For our small team of 20 developers, we used do code review like: Make a label in svn and publish the label to the reviewers Reviewers checkout the code and add comments in line (with marker like: // REVIEWER_NAME::REVIEW COMMENT:) After all comments are in, reviewer checks in the code, preferably with new label. Developer checks the c...
I have tried (in vain) to convince my team that we should use Project Planning Software. I see it as a great way to plan out our projects and determine deadlines for deliverables. They see it as a hindrance to productivity. Is there some grand arguement that I'm missing here? I would absolutely love to see how long we planned for Milest...
Last year we were focused on improve our technical capacities and leveraging our knowledge of various architectures and frameworks and methodologies. This year (August mark the start of a new accounting year) we need to improve our productivity. By this I don't means we need to get more KLOCs per month per programmer. What we need is t...
I work in a software development environment with many teams working on many projects. Over the next year I have set a goal of making those around me more passionate about the industry of software. I've started by increasing general awareness of industry news and events, encouraging team-mates to blog, hosting brown-bag (lunch'n'learn) s...
This question might be a little too open-ended, because there are so many variables involved. I'm sure someone could describe a modern take on Brooks' Surgical Team from MMM. I'm wondering what people's opinions are on specialists vs. generalists. Should you build a team of people who can pretty much do it all (jack-of-all-trades), or...
I know most people have code review and standards in place, but I work at a place with poor standards. I'm not saying that my code is flawless by any means, but I find the code my fellow members submit is totally lacking of structure, standards, naming convention, etc. Whole code blocks that have been replaced are still left commented ...
There has been some discussion of late within my organisation about whether we should be technical generalists - as we currently are, doing a bit of analysis, a bit of design, a bit of testing and a bit of coding - or whether we should be specialists - specialising in a particular discipline(s). There are obviously pros and cons to each...
I am installing a wiki engine on my personal server to make it easier to collaborate with some team members. What is a good engine to use that has the easiest setup, and easiest to use. It will be on a Debian server running php and mysql. ...
For those who don't know, Niters are people Not Interested in Technology. If when working on software projects someone brings up the subject of XML or database design or C# delegates, the Niter looks the speaker straight in the eye and says "I'm not interested." So my question is: Do Niters belong in software development teams? No, ...
In your opinion, what is your single most favoured methodology for developing a web application? Broad Case: I am contracted to assemble and manage a team to begin the creation of a large web app, what methodology would suit best? Edit: Methodology being the team/work practice NOT architectural ...
In a different thread Mr. Shark suggested to use your boss to be more efficient at work. What would be your suggestions for the best way’s to utilize your boss in a development team? ...
I am in a position where I could become a team leader of a team distributed over two countries. This team would be the tech. team for a start up company that we plan to bootstrap on limited funds. So I am trying to find out ways to minimize upfront expenses. Right now we are planning to use Java and will have a lot of junit tests. I a...
I'm working in a team environment where each developer works from their local desktop and deploys to a virtual machine that they own on the network. What I'm trying to do is set up the Visual Studio solution so that when they build the solution each projects deployment is handled in the post-build event to that developers virtual machin...
Under what circumstances - if any - does adding programmers to a team actually speed development of an already late project? ...
So I have a backlog of features and we are about to get started on a sizable project. I am working on defining the structure of our sprints and I'm interested in the communities feedback. What I'm thinking is: One day sprint planning Fill the backlog and figure out what each dev will go after this sprint Three weeks of development ...
I think that Scrum Master role is not a full time job for most mature scrum teams. A team that is running together for a few month can be fine with a Scrum Master that is also a team member since they know and understand the methodology and most of their concerns/questions were answered. Even at Jeff Sutherland's company, Patient Keepe...
Everyone that has ever had to perform any form of code review has probably been here. You're a member of a code review team, and during the code review you come to an issue where a member of the team is overly aggressive about their viewpoint of a solution, whether it is right or wrong. How would you handle such a situation, especial...
In an ideal world every software development team would be populated with PhD-level team members, all highly motivated and working in harmony. But most businesses are not as well-funded and focused as, say, Google or Microsoft, and quite often a legacy of poor hiring practices means that a team of reasonable size (say 10 or more) will p...
Do you think that project iteration length is related to project team size? If so, how? What other key factors do you use to recognize correct iteration length for different projects? ...
Looking for input from all, though mostly interested in small engineering teams / small companies (10 - 20 people) that develop web applications: Who is responsible for the overall look and feel of your UI (i.e. setting standards)? Is this person a dedicated resource or does he / she have other responsibilities? What type of backgrou...