IT is just IT

This list describes the reading program a software developer needs to work through to achieve full professional standing. The plan described is a generic baseline plan for a software professional who wants to focus on development. Introductory Level To move beyond "introductory" level, a developer must read the following books: Adams, James L. Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, 4th ed. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001. Bentley, Jon. Programming Pearls, 2d ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2000. Glass, Robert L. Facts and Fallacies of software Engineering. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2003. McConnell, Steve. Software Project Survival Guide. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1998. McConnell, Steve. Code Complete, 2d ed. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 2004. Practitioner Level To achieve "intermediate" status, a programmer needs to read the following additional materials: Berczuk, Stephen P. and Brad Appleton. Software Configuration Manag...

Here is a common question I get regularly. In this case it was Howard, a co-worker from the UK: “Probably a dumb question but...how do you define scope yet remain agile?  Is it woolly wording, do you define it using some kind of abstraction or do you define in terms of number of iterations? The key being that, in my experience, most people what some idea of what they're getting up front, yet in remaining agile we want to defer that sort of decision until later.” This is not at all a dumb question because it identifies the key difference between agile and traditional project delivery. Here is my response to the questions. In my projects scope is a matter of defining this at the right abstraction level, or maybe more precise defining it without much detail. First thing you need is an concrete idea about the project’s scope boundaries. You can use the business case and vision for this purpose. They should provide the constrains with respect to for example business processes to suppo...

Today a manager asked what kind off scope and effort the Accelerated Delivery Platform could handle on a project expressed in function points. I find this a very odd question and I have always been resilient to function point analyses as an estimation technique which tries to best guess the end state of a software solution based on and determine by the number of interfaces, screens, reports etcetera. Often this happens upfront at a point in time there is only a vague idea for a perceived solution for specific problem which still needs to be analyzed in detail. Very old school thinking if you would ask me, which is not helpful for providing agile ICT support for business development and transformation. Asking for the ADP platform’s project delivery capabilities expressed in scope and effort is a weird measure for suitability for a software development platform. Given infinite time any scope and effort can be handled by any approach. But then again every project is always about time and...

I was recently re-certified as Level 3 Software Engineer by Capgemini's Global Certification Board. In this article I elaborate on how I used the Software Engineering Certification Program for my personal career development. Having a regular check up on the things that surround you has become a fact of live in our society which depends highly on technology. Sometimes these inspections are required by law,like the periodic motor vehicle test for my car. You have the condition of your central heating checked in the fall, to make sure it doesn't break down on the first day of winter. Or you just want to take good care of yourself and have your teeth checked by your dentist every half year to spot tooth decay early. So basically you have a regular check on to make sure everything functions to expectation and is up to the mark. As a certified and qualified professional software engineer I also need to make sure my skills are up to the mark. The professional standards which came...

Infragistics , the guys that are powering the UI layer, are showing of their Silverlight capabilities with their glossy restyled UI Pattern Library . This kind of demo makes me envious. It's about time I start delivering this kind of solutions to my clients myself. I guess it's back to the drawing board and figure out how I can mash this together.

Today I was struggeling with howto route messages through a complex service infrastructure. As usual I consulted Dr. G. Oogle. The doctor was so kind to refer me to http://www.soapatterns.org . The site is a gold nugget for SOA patterns. And I think I will take look at the companion book SOA Design Patterns by Thomas Erl.

Speaker: Dan Roam Description: Let's face it: describing user experience is hard... unless we use pictures. This session demonstrates step-by-step how anyone, regardless of artistic talent or training, can use simple pictures to describe complex design and technical concepts, solve fuzzy problems, and sell others on breakthrough ideas: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Design Problems (and Selling Your Solutions) with Pictures