Always Small, Always Better, Always Wrong. This is the mantra for anyone who seeks change in virtually any genuinely complex environment. I’ve written a lot about small and better, but not so much about wrong, which is what I want to take up today, but first, a little refresher. The complex systems I deal with […]
Always Small, Always Better, Always Wrong Read More »
I’ve had some questions & comments about yesterday’s tweet: there are a million ways to slice stories. All the ones that slice it by layers are mistakes. Michael D. Hill (@GeePawHill) May 11, 2018 That’s natural and good and thanks to one and all. When one tweets a one-off like that, all pithy and telegraphic,
Slicing Stories? Don’t Use Horizontal Layers Read More »
How long (redux)? In the technical side of the modern synthesis, we develop code by writing and passing tests then re-working the code to make it as change-enabled as we can. The key "how long" aspect to this: how long does the code stay not working? That is, how long in between the times we
How Long? (Technique Re-Mix) Read More »
How long? What amount of time passes between you saving the file you just changed and you seeing the results of that change? If that answer is over 10 seconds you might want to wonder if you can make it shorter. If that answer is over 100 seconds, please consider making a radical change in
The expense of an integration test can be extremely high. Consider the contentment app. This app makes drawings 1) that distribute across time, as if they were being drawn live in front of you, 2) that are generated stochastically, 3) with a "pixel-inaccessible" framework. Now, it’s important to understand that none of these problems are
TDD: Resist Integration Tests Read More »
An old blog of mine, We’re In This For The Money, recently got some attention, delighting me, of course. A full h/t to Jim Speaker @jspeaker for that! He quoted me thus: Too busy to #TDD? Too busy to pair? Too busy to #refactor? Too busy to micro-test? I call bullshit. My buddy Erik Meade
My TDD Isn’t Judging Your Responsibility Read More »
To have a serious conversation about how to test, we have to start by considering what to test. As a microtesting TDD’er, what I want to test is our logic. Enter the Money Premise The money premise of TDD reminds us we’re in this for the money, that is, the primary purpose of TDD is
How To Test Depends On What To Test: Money, Chaining, And Steering Read More »
So, day off before travel before onsite, playing ONI, having fun, but I want to muse about a highly geeky matter anyway… Do you ever override in a sub-class a method that’s already implemented in a super-class? I want to recommend to you a policy of avoiding that like the plague, whenever you can. I
Avoid Implementation Inheritance: GeePaw Goes All Geek-y Read More »
When I was geek-young, not quite forty years ago, I worked in a tiny two-person shop, and we were entirely without "method". We just wrote code. At that time, there were plenty of analysts of geekery, and they were certainly writing about how to geek, but 1) their ideas were seen as more of a
No One Way: GeePaw On Method Read More »
Of all the routine requests I get from clients, the one I find most difficult to deal with is this: "Help us choose a metric so we can tell if things are going well." the problem is that "numbers as health indicators" is so deeply embedded in our worldviews, so deeply correct on paper, and
The First Metric: How Are You Feeling? Read More »
