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June 26, 2019July 6, 2019 Common Anti-Patterns

Intellectual Violence – A Short-Sighted Anti-Pattern

This anti-pattern implies a heavier hand than is common. While the intellectual violence anti-pattern sounds shocking and over-the-top, it is common and often subtle. We have many ways of shutting down discussion or “protecting our turf” that are easy to miss. Defining the Intellectual Violence Anti-Pattern The Sourcemaking site has a good definition and discussion about this anti-pattern. They also focus on the primary issue with this anti-pattern. [Click Here to See The Page] “Intellectual Violence occurs when someone who understands a theory, technology, or buzzword uses this knowledge to intimidate others in a meeting situation. This may happen inadvertently due to the normal reticence of technical people to expose their ignorance.“ That primary issue I mentioned is that it... Read more

June 24, 2019June 15, 2019 Common Anti-Patterns

Reinventing The Wheel – An Age-Old Anti-Pattern

It is hard to go through life without being warned against reinventing the wheel at some point. This recommendation is a general warning to avoid duplicating effort where possible. Thus, we have an easy to understand anti-pattern. On the other hand, we should look deeper to determine whether we are avoiding an anti-pattern. Defining the Reinventing The Wheel Anti-Pattern The DevIQ site has a simple definition and problem description that serve as an excellent basis for our discussion. [Click Here to See The Page] “It’s common for software developers and some organizations to prefer to write something they may need for a given project themselves, rather than using an available open source or commercial offering. Generally, it’s best to avoid... Read more

June 21, 2019June 10, 2019 Common Anti-Patterns

The Swiss Army Knife AntiPattern

A swiss army knife is a great tool to carry around with you. However, this anti-pattern tells us that building a one-stop-shop for your design functionality is a wrong approach. Several problems arise when you throw almost everything into a single class. Defining the Swiss Army Knife Anti-Pattern I found a good blog post on this anti-pattern to provide our definition. The article focuses on an interface, but it holds for a class in general as well. [Click Here to See The Page] “Swiss Army Knife Interface is an interface class which has excessive number of method definitions. Architect/designer may design this interface to use for every need of the software, but this is a wrong approach and an antipattern.... Read more

June 19, 2019June 10, 2019 Common Anti-Patterns

Architecture By Implication – An Easy Anti-Pattern to Fall Into

While experience is an excellent teacher, it is not a silver bullet. Every problem we tackle is a little different. Thus, we should follow best practices even when we think we have done this all before. When we instead believe we can take short-cuts, we are likely to be practicing architecture by implication. Defining the Architecture By Implication Anti-Pattern We go with a lengthy definition this time around. I recommend you check out the whole page for even more details about this problem. [Click Here to See The Page] “This AntiPattern is characterized by the lack of architecture specifications for a system under development. Usually, the architects responsible for the project are experienced with previous system construction, and assume that documentation is... Read more

June 17, 2019June 8, 2019 Common Anti-Patterns

The Grand Old Duke of York Anti-Pattern

The skills of writing code and abstracting functionality are not the same. This fact is why the Grand old Duke of York is an anti-pattern. Passing around essential tasks like design is not a practical approach. We should set up a team, so the people that are best at a job are the ones doing it. Defining the Grand Old Duke of York Anti-Pattern This particular pattern is not easy to define. Instead, we will jump right to the problem in setting the stage for this anti-pattern. [Click Here to See The Page] “Programming skill does not equate to skill in defining abstractions. There appear to be two distinct groups involved in software development: abstractionists and their counterparts (whom we... Read more

June 14, 2019June 8, 2019 Common Anti-Patterns

Design By Committee – A More is Less Anti-pattern

There is an old saw about too many cooks spoiling the broth. This statement roughly describes the design by committee anti-pattern. While two heads may be better than one for most problems, there is a diminishing return as we add more “heads” to the mix. At its worst, we end up with a design by committee situation. Defining the Design By Committee Anti-Pattern The comments on the definition at the WhatIs.com site provides some excellent food for thought on this anti-pattern. [Click Here to See The Page] “Design by committee is a term sometimes used to describe a design that is flawed because too many people provided input. The phrase implies a lack of a coherent vision and, perhaps as... Read more