On online collaboration and our obligations as makers of software An Essay by Baldur Bjarnason www.baldurbjarnason.com Is it the notetaking system that’s helping you think more clearly? Or is it the act of writing that forces you to clarify your thoughts? Is it the complex interlinked web of notes that helps you get new ideas? Or is it all the reading you’re doing to fill that notetaking app bucket? Is all of this notetaking work making you smarter? Or is it just indirectly forcing you into deliberate, goalless practice? Towards a crap decisionSo much knowledge not being applied notetakingbloggingsoftwarethinkingcommonplace
What do I need to read to be great at CSS? An Article by Baldur Bjarnason www.baldurbjarnason.com A rule of thumb is that the importance of a blog in your feed reader is inversely proportional to their posting cadence. Prioritise the blogs that post only once a month or every couple of weeks over those that post every day or multiple times a day...Building up a large library of sporadically updated blogs is much more useful and much easier to keep up with than trying to keep up with a handful of aggregation sites every day. bloggingcsscodelearningrss
136 things every web developer should know before they burn out and turn to landscape painting or nude modelling An Article by Baldur Bjarnason www.baldurbjarnason.com The best way to improve software UX is regular direct observation, by everybody on the team, of the work done. Have some personality. Minimalism is garbage. Metaphors are fantastic. Naming things is fantastic. Try to write HTML that would make sense and be usable without the CSS. The buyer is quite often wrong. That fact never changes their mind. Working on a functioning app’s codebase does more to increase its quality than adding features. A good manager will debate you, and that’s awesome. The term ‘project’ is a poor metaphor for the horticultural activity that is software development. Two Hundred Fifty Things an Architect Should Know wwwworkuxcollections
Nobody gives a hoot about groupthink An Article by Baldur Bjarnason www.baldurbjarnason.com Two relatively common ‘fashions’ today are real-time collaboration and shared data repositories of one kind or another. Both increase productivity in the naive sense. We work more; everybody is more active; the group feels more cohesive. The downside is that they also both tend to reduce the quality of the work and increase busywork. On that of the highest authorityPersonal Information Management (PIM) productivitycollaborationinformation
Manifesto for Agile Software Development A Definition agilemanifesto.org We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. Deliver early and continuouslyWelcome changing requirementsSelf-organizing teamsTechnical excellence and good designAgility and sustainability+7 More agileprocesssoftware
Deliver early and continuously Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. A late change in requirements is a competitive advantage planning
Self-organizing teams The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
Technical excellence and good design Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. craft
Agility and sustainability Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
The amount of work not done Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential. -2000 Lines Of Code simplicity
Build projects around motivated individuals Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. On ValueOn Talent
Deliver working software frequently Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. collaboration
Face-to-face conversations The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. teamwork
Reflect, tune, adjust At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.