Part of the Process

Many years ago I used to live with someone who commuted an hour longer than I did. This was way before smartphones, social media, or even cheap laptops. So I used to do the washing up as part of my evening ritual of winding down from work - luckily she was also as relaxed about leaving the washing up as I was. Thinking back to this time the main method of communicating online was via forums around interests. So Eurogamer, Get Your Boot On, and North Stand Chat for example. Here the conversations are around topics. The nature of content on the sites is discoverable and predictable. I could easily see new information that I was interested in. I could also easily show someone else something interesting later. Fast forward a decade with smartphones and pretty widespread internet connections I can get a notification ping up on my phone instantly alerting me that someone I know has posted something for the first time in a while. It will probably be a cup of coffee. Do I reall...

If I told you that I had worked on a successful product over the past 10 years - going from development and implementation of features to now being responsible for specifying on how parts of the product should function -  then it should not be surprising that during that time period I have revisited features to either renew the interface or back end processing. Here are a couple of areas where I have found that you need to be extra vigilant. Be in the present  Although you have knowledge about the original use case, be careful to remember not to fight the battles of the past - take note of current context or to solve the problems of the past - the world is (probably) a different place now You ain't gonna need it yet (YAGNIY) - solve the problem you have now One thing I really like in this area are Job Stories and the way in which they lead you to start with context and look forward to outcomes . Keep it focused  This feature works and is being still...

"How do you learn how to use a code base?" a very simple question from a junior developer that has prompted a lot of thought. To be honest it's been a while since I was last at that point and it's so long ago I can't remember learning a new code base. But my advice was to learn and study the code, run it change it, see where it breaks. Do the same with other open source projects to deliberately learn how to learn code bases. Also do this outside of work, where there isn't the same pressure to deliver or perform.  Apparently that wasn't a great answer as I got the reply, "What if you've got a life?", so a little motivation was in order :-) I've written about this before and point 3 from a W.S. Humphrey quote in my previous blog post on motivation and management was " the training and support to enable the work to be properly done". There are various training courses and sites available for teaching specific skills or technolog...