I've just joined a new project as a team member - my role is to write software. I'm keen to start off with domain driven design, really connecting with the users that know the processes and understand why things happen. At the moment we're writing some code to test some of our ideas to make sure we've got the skills we think we do.
I do think that domain driven design will be tough, especially getting buy in from managers to take the time of their domain experts to work through how they work and how they think, but that's all yet to come - our business analyst has done some great work on gathering initial requirements, so I think people are ready for the discussion that will come soon.
One of the big surprises for me is the lack of 'project team' or culture that has been created. Now, I work as a 'resource' (how good does that make you feel?) underneath my manager who has been more involved in the planning phase, but now that I'm actually part of the team, surely there should be some feeling of being part of a team? Bas de Baar of Project Shrink has quite a lot of articles about the culture in projects - well worth your time to have a look at. So I'm wondering what to do about this. It's got me quite frustrated over the last few weeks, especially as having tough conversations is made harder if you don't have a basis to work from.
My current plan is to organise a lunch outing, it'll at least be a start. I'd also be keen to go lawn bowling, but I'm not sure if anyone else would be keen, so it might not be so much of a winner for team culture.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Language difficulties
I went to the optometrist a few days ago. The optometrist that did my examination was really thorough and helpful, but there were a few things in the way she spoke that got my attention.
I'll talk about the points, and about how it can relate to working as a software developer.
Timing: when I'm supposed to choose from 2 lenses, seeing 3 lenses doesn't help. There were occasions when I didn't know which lense was 'one' or 'two'. Agreeing on which one I thought was better was also tough because I would say 'one' when specifying the better lense, and she would say 'one' - I wasn't sure if that was a question or statement, so wasn't sure if she'd noted my choice and had moved to the next test, or if she was checking what my decision was.
Suggestive language: The choice between two lenses shouldn't be influenced by anything other than what I'm seeing - several times the optometrist said 'one is better isn't it', putting into my mind that I shouldn't be choosing two.
Rewarding subjective choices: Similar to suggestive language, rewarding one choice or another makes you question if you made the 'right' choice.
Sitting in the chair being examined got me thinking about how I talk to people when I'm gathering requirements, talking to people about the problems they're trying to solve and discussing problems with colleagues.
I think its easy to jump to a solution, or assume requirements before allowing the subject matter expert really explain the situation. Just using neutral language to ask questions rather than a suggestive question, allowing them time to give more information.
When providing feedback its important to be really clear that you're providing feedback. Using phrases such as 'I'm going to summarise what I think we've talked about, if I've left anything out or got something wrong please tell me'.
This is just another great reason for software to be released often, it lets the discrepancy between my understanding of the situation and the users be exposed. Even when we work hard at understanding each other, it hits the road when they actually have to use what you've made.
In any case, I got some new contacts, and they're all sweet!
I'll talk about the points, and about how it can relate to working as a software developer.
Timing: when I'm supposed to choose from 2 lenses, seeing 3 lenses doesn't help. There were occasions when I didn't know which lense was 'one' or 'two'. Agreeing on which one I thought was better was also tough because I would say 'one' when specifying the better lense, and she would say 'one' - I wasn't sure if that was a question or statement, so wasn't sure if she'd noted my choice and had moved to the next test, or if she was checking what my decision was.
Suggestive language: The choice between two lenses shouldn't be influenced by anything other than what I'm seeing - several times the optometrist said 'one is better isn't it', putting into my mind that I shouldn't be choosing two.
Rewarding subjective choices: Similar to suggestive language, rewarding one choice or another makes you question if you made the 'right' choice.
Sitting in the chair being examined got me thinking about how I talk to people when I'm gathering requirements, talking to people about the problems they're trying to solve and discussing problems with colleagues.
I think its easy to jump to a solution, or assume requirements before allowing the subject matter expert really explain the situation. Just using neutral language to ask questions rather than a suggestive question, allowing them time to give more information.
When providing feedback its important to be really clear that you're providing feedback. Using phrases such as 'I'm going to summarise what I think we've talked about, if I've left anything out or got something wrong please tell me'.
This is just another great reason for software to be released often, it lets the discrepancy between my understanding of the situation and the users be exposed. Even when we work hard at understanding each other, it hits the road when they actually have to use what you've made.
In any case, I got some new contacts, and they're all sweet!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Raven DB & ASP.NET MVC routing
I've experimented a little with Raven DB, and have done some integration with ASP.NET MVC 3 (cause it's so easy to get things started).
