one, then we can often decide and move on. On the other hand, there are more often going to be a few solutions that are similar, and a... Read more