Do programmers dream in Byte Code?

Black Marble was down at AIC yesterday, not only were we proud to sponsor such an event but we also ran some sessions and breakouts.

Thanks to everybody who attended sessions I was involved in.

For those of you who attended the discussion on Architecting Quality, I thought it was a good session with a set of fairly solid outcomes

i) Good reliable tooling is essential, but it should not be the answer to everything

ii) Communication between people is the biggest problem, again tooling has a part to play in making that easier but people skills are key

iii) Don’t just plan to drive quality for a fixed process start to end , make sure that you can revisit and change earlier assumptions and then move forward again.

I was really happy to see so many people attend my Oslo overview session, I offered to add some slides with notes in and that should be up early next week. After the session I managed to chat to quite a few delegates and I realised that I was talking more about the potential of Oslo in the future, rather than what it can do now. I think that this comes from the general point that asking the question ‘what is Oslo’ produces the answer of ‘a framework’ and people aren’t great at understanding a framework without some initial concrete examples. After a few examples people begin to broaden their scope and work out new scenarios themselves. So once I have some videos sorted I have offered to write up usage scenarios for Oslo as well.

As promised in my Oslo Session and my demo, I will be recording the demo, to make the process faster I will be putting up the demo in parts.

Again apologies for the VPC failure during the Quadrant demo, I will have a video up soon of that demo.

I also had the chance to catch up with Charles Young who I hadn’t seen for a while, which was great.

I really enjoyed AIC despite being fairly unwell, but the downside is that I seem to come away with more work than when I started.

And finally a big thanks to Matt Deacon and the AIC crowd for producing a really good day ( with great guacamole :))

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Resources

I recommend a look at Hatay’s Session on the AIC site, until then check out his video on Channel 9

I maintain a set of up to date list of useful links for Oslo Here

no this is not some strange kind of maths statement, a bit late (oops) but it is just that the first social media sites that exited me is now the ripe old age of 5.

if you feel the need to celebrate as well you can hear Don Box and Chris Anderson serenade (in a oh so disturbing way) the Channel 9 Guy here

if developers singing to a foam logo is not your sort of thing, go here to join Channel 9 anyway.

Channel 9 we salute you.

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The ever lovely people at the Microsoft CSD have launched a site to promote learning WCF. The site has a couple of overview videos to help you understand why WCF takes producing quality connected services easier and faster. The site also collects a great bunch of material to get you started or improve your existing WCF skills.

Look at the champ web site

Although I have been trying to contact them to complain about using the designs for our remodelled developer pits for the video.

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I will be speaking at the AIC on the 8th of May on Modelling with Oslo for Architects. There are some truly great speakers at the event however I have just head that it is already full.

I hope to see some of you there

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Oliver Sturm and Gary Short have recently started their new podcast, called “Sod This”. Only the surface it is Oliver and Gary randomly talking, but underneath is some in depth solid information and insights in interviews from some interesting people. They promise to deliver the podcasts on a fixed timetable of whenever they finish one.

From their own blurb they describe themselves as

• not equally sized

• lazy

• extremely handsome

I would add 1/3 deluded but very tech savvy, my advice is to listen to them.

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Microsoft Press have just announced that they have made some books available for free during April

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Administrator's Companion 

Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!

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I spent too much of my misspent youth looking into optimization techniques and scheduling problems and I would always come up against computationally intractable solutions and then looking for a more practical solution. I think that these experiences have made me the pragmatist I am today (best effort is better than not achieving perfection).

Doron Zeilberger has published a proof that P=NP, you can read his paper here. While on paper this could revolutionise computing and specific areas of optimization, the author has expressed that the solution presented is certainly not practical for the foreseeable future.

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references

Cook, Stephen (1971). "The complexity of theorem proving procedures"   Proceedings of the Third Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing. pp. 151–158.
Garey, Michael R.; David S. Johnson (1979). Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness. W. H. Freeman. ISBN 0716710455.

I am so pleased to be renewed as a MVP this time for the Connected Systems Division (CSD). My deepest thanks to the great guys in the CSD group and the UK MVP team for making this happen. This is my third year as a MVP and during the last two years (and a day) , I have been a BizTalk MVP twice and an Architect MVP twice and now a CSD MVP. I think it is time to settle down with the CSD group :)

it is a continual privilege to be a part of such a great group of people whose prime objective is just to help people, and I look forward to another year of helping others.

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I am no longer an Architect MVP, I have been an Architect MVP twice now and my passion for architecture is still strong but I am spending more time with M(Oslo) and engineering presentations in my community work than Architecture.

I am still an Architect by day but by night I still fight as an developer.