To start, we need to change the type of id to string, as it defaults to int. Secondly, we need to change the format of the object key - there are other ways of attacking this problem, but I found changing the default separator from '/' to '-', this happens when you initialize the document store shown below
The first problem I came up against was the default way that RavenDB stores the object keys :
profiles / 3074 (Profiles)
This presents a problem when you want to work with the MVC routing, which uses the '/' symbol in the routing - {controller}/{action}/{id}.
public ActionResult Edit(string id)
MVC interprets this as wanting to send the id (id e.g. 3074) to the action (object e.g. profiles). Instead, we want to pass the whole string (profiles/3074) as the id to the controller action (Edit).
To start, we need to change the type of id to string, as it defaults to int. Secondly, we need to change the format of the object key - there are other ways of attacking this problem, but I found changing the default separator from '/' to '-', this happens when you initialize the document store shown below
var documentStore = new DocumentStore { Url = "http://localhost:8080/" };documentStore.Initialize();documentStore.Conventions.IdentityPartsSeparator = "-";
We end up with documents in our store looking like this, and passing through to the correct controller!
profiles-6146 (Profiles)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Stand up
A couple of weeks ago I experimented with a standing desk, which meant dragging my monitors onto a shelf, putting my keyboard up higher and generally shuffling my desk about. It wasn't to be a permanent solution, but more to see if I thought it would be worth getting a permanent setup.
The first couple of days were pretty painful, it's been a while since I've stood up all day, but after a weekend I was feeling good. I felt like I had a lot more focus and didn't waste as much time on facebook and twitter, which was nice to feel that I was getting more done. I think it's also great for programmers, as pair programming would work well as opposed to having a corner sitting desk (which is what I currently work at), allowing better access to swap the keyboard and improved screen visibility.
Unfortunately my wrists weren't a big fan of the awkward position that I'd placed my keyboard in - without a solid desk to rest on they just started to flare up. So, I'm back sitting down waiting for my wrists to recover, and hopefully get my desk setup properly.
If you're interested in standing desks, Lifehacker is a great place to check out to start with.
Do you have a non-standard workplace? How did you make it happen? Does your workplace encourage you to work in a way that helps you work best, or do they want you to just sit there and stick to the standard way of doing things?
The first couple of days were pretty painful, it's been a while since I've stood up all day, but after a weekend I was feeling good. I felt like I had a lot more focus and didn't waste as much time on facebook and twitter, which was nice to feel that I was getting more done. I think it's also great for programmers, as pair programming would work well as opposed to having a corner sitting desk (which is what I currently work at), allowing better access to swap the keyboard and improved screen visibility.
Unfortunately my wrists weren't a big fan of the awkward position that I'd placed my keyboard in - without a solid desk to rest on they just started to flare up. So, I'm back sitting down waiting for my wrists to recover, and hopefully get my desk setup properly.
If you're interested in standing desks, Lifehacker is a great place to check out to start with.
Do you have a non-standard workplace? How did you make it happen? Does your workplace encourage you to work in a way that helps you work best, or do they want you to just sit there and stick to the standard way of doing things?
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Web Testing
Have had a bit of fun doing some web testing over the last week. Mostly I work on internal systems, so don't get to have fun with user interfaces.
I've been using Selenium RC, with the aid of Selenium IDE in Firefox to figure out some XPath details.
A couple of things that I've learn't over the last couple of weeks:
I've been using Selenium RC, with the aid of Selenium IDE in Firefox to figure out some XPath details.
A couple of things that I've learn't over the last couple of weeks:
- Using XPath to get elements in Internet Explorer is super slow.
- Selenium RC is great, but it's great to have the IDE just to test out roadblocks
- The .Click event mimicks a keypress on an element instead of a mouse click - I found some screen reader popups that only appear with keypress.
- You can't interact with Print / Save dialogs directly (although there are other tools for testing these components)
My tests are mostly checking that elements exist and have the appropriate classes / id's, so I'm yet to see how it works with positioning and styles being applied to the page.
I'm also keen to use the css element locator - it's supposed to loads faster than finding elements with XPath.
If you're interested in Selenium, check out the proposed Stack Exchange site and give it an up vote.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Where does your seat sit?
At work today, we had a bit of a chat about our physical work environment. Currently we've got an open plan setup happening, everyone faces into their corner of the workspace, and we've got space for a whiteboard. One of the issues with the current setup is that pair programming and code reviewing is a bit hard - trying to fit 2 people into a corner doesn't really work very well, and we want to start doing more code reviews to up the quality of our work.
