Category: Software Engineering

As a software community, we suffer the fate of a million little cuts. We build systems built on top of other code, layers upon layers upon layers. And, unfortunately, each layer isn’t very solid. This last week while teaching some students, I ran into a seemingly small issue with an Azure Function. Azure Functions are…

The adage “Many hands make light work” is something we often take for granted. If we get a lot of people working together on a particular task, we can quickly knock it out. Think of stocking shelves as an example. The more people you have, the quicker you can unload a truck and get the…

Sometimes it isn’t easy to get everyone onto the same page. Everyone on a development team can think we are all moving in the same (and right) direction. Still, we often have different underlying assumptions about how certain features will be implemented. When we don’t have visibility into those assumptions, headaches can ensue. An excellent…

Despite the virtual nature of this year’s Microsoft Build developer conference, there were a lot of great updates and news to be shared. There’s no way I could cover everything in one post, so here are some of my favorite parts. Blazor There are few things in software I am hungrier for information about than…

When we ask someone to design something, we usually focus on the good. If you ask someone to build a notification service, it is expected to be a good one. But what about asking people to design a bad one? Asking participants to develop a poor design is what we do in our Software Design…

I like going back to take a fresh look at tools and technologies every once in a while. It is always interesting to see what has changed and what has stayed the same – especially mobile platforms because it feels like an area where there is a lot of room for improvement. I am very…

Application configuration has always been a pain. It was a pain back in the WinForm days. It was a pain in the ASPX days. It is a pain in the cloud days. Why is app configuration a pain? Quite frankly, it is because of the lack of a reliable and coherent solution. With no real…

Knowing that you are staying on task isn’t an easy task 🙂 As we build solutions, it is easy to lose conceptual integrity along the way. There are few things more important to the success of a project than having a development team all on the same page. Fred Brooks (from Mythical Man-Month) put a…

10. Good requirements Developers like to know what they are building and why. Good requirements are critical to this and are essential for getting developers started right. Also, good requirements are essential for reducing rework.   9. Not being micromanaged Good developers don’t want someone watching each keystroke. They want feedback and guidance, but they…

Developers are creators at heart. They like to create. A big part of the appeal of software development is the quick outputs from your work. You write code one day, and the next day it can be in a customer’s hands. How many other jobs have that quick of turnaround on effort? But many things…