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Today I was told by the BCS that I have been awarded Fellow of the Society (FBCS) , I so very proud of the work the BCS is doing to improve the community and I feel that I am pushing to do my bit in the North of England (and the rest of the country given the opportunity occurs)

I was waiting for some pictures (yet to be taken) to announce that I have also been appointed as a Honorary Fellow at The University of Hull, I am tremendously grateful to the great people at Hull for this honour.

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The 4th annual Architect Insight Conference has just been announced and this year I am happy that Black Marble is helping make it happen.

I will be presenting on Microsoft's Vision of modelling using “M” , I think M has a huge future in architecture and while it is only available in it base level , it is important to understand the potential.

I look forward to seeing everyone down in London.

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Microsoft Architect Conference
May 8th, Microsoft Offices Cardinal Place, London

www.microsoft.com/uk/aic2009

Over the last week I have received many comments on my recent post about bad apples, it seems to have resonated with a lot of people in the industry ( many of whom already read the great coding horror blog ). The two common questions have been, i) how do you spot it? , ii) what do you do?

The first is easier than the last, in general people will go dark and that becomes noticeable in communication skills, lack of documentation and general mood of self-despair. the less common variant is the supreme antagonist where the person will constantly pick fights which ironically they loose as their arguments are borne out of frustration with themselves not reality.

The second ( what to do ) is the hard one, I would hope that in most cases a sit down with the individual will sort out most problems. In fact most problems between people occur due to lack of communication, obviously there are politics and ego’s to content with

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I love travelling and going to conferences, seeing friends both new and old. Normally the kind events that I attend are technical , architect and developer focused.

Now and again I bump into the wonder that is Marketing and Sales who take our beloved technology and add their own terminology, very occasionally I end up in an off wall non-technical presentation and sometimes a mix of the two.

I was very happy to attend a session on Eco Computing and implications for Architecture, it was deeply interesting (no really) which I hope will be made more generally available to the public.

Back to the point , Today’s Markety word was “Green Wash” the process by which a company will make a situation look more eco friendly.

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I am just back from the MVP summit, this is my second time and interestingly I am attending sessions by both the ever lovely Connected Systems Division and the Architects group. it was great to see friends and colleagues both new and old.

Mike Nash has posted a “I’m a PC with MVP video” taken at the summit , if you look real careful in the first shot of MVP’s you can make out Richard, Rob Miles and myself.

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One of the interesting pieces of work we get involved in are rescue projects. Rescue projects can be thought of projects that aren’t delivering or won’t deliver either to timescales, feature requirements or quality.

In a rescue project there are many areas that normally need addressing: Project Management, Documentation, Process and Quality. The one common theme in rescue projects is people; when we are brought in to help on a project people start to worry about losing their jobs, but more often than not are un-accepting of the situation they are in.

The reasons for projects failing are numerous but people are the main cause, Jim McCarthy in his 1995 book Dynamics of Software Development (ISBN 1-55615-823-8) discussed flipping the bozo bit where people fundamentally just lose the plot and need to be refocused.

A recent post on the problems of negative focused staff (Rotten Apples) by Jeff Atwood (Coding Horror) has sparked some thoughts, rather than copy sections out I urge you to read the posts and I have added some of my experiences on the same matters.

Dealing with Bad Apples (read this post)

Looking at projects where we have seen individual issues, the ones that strike home are refusal to have code reviewed, increasing amounts of secrecy (keeping lists on paper not electronic, discussions with third parties outside of the project or company), consistent grumbling but supplication when confronted. But I think the most common sign is complaints about others to divert attention away from the real problem. I can’t say how much is conscious, and malicious or not, it must be dealt with.

The striking mark is people on the high horses who stand absolute in their correctness, my advice, shoot the horse and then deal with the problem.

The Bad Apple the Group Poison (read this post)

I have run though nearly all the projects that have had problems and this post contains the key -

The worst team member is the best predictor of how any team performs

and for worst, it is more attitude than technical ability.  We have seen projects with what should have been a dream team fail but this fits the pattern, not technology but attitude.

It is strange that the people who are the problem are normally the ones who should have the most potential, but have flipped the bozo bit and refuse help. It is rare that the people I encounter don't have the ability (they may need training and advice) but they are missing the point and sometimes languishing in politics seems an easier ride, but they always fail. Only once do I think someone was out of their depth and in that case I feel they were making the best of a bad situation.

In any project, people do need to stand up if there is a problem, and fight their corner, rather than just sit and whinge.  They then need to work through getting it resolved in a short space of time, in a reasonable manner, and accept the outcome.

In summary whilst it is generally best to maintain all project staff, there is a point when management must make a hard decision for the good of the group rather than the individual.

I’m interested in others’ experiences on this topic.

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