A Different Type Of Hacking

Although we all typically found adding code to a system, one of the funner parts is removing code.  I love it when I can cut whole swaths of code out of a system, combining duplicate code into a common function, deleting unused methods, slashing commented-out junk.

And sometimes you get the chance to rewrite some code, and sometimes you have to

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Another Take on Technical Debt

Most of us should be familiar with the idea of Technical Debt, but it's not always clear how it fits into the long-term view of a project.  Here's Martin Fowler's concept of Design Stamina - showing why Technical Debt tends to accumulate; there is a point in the life of a project where TD is a useful thing to grow, but there is a point where it becomes a liability.

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Social Skills In Developers

We all known at least one of them.  The prima donna, the ego on legs, the one developer who is famously skilled, but is, to put it bluntly, an asshole.

If you're one of them, you probably need to stop reading now.

If you've got one on your team, you probably need to get them out of your critical path.

Despite our professions acceptance of heroism, the presence of a toxic person can kill a team, or
 a project, or a company.

The biggest risk is to your team - you risk alienating all the rest of them, and at some point, you will piss off your resident genius and will have nobody to turn to to save your ass.

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Metric System

One of the larger conflicts between programmers and management is on how to measure programmer value - who is a good programmer and who isn't.  Aside from the ego and paycheck issues, it's still a touchy subject, usually because the metrics that management usually chooses to use are typically measuring the wrong things.

One of the oldest metrics is Lines of Code (LOC, or more commonly KLOC).  Now, KLOC may be a good way to compare the complexity or effort, after the fact, of a team's work on different projects, but it's not a good measure of individual programmer productivity.  There are just too many variables.  It's also very easy to game the numbers - if your boss is going to rate high KLOC numbers as good programming, your programs will be longer.

That's another point - programmers are very good at recognizing the rules of a system and gaming them.  Given the strong correlation between programming and role-playing games, it's foolish to think that we won't find a way to mini-max the metric.  KLOC? Put everything on its own line.  Function Points?  Every method will be as complex as possible.  Etc, etc.  The only way to have accurate metrics is to decouple them from programmer pay and promotion.

So what if you need to measure improvement?  Here's one option, and another.  And in case you need ammunition to get off a Death March, there's this.

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