I'm dealing with an issue with my current employer that has seriously made me consider seeking employment elsewhere. They are under the impression that 100% of custom development should be eliminated and replaced with COTS products, such as SharePoint. While I realize that this is not a realistic expectation, I've found it impossible t...
Okay...here's the short long story: I'm a graduate from a two-year programming course, earning my associate's degree (with honors, no less). Earlier this year, I had a brief stint where I tried to go back to school part-time for my Software Engineering BS degree, but that fell apart for various reasons which I won't go into here. I've ...
I need a documentation system for a team. This team, man, we got a big ol' web service, and we got new products in the pipeline. And currently, there's only a wiki hosted on a trac system. And believe me when I say the organization smells, well, far south of cheese. Most of the time you want to find something as a developer, you probably...
I'm in the early stages of a relatively new company that is already cash-flow positive (despite the gloomy economy!), and I soon hope to hire some software developers. I'm thinking about some kind of profit or revenue share as a way to align employee's interests with those of the company as I'd prefer not to complicate the company's own...
I'm the lead programmer/manager for a team of 6 programmers. There's always one programmer who needs far more attention than all the others and comes by my office to talk to me as much as all the others combined. Some of these things are unimportant, but some are real questions. I don't want to tell my guys not to come talk to me, but...
I don't have great social skills. Like many programmers I know, social skills are something that is worked on and developed over time because it's not a natural and 'inborn' trait. When a computer is doing something wrong, you can tell it so and 'fix' it so it'll work correctly the next time. It won't complain. It won't feel insulted...
Is there no room in a good company for an average or above average programmer? It seems that articles around the web are only about hiring the best or great programmers. An average programmer has sound programming practices and enjoys the job. The individual may not always have the best solutions, get problems done in the most elegant...
I have been a SW developer for some 10 years, and then I was promoted to a Management position for the last 3 years. Not quite happy with my Management role, I looked for job alternatives, and accepted a software development position in a small company. In short, in my new role I will be responsible for SW architecture decisions, lead o...
This question was originally asking 'What KPIs do you use to in a software development organisation'. Unfortunately it seems that KPI is a four-letter word, and the immediate assumption is that KPIs are always mis-used (maybe they are?). So, I've hopefully improved the question to get at the underlying goals which I originally thought K...
I'm a developer at heart, but it seems to me that to get ahead in this career, one must at some point become a manager. Is this true in your experience or do you think that it is possible for a developer to become as important and as well compensated as a manager? Would you leave development for management just for the compensation aspec...
what do people use instead of maven for C# winforms projects. We have developers all over the world and are trying to come up with some dependency management system that is clean simple and fast ...
I am getting ready to add another developer to my team and I want to try and fix the mistakes I made in my last hiring cycle. I like to think of myself as a competent programmer (I can be given a project, I can deliver on that project and the deliverable work with very few if any bugs) and so I ask questions that I would ask myself in a...
What would be the best way to bring people back to "their first love", i.e. programming, from other roles, e.g. sales, management, support, testing, etc. This may become an issue given the current state of the economy. I'm not talker about the CEO who last programmed ALGOL using punch cards, but someone who has more recently moved away...
As a programmer working in an insurance office, I have a nasty little management hierarchy which is making programming much harder. At current, our IT department rates a three on The Joel Test, which worries me. I'd like to fix this, but management enforces an insanely aggressive release schedule. Basically every project is due "yeste...
For the company I currently work for, I've written a quick prototype to add some stuff to an instant messenger. Because it had no public APIs, I had to work on a really low level stuff using both C and inline assembly. It's interfacing with an undocumented DLL, which is pretty picky about it's input, and although I've spent a great deal ...
I am having a difficult time with management asking for estimates on programming tasks that are utilizing 3rd party controls that I have no prior experience with. I definitely understand why they would want the estimates but I feel as though any estimate I give will either be a) too short and make me look bad or b) too long and make me ...
BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants. But, how do you convince your boss to allow to host a BarCamp in its company ? My first boss reply was that it is too risky for the company, because ...
Anyone used Zephyr test management system? See their site at http://www.getzephyr.com/. Interested in experience with integrating it with PHPUnit based testing environments. ...
Hi, Am new to Software Project Management and currently doing some research on Risk Management in S'ware Development. Just interested in knowing what are the current methods applied and any future trends to come. Thnx ...
It is generally accepted that setting measurable objectives for software developers doesn't work , as too much focus on the objectives can lead to behaviour counter to the organisational goals (so-called "measurement dysfunction"). However, in my company, we are required to set objectives for all staff, and are encouraged by Human Resou...