I know that some people are big advocates of the 'everyone get's an office' idea, and have been reading Joel Spolsky's blog - particularly about office space. I think it'd be great to have my own office, but we don't really have the space, so we're trying to think about how we can work better in the space that we've got.
One idea is to have a large table that we all work at in the middle of the area, with whiteboards around the outside so we can draw and discuss ideas. Another possibility is to all work around the edge of the area, facing the wall, but not have anyone sitting in the corners - which will help with pairing and collaboration. A space would be reserved for a whiteboard, and we could wheel in another whiteboard in and out when we needed.
Anyway, hopefully over the next couple of months we can figure out a way to work better together, which may include a redesign of our physical work environment.
How do you work best with your team? Do you sit near each other? How does working remotely affect your collaboration?
I know that some people are big advocates of the 'everyone get's an office' idea, and have been reading Joel Spolsky's blog - particularly about office space. I think it'd be great to have my own office, but we don't really have the space, so we're trying to think about how we can work better in the space that we've got.
One idea is to have a large table that we all work at in the middle of the area, with whiteboards around the outside so we can draw and discuss ideas. Another possibility is to all work around the edge of the area, facing the wall, but not have anyone sitting in the corners - which will help with pairing and collaboration. A space would be reserved for a whiteboard, and we could wheel in another whiteboard in and out when we needed.
Anyway, hopefully over the next couple of months we can figure out a way to work better together, which may include a redesign of our physical work environment.
How do you work best with your team? Do you sit near each other? How does working remotely affect your collaboration?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Short sighted learning
I've been enjoying learning about a number of aspects of the .net world over the last year or so. Recently, I've been creating WCF Services - being new to the service creation world, I had to start from scratch, which is always a good place to start.
My problem, however, is that I wanted to learn enough just to get something up and running. I find that the problem with learning by google (or Stack Overflow, MSDN, blogs) is that there's no one pushing you to get the complete view of a topic - not that people don't offer the information up, it just seems irrelevant at the time when you're working so hard on the basics.
My lack of understanding was highlighted when doing some performance testing. I thought the service would create threads per call, but there are limits to the number of threads (which, of course, makes sense) - but what happens with those that don't get through to the service? Do the requests time out? What happens when the requests are being pased through from a DMZ? A standard request that worked normally as a one off test starts failing under load. None of these issues are problems within themselves, but a lack of understanding about how services generally work, how to queue up requests, how to handle concurrent requests all come crashing back to bite when you get an unexpected problem.
Talking about a different project (one that I wasn't involved in), I was saying to my colleague that I think it's not wise to check something in if you don't understand what it's doing - which I still think is right - but I didn't even know that I didn't know what I was doing!
To help my shortsightedness, I think I need to define some kind of learning plan that outlines all the parts of a new topic that I'm working on, even if it's just a quick read over a msdn article to see what 'bits' are talked about so I'm aware of their existance. I've even been considering buying books! The more I look at it, the more I think a good book is a great basis for learning a new topic - they're usually comprehensive in covering a topic, even if they don't touch on the detail of all aspects - google can come into help then.
My problem, however, is that I wanted to learn enough just to get something up and running. I find that the problem with learning by google (or Stack Overflow, MSDN, blogs) is that there's no one pushing you to get the complete view of a topic - not that people don't offer the information up, it just seems irrelevant at the time when you're working so hard on the basics.
My lack of understanding was highlighted when doing some performance testing. I thought the service would create threads per call, but there are limits to the number of threads (which, of course, makes sense) - but what happens with those that don't get through to the service? Do the requests time out? What happens when the requests are being pased through from a DMZ? A standard request that worked normally as a one off test starts failing under load. None of these issues are problems within themselves, but a lack of understanding about how services generally work, how to queue up requests, how to handle concurrent requests all come crashing back to bite when you get an unexpected problem.
Talking about a different project (one that I wasn't involved in), I was saying to my colleague that I think it's not wise to check something in if you don't understand what it's doing - which I still think is right - but I didn't even know that I didn't know what I was doing!
To help my shortsightedness, I think I need to define some kind of learning plan that outlines all the parts of a new topic that I'm working on, even if it's just a quick read over a msdn article to see what 'bits' are talked about so I'm aware of their existance. I've even been considering buying books! The more I look at it, the more I think a good book is a great basis for learning a new topic - they're usually comprehensive in covering a topic, even if they don't touch on the detail of all aspects - google can come into help then.
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