Latest Posts - Page 139 of 191

August 13, 2018August 12, 2018 Become a Better Developer

Communication Noise vs. Content

Related to the idea of white space that we covered in the prior post is its enemy, noise. The level of communication noise has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few decades. The Internet has made it easy for nearly everyone to contribute to any discussion, but that is not what I want to focus on at this time. The Internet has also made it easier than ever to fill space in any message with true, researched facts. The question you should ask is whether those facts contribute to your point. Communication Noise Can Be Too Much Information Product reviews are full of these sort of noise. In particular, the ones that are just a thinly disguised advertisement. ... Read more

August 13, 2018August 5, 2018 Create a Small Product

Creating Commercial Software – Finishing Touches

Our goal has been to create a small commercial software product, and we are rapidly getting to the end of our journey. Creating commercial software does require us to do some additional work over something we build for personal use or even internal to our company. We are going to ask people to pay money for our application, and they will have a set of expectations we need to meet. A Fresh Install One of the easy to forget tasks we need to perform is a fresh install of our software. We have probably been coding and testing our application for a while, but that can leave a bit of a mess. We may have some old files or development libraries on... Read more

August 10, 2018August 1, 2018 Create a Small Product

Implementation Details – Wrapping up Our Software Product Creation

In this episode, we look at the final pieces we need to code as part of building our product. Many of these steps have already been taken partially, if not completely. However, it is always worthwhile to walk down a checklist of the details as we move towards code freeze. What is Code Freeze? The idea of freezing product development is one that provides a hard completion of the implementation phase. It is a way to avoid an endless cycle of enhancements and tweaks to “perfect” a product. Once implementation is frozen, the requirements and specification should all be included in the application. At that point, we theoretically have created what we set out to build. One would think that it... Read more

August 8, 2018August 1, 2018 Get Started With Online Consulting

Working The Project – Consulting Success

Winning a project is only half the battle. For true consulting success, you must follow through with your plan and exceed expectations where possible. There is not a single approach that works for every project. However, there are some things you should touch on whether a job is a few hours or many years of work. Kick It Off An important piece of consulting success is setting expectations. These should be addressed at the very beginning of the project. Ideally, you set expectations with the proposal, and all you need to do now is reiterate what everyone already knows. Every project should have some sort of kickoff. This is when you have enough information and tools to start work as... Read more

August 6, 2018August 4, 2018 Become a Better Developer

Using White Space To Make Your Point

The Power Of White Space One of the common mistakes I see from IT workers (and I know I have done this as well) is a lack of using white space appropriately. I am not sure what the origin of this weakness is. However, it is one that by its very nature is obvious in written communication. We can write legibly in 4 point font using modern tools. On the other hand, we can easily bump that up to 12 point font and add a few blank lines in a matter of seconds. Just as more words do not make our message more clear, more words per square inch do not make our point. This fact should not be a surprise... Read more

August 6, 2018August 1, 2018 Create a Small Product

Building Out Your Application From a Demo

It is time for building out your application. You have a core engine for solving the main problem and a clickable demo to show off the user experience. Those provide the skeletal structure of our product. However, there is a lot of meat we need to add to those bones. Help Yourself Administration is a requirement for most applications. It may not be a requirement users will ever experience. However, you will likely make use of some sort of administrative activities as you implement and test the product. Thus, when you build your admin tools early in implementation, it provides a more significant return on investment. Go ahead and crank out those tools first and do not worry about the... Read more