We are Principled: 3rd Edition
We humbly demonstrate our expertise by delivering quality software.
We do not inflate our abilities or claim expertise where we have none. —from...more.
Paul Pagel
Humble Pursuit of Mastery
I have been reading on blogs and tweets the sentiment that "software craftsmanship is elitism". This perception is formed around comments of code, process,...more.
Apprenticeship Programs on the Rise
Software apprenticeship programs are popping up all over the place in software. They are a response to the common notion that contemporary academia is...more.
Entrepreneur's Guide to Buying Custom Software
This blog is for non-technical people looking to purchase custom software. Purchasing software is very difficult and very expensive. It is a decision that...more.
Modern Vocation
It is unrealistic to think of even the most master craftsmen as isolated geniuses. Craftsmen do not exist in bubbles, and their interests vary...more.
Fixed Feature
Time and materials vs. fixed bid is the classic duo of billing models in software services business. Time and materials puts all the pressure...more.
Out of Controller
In the beginning of using rails it was amazing at how fast everything was compared to my previous java web experiences. I could finally...more.
Post-Agile: Standing on the shoulders of giants
This February 13th will mark a decade since the creation and signing of the original Agile Manifesto. The lean development thought leaders who came...more.
Goals for the growing the market of quality development
Many small software contracting companies (boutiques) have been popping up in the last few years with our company, 8th Light, featuring among them.
...more.Zeroth rule of Professionalism
This blog post serves as a response to the article Software Testing Craft by Markus Gärtner, which can be found in the first...more.
Pair Fridays
8th Light has always had an open door policy towards developers. When anyone has asked to come hang out at 8th Light offices, we...more.
Thoughts from a Boutique Software Shop
Michael Feathers recently wrote about boutique software shops. He drew a parallel between master chefs and software shops and made a few...more.
Reasons to Attend SCNA
While there are a host of reasons to attend the Software Craftsmanship North America Conference, here’s a list of some of the best:...more.
Apprentice Architecture
Good design sense is a skill that comes only from many years of coding experience. Sometimes it can be very difficult to make those...more.
Bug free or Free Bugs
I will not charge a client for a bug fix. Not a penny. If I make a mistake, it is my professional obligation to...more.
Ethical approach to Software Bugs
Software bugs are errors or omissions in the work we create. They are our mistakes as software developers. I would like to take a...more.
Material Consciousness in Software
Software is not made with designs and ideas, but with code. Code is the raw material. Code is the only means we have to...more.
Software Journeyman program
8th Light and Obtiva have partnered up to provide a journeyman program. Traditionally, a journeyman program is when a master craftsman hires a journeyman...more.
History of the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto
I would like to prelude this with an assurance that this is not the history of the software craftsmanship. Rather, this is just a...more.
Observing a Craftsman
My path in becoming a craftsman was not through conventional academics. I did get a Bachelor degree in Computer Science. During those years of...more.
Limelight Tutorial: Tic Tac Toe Example
Welcome to a Limelight production. I am going to go through a step by step introduction to limelight development using a tic tac toe...more.
How Paul started coding
Whenever I would visit my grandmother growing up, one of the highlights was she had space invaders on her computer. Once, my Uncle Don...more.
Apprenticeship month one report
8th Light has an apprenticeship program whereby an 8th Light craftsman will mentor an individual for three months.
During that time, the...more.
Developing against web browser navigation
I find while writing web applications that I end up redefining what it means to go “back.” This means where I want the user...more.
Some Thoughts on Software Defects
Software defects are a part of software. This is a negative subject, but I don’t want to seem like the software I write is...more.
Active Record migration dependencies
We had a new developer join our project recently, and he needed his computer to be setup so he could run the application.
...more.Code Less: A Language Keystroke Experiment
When I first started writing code in Ruby, it was a breath of fresh air after writing C# code for a year. Ruby had...more.
Wake up and code!
The other day, I was with my team at an interview for an internship. After we had asked the candidate some questions, he started...more.
Rinda and setting up Rindlets
Jim Suchy recently laid down some basics of Rinda in his blog Rinda 101. I would like to build on that and talk...more.
Agile Production Support: Final brush strokes
There is no perfect software. At least I have never seen it. Bugs and minor feature changes are indications people are using your software....more.
Emotional Iterations
After all the cards are written and estimated, it is time for the customers to pick the first iteration, for which they need a...more.
Peer Pressure
One of the famous studies on peer pressure was the Stanford prison experiment, conducted by a team of researchers led by then Psychology...more.
Un–Rubify
Often times while writing meta programming code, I am using the eval function and doing manipulation on method/class/variable names.
Today I needed...more.
Ruby and the Art of Computer Programming
Recently, I started reading Knuth’s Art of Computer Science. To spice up the exercises, I am writing them out in Ruby....more.
Pair Me Up
I am a better pair than solo developer. For me, software is a collaborative art from the start of a project to the end....more.
Getting started with Rails and FitNesse
This is intended to be a tutorial to get you started using FitNesse with ruby on Rails. There is some explanation needed about FitNesse,...more.
Rails Migrations and Subversion
In rails, migrations are generated in such a way that they create a numbered migration with an up and a down schema direction. This...more.
Ruby and Human Compilers
In Paul Graham’s Book, Hackers and Painters, he talks about patterns and Human Compilers. I started to think about how some traditional Object-Oriented patterns...more.
Self Shunt
The self-shunt method of testing has been conflicting for me. Self-shunt is a good testing pattern to test observers/views. A colleague of mine has...more.
Pre–Factoring
Pre–factoring is when you see a piece of code which the story you are working on which has a re–factorings which would make your...more.
Over Mocking
I’ve noticed using more mocks lately. Instead of using them sparingly for controlling services which are not instrumental to what I am testing, I’m...more.
Fresh Testing
Sometimes I sit down to write a test on something I haven’t worked on before or don’t know intimately, and I just can’t write...more.