Service Oriented Agony
I sat down with a group of developers today to do a retrospective on a project. They told me that project management has been complaining...more.
Craftsmanship
The Ruby Colored Box
I recently read a blog about a guy who had a bad interview. The blog was well written and pretty funny. He metaphorically described...more.
Fecophiles
→
I got an interesting email yesterday. It contained the following paragraph describing an email he had sent to his co-workers about a refactoring...more.
The Letter
We need to become a self-regulating and self-policing profession. The stakes are simply too high to allow software to remain in the current ad-hoc limbo...more.
Flipping the Bit
There’s a bit you need to flip in your head. It’s just one bit. In this blog we’ll call it “THE BIT”. Some...more.
Software Craftsmanship Manifesto? Duh!
"The Manifest for Software Craftsmanship is obvious!" "How could you not agree with it?" "Duh!"
SCNA: Why Salespeople should attend!
The 2011 SCNA (Software Craftsmanship North America) conference concluded just a few days ago, and there was a large audience...more.
Name Configuration Management Analysis Blog
A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1
I...more.
Confession of a Web Developer
I have a confession to make.
For the first five years of my professional career, I was a .NET programmer. The first...more.
The Ways of Practice
At 8th Light, the value of practice is undisputed. Effort devoted to honing your craft pays dividends time and time again.
In...more.
The Value of Practice
One of the habits that’s valued highly at 8th Light, and should be valued by professional developers everywhere, is the habit of practice. ...more.
Rolemodel Recap Day 3
My third and final day began with another breakfast graciously provided by Ken’s wife and a walk around Ken’s land. The house and studio...more.
Rolemodel Recap Day 2
My second day at role model found me pairing with Tim Irwin. Tim described this project as being “all about the data.” It...more.
Rolemodel Recap Day 1
I spent the last three days on a Journeyman trip to visit Ken Auer and his team at Rolemodel Software in Holly...more.
Presence, Part 1
Hi, my name is Doug and I don’t own an iPhone and I don’t plan on buying one anytime soon. Don’t get me wrong,...more.
I have an apprentice
After 3 long years of searching, and several rejections (you know who you are), I finally have an apprentice. I’ve asked him to blog...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.
Qualifications of a Craftsman
The lovely wall you see before you is the wall of my son’s bedroom, freshly stripped of wallpaper. Note the beautiful drywall exposed in...more.
Relevance Craftsman Swap Day 4
Today was my last day at Relevance, pairing again with Stuart Sierra. Along with Alan Dipert, we arrived at a solution for our data...more.
Relevance Craftsman Swap Day 3
Day 3 at Relevance began, as the previous days, with the company standup. Stuart Sierra, of clojure.test and Practical Clojure fame, was my pair...more.
Relevance Craftsman Swap Day 2
Today was my second at Relevance for our craftsmanship swap. Chris and I continued work on the project we began to work...more.
Relevance Craftsman Swap Day 1
I’m honored, humbled and excited to represent 8th Light, Inc. on it’s most recent Craftsmanship Swap, with Relevance in Durham, North Carolina....more.
International Craftsman Swap Day 4
Oh how fast a week goes, especially when it's short. Did you know that Midsummer is arguably the biggest holiday in Sweden? And did...more.
International Craftsman Swap Day 3
After attending tonights got:ruby I became obsessed with and started installing rvm. It worked swimmingly.
I’m looking forward to getting my development...more.
International Craftsman Swap Day 2
Before I get into some of the details of day #2 at eLabs, let me dispell a few myths about Sweden that my American...more.
International Craftsman Swap Day 1
Today was day one of my Craftsmanswap with eLabs developer Anders Tornqvist, and so far they have treated me with the hospitality and graciousness...more.
JRuby Helps Us Craft Quality Software
“It's kind of a Frankenstein.” We’ve used this phrase more than a few times to describe the architecture and technology used to design a...more.
Makin’ Somthin’
Today (March 15th, 2010) is my Grandfather’s 90th birthday. We celebrated with him this weekend in Pike County, IL. I spent quite a bit...more.
The Hammock
Our secret is out. A recently published photo revealed it hanging lazily in the corner of our office: a hammock. Why would an office...more.
Why Software Development is a Craft
Craftsmanship has been used as a metaphor for software development. Pete McBreen argues in his book “Software Craftsmanship” that craft is a better metaphor...more.
Obtiva Craftsman Swap Day 5
Today turned out to be little coding and quite a bit of retrospective. I was able to pair with Nate Jackson for a little...more.
Obtiva Craftsman Swap Day 4
Dave Hoover and I got back to the Mad Mimi feature implementation first thing in the morning. Dave had left a failing...more.
Obtiva Craftsman Swap Day 3
I spent my day pairing with Dave Hoover on Mad Mimi. The first thing I noticed during our pairing session is that...more.
Obtiva Craftsman Swap Day 2
Every week, Obtiva sets aside time for what they call Hackfest. Everyone is encouraged to take some time over lunch to work on some...more.
Obtiva Craftsman Swap Day 1
My initial impression of the Obtiva office is the relaxed atmosphere. It consists of a big, open work area with lots of pairing stations....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.
Software Craftsmanship Group
I'm pleased to announce the inception of the Software Craftsmanship Group. http://groups.softwarecraftsmanship.org. The first meeting is October 13th at 7pm in 8th Light's...more.
Fidelity Life Case Study
As craftsmen, we're proud of our work. Yet it's rare that we get the opportunity to show off what we do for clients. Fortunately...more.
Definition of Software Craftsman
Craftsman Clarification: There has been some discrepancy in the use of the term “Software Craftsman”. Rather than going into details about various uses of...more.
Own Your Tools
I spent a lot of time with my grandpa growing up. He has spent much of his retirement ‘fooling around’ in a workshop he...more.
Maturing the Manifesto
There has been an interesting discussion happening about adding a 5th value statement to the Agile Manifesto. Uncle Bob Martin proposed this addition...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.
Promises Promises
I have three step-children and I rarely promise them anything. It’s not because I’m a horrible father, but because a promise is a fundamentally...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.
Lessons Of A Craftsman: Are You Test Driving, Or Just Writing Tests?
Recently I wrote the beginnings of a blackjack game in Java, and I found myself making a common error. The Java gameplay mechanic uses...more.
Craftsmen are like Babelfish
Show me a software craftsmen and I’ll show you someone who can program in any language if they had to. From time to time...more.
Jack and Jill
Once upon a time there live a young girl named Jill and her next door neighbor Jack. Perhaps you’ve heard of them. When Jack...more.
Building a City
What is building software like? The common belief is that software is like engineering. Most people seem to think that building a software system...more.