Better Software Articles

Idioms and Idiosyncrasies

As programmers, we are not merely engineering drones; we are also artisans. The act of programming involves as much artistry as it does technicality. When we craft great software, we naturally use language idioms help to show the elegance, beauty, and artistry of a piece of code. But sometimes the desire for beautiful idiomatic code can trip us up.

It's in the Way That You Use It

Rapid testers don't think of test automation merely as something that controls a program and checks for some expected result. Instead, we think of test automation as any use of tools to support testing. With that definition in mind, it may not be the most obvious automation tool that is the most useful.

Exit, Stage Left

Many technology workers are drawn to the industry from seemingly unrelated professions. Don't underestimate the importance of a liberal arts education and general life experiences to the technology field. These workers can bring a lot of value and wisdom to your team.

Programming with GUTs

Since tests are commonly viewed in terms of offering quantitative feedback on the presence or absence of defects in specific situations, Good Unit Tests need both to illustrate and define the behavioral contract of the unit in question. Do you have GUTs?

Two Cheers for Ambiguity

Some people dismiss words such as skill, diversity, problems, and mission as being too ambiguous to be useful. But one tester's ambiguity is another tester's gauge for assessing consensus on a project and how to achieve that consensus.

Going on a Picnic with James Watt

What if you had a picnic and no one brought potato salad? Find out what picnic planning and steam engines have to do with project success and not just satisfying your customers but delighting them.

Encourage Pair Programming

Pair programming is one of the most controversial agile practices. Managers are concerned about the costs and developers are concerned about personal agony. But there also are many benefits. If you are thinking about trying pair programming, here are several reasons why you should.

Software: Use at Your Own Risk

Is it really so hard to produce software that works? When was the last time you read a software license agreement? Most are one-sided statements that limit the product developer's liability. It's time to move away from "Use at your own risk" software and be upfront with customers about the true cost of quality.

Give Your Defects Some Static

Computer security has raised the demand for automated tools that can analyze source code for vulnerabilities and defects. Find out how you can put automated static analyzers to work for you.

A Galaxy of Patterns

The Gang of Four's design patterns have a special place in many programmers' hearts. But it's time to look beyond the GoF twenty-three and realize they aren't the only patterns in the universe.