Bob On Development

Psst! Want some pirated custom code? No, thanks.

If you think you can trust everything you see in databases, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Thoughts on the debate arising from a Feb. 2007 article in “Computer” magazine suggesting that software development is not and cannot be considered an engineering discipline.

Developers who know a lot of facts about programming, or who invariably look for the most baroque and theoretical path to a solution, are not necessarily good developers.

The real reason a lot of companies mightily resist extensive telecommute relationships with both employees and contractors boils down to the simple fact that managers do not get to strut around their personal domains and enjoy seeing first-hand all the people under their thumbs.

When any work for hire agreement becomes a document of distrust, you’re setting the wrong tone by either putting such an abomination on offer, or agreeing to be a party to it. Don’t doom your projects in advance by putting lawyers first. Seek out relationships that involve mutual trust and respect, and agreements that reinforce that.

No. On the other hand, it’s possible to emphasize the difference between estimates and quotes, and to provide bracketed estimates that give customers a reasonable idea of what they are in for.

One of my favorite authors and bloggers is Bob Lewis — as evidenced by the fact that he is on my very short blogroll, off to the right of this post. He has had some things to say recently about off-shoring, a topic which I have tackled as part of the larger issue of what I call the cheapening of software development. I chose to focus on freelance exchanges on the web, but the truth is, by far the primary reason that prices have been driven so low in these exchanges is because of offshore labor in countries with very low cost of living.

In his post, Bob uncharacteristically makes some statements about job losses due to offshoring that I can only agree with as far as they go, which isn’t terribly far.

It used to be conventional wisdom that if you have a site that is only of interest to users in, say, the U.S. or North America, you can limit your attack surface by blocking all IPs outside that area of interest.

If there is anything inherently true about software development, it’s that it’s difficult. Or as some have said, wicked. As developers we need to realize we are solving “wicked problems” — problems with unstable problem statements, uncertain finsih criteria, no single objectively “right” solution, problems not exactly like any others that have been [...]