October, 2007

Software Quality and Maintainability

Maintainability is often included as a component of software quality, and as with so many software quality components, there has been much effort expended on measuring.  For me trying to measure “software quality” in any manner seems to mimic something that I might see on the TV show “Numbers”, it is WAY over my head.  While I was looking into “software maintenance” via a recent Google search, I discovered an interesting paper titled “Can We Measure Maintainability?“.   Once again I’ll leave these academic discussions for the “experts”, and just put out here my thoughts on the subject, right, wrong or somewhere in-between.  Continued »

More thoughts on Software Quality and Testing

On October 15th  Michelle Davidson, site editor for SearchSoftwareQuality.com, in her newsletter “This Week” made reference to a post that called software testing “a hated necessity.”  I certainly have seen evidence of that over my years in software development and as an IT software specialist, and I really don’t understand why it persists.  As an independent developer of applications for small companies, I do not normally have the luxury of having my work reviewed by another — absolutely the preferred methodology in my book. Continued »

Just What Is Software Quality?

How do you define software quality?  There has been a great deal written about software quality, and as perhaps may be expected, many differing points of view regarding just what constitutes software quality.  I’ll not attempt to add yet another definition to the mix, although I certainly do have some ideas about the subject.

My recent software quality thoughts have been prompted by my getting up close and personal with an application I originally developed sometime in the late 80’s.  It has truly been an eye opener to have the opportunity to look at code which I generated back then.  This is code that fails many tests for quality — particularly understandability, consistency and maintainability…and structure?…what’s that? Continued »

Software Development, Testing, Quality and Virtualization

I honestly don’t know how I managed to ever complete a software development project prior to virtualization.  Although as I think about it more closely, I realize that the way I did it was to maintain a plethora of workstations, each with another O/S on it, and used only occasionally.  It certainly was NOT a “green” solution.  Now I carry a complete (enough for testing) network on my laptop!  Using virtualization my “laptop” network consists of a WIN2003 Server, WIN2000 Server, XP Pro, Linux and XP Home.  These are the O/S’s I need to test my applications with — and they are all now available to me on my Vista laptop used as virtualization host.  Continued »

Application Software Redesign - When is it time?

When is it time to look at an application software redesign?  A comment made to my post yesterday really hit a home run with me.  For one thing, I found once again that there are others who seem to think along the same lines as I do — always a nice feeling I find! 

It was LadyRatri’s comment “…Beyond just tolerating “klunkiness”, it’s always a surprise when business or operational process is designed around the deficiencies of a tool or its interface — especially when it adds significantly to the time it takes users to do their day-to-day work. “  This statement speaks volumes to me.  Continued »

Small Business Custom Software Development - Always a Challenge

Let’s face it - custom software development for a small business is no less work than for a larger operation.  Assuming what is being developed is truly multi-user, perhaps the front-end for a database, or even multiple databases, the same issues have to be addressed.  It is always a challenge for me to design the user interface to meet my high standards.

My standard for the UI?  It is very simple.  I believe that “If a user knows how to do their job, they ought to be able to sit down and use the application to get their job done.”    (…at least that part of their job which can be automated) Continued »

Learning a new Business

I believe that one of the most challenging parts of being an application software developer is that of learning a new business.  I further believe that it is essential at every level for members of the project team to have at least a minimal knowledge of the “big picture” of a project, as I’ve seen too many examples of applications failing to meet the user needs because of a lack of understanding.  In the small business environment in which I generally work I have found that the more I learn of a customers business the better I can provide what they really need  (…and want that they don’t even know how to express!).  I’m going through just such a learning experience now. Continued »

How’s Your “Vista”?

My work morning started with a big grin as I read a Computerworld article titled “Mother’s ire puts Ballmer on defense over Vista“!  It seems an analyst and mother of a 13 year old was interviewing Ballmer at the ITxpo conference yesterday and confronted him about Vista.  It seems after 2 days of Vista on her daughter’s machine, she went back to XP.  (Her daughter “needed” gadgets — hence the Vista install).  Continued »

Being “Agile” without Face-To-Face Conversation

The sixth principle of the Agile Manifesto states:

“The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.”  I find myself in complete agreement with this statement. 

However, this statement begs for an answer to the question “How can a team which is unable to be face-to-face achieve efficient and effective communication among themselves?”  Once again, there is no easy answer, and to achieve the desired result in spite of the inability to meet face-to-face requires a major committment to the project and the team.  Continued »

Making the Best of a Situation

Last Thursday I found myself off on a journey to the unfamiliar for me by attending the Microsoft “You’re In Control” Launch in Boston.  My decision to attend was based upon the fact that I can honestly say that I’ve never gone to an event where there would be other IT people and not gained “something” out of it … and I expected this event to be no different than previous experiences.  I was not disappointed.  However, what I did get out of the time invested (…it is an investment isn’t it??) looked nothing like what I thought it might.  Actually, I found very early on that the event really was not going to provide me with enough valuable information to stay through the entire event — so I left after the first presentation, as did the IT manager with whom I shared a table.  What I gained had nothing to do with the event itself. Continued »