Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur

We look at another childhood error and its somewhat humorous result as an example of how to plan for acceptable risk.  We often think of that as something where you are willing to pay the price.  However, we also need to examine mitigating the consequences to where they are acceptable.  It is sort of like placing a monetary bet.  There is a limit we can lose, but maybe a side bet will help reduce...

A lack of situational awareness is just one of many youthful mistakes we make.  Yet, it is the root of tons of lessons.  We see it as children shining they are immortal in some way.  However, sometimes there is just a misunderstanding of risks involved in actions or environments.  Some of these same mistakes can hit us much later in life and come from incorrect assumptions. Situational Awareness C...

This episode covers one of the more dramatic points of my youth where a lack of caution lead to me being declared dead.  However, the declaration was hardly from a medical professional.  Nevertheless, the impact to others was a lesson in itself to consider the source for any messages.  I digress, this focus is on the initial mistake and rushing forward without proper analysis. Lack Of Caution Can...

We explore another auto-related mistake in my past in this episode to spend time discussing a need to highlight features.  In fact, an argument can be made that unknown features are not features at all.  For example, I can give you ten dollars, but if I do so by hiding where it cannot be found that is not helpful.  Am I even giving you anything in that case? Highlight Features, Users Want To Know...

This episode is a tale that shows us that we should question everything.  Yes, even our assumptions.  Actually, our assumptions first.  We have so many sources of information available and yet we still tend to rely on only a few.  Whether that is our point-of-view or intelligence gained from "reliable sources", we give them too much credit.  Everyone makes mistakes and resting too much on an error...

The first mistake I want to share in this season is when I chose a major in college. While I was young and naive, it still is a teachable moment to prepare for meetings. This incident was not my last mistake around meetings. However, it is a good launching point for those further discussions. The error covered here is also one that may set the stage for later mistakes.  We will discuss those as th...

We start season 17 with an overview of what to expect. This season will focus on using failures to gain success. Too much is made of the road to success without pointing out the learning that got someone there. The stories of this season will hopefully provide more examples of how a failure or mistake was just part of the journey to success. The Source Of Using Failures To Gain Success Scott Adams...

We end this season with a look at using patterns and anti-patterns throughout your work.  The value they provide is obvious and costs little.  We gain the lessons learned from others and have those available for our projects.  Those experiences are valuable to us and jumpstart our solutions. Using Patterns Patterns are just that.  They provide a recommended series of steps or an approach.  However...

The BHAG or Big Hairy Audacious Goals approach to vision or roadmaps is often recommended.  The objective is to keep from limiting ourselves.  The problem is that too much of a good thing can turn into a mental block or analysis paralysis .  Too many options or too many tasks to complete is often overwhelming. The Big Hairy Audacious Goals Anti-Pattern Defined This anti-pattern occurs when the foc...

One of the most powerful and useful patterns I have come across is one we will call rinse and repeat.  It may also be seen as copy and paste or templates.  However, the result is a way to rapidly generate a lot of similar solutions within an architecture or system. The Rinse And Repeat Pattern Defined The essential piece of the rinse and repeat pattern is a similarity in approaching a series of pr...

Our new patterns include the rosetta stone.  This pattern provides a path to link disparate systems and their data formats.  It comes from the historical rosetta stone which was a multilingual text used to decipher ancient languages .  We use this as a sort of pathway to a common language for our application. The Rosetta Stone Pattern Defined Modern software often has multiple other systems that n...

We continue on a series of new patterns and anti-patterns with "the worst that can happen."  This pattern uses fear and hyperbole to help us tighten up a design.  We imagine what can go wrong and use that as a guide for applying fixes, hooks, and exceptions.  Thus, this pattern is more a process than a pattern per se.  However, it is an important step we can take to validate and strengthen our sol...

The idea of technical debt is a hot topic among software development groups.  In particular, this concept shows up in agile efforts.  While it is more a concept than a pattern, we can use this as a pattern for our design and development work.  In fact, it lines up well with the Pareto principle and pushing details off until after delivery. The Technical Debt Pattern Defined I like to think of tech...

The Cancer pattern has a word we do not have a favorable view of.  However, this pattern is becoming needed in more and more environments.  This pattern is one for conversions and migrations.  We do not always have a clean slate for our architecture.  Thus, we need designs to handle the modification of an existing architecture. The Cancer Pattern Defined The way Cancer evolves is that it replaces...

We return to pick up a couple of new patterns.  In this episode, we look at the keep it simple pattern and how to apply it to architecture.  It is a pattern that we often overlook.  However, it is an essential piece of many successful solutions.  It is the heart of our desire to break complex things down into small pieces we can tackle. The Keep It Simple Pattern Defined We run into this pattern,...

We looked at an incorrect focus based on faulty data analysis in our prior episode.  This time we explore solving the wrong problem with the misdirection anti-pattern.  While this situation can arise from the data bigotry anti-pattern, it is often a failure to grasp requirements fully .  It is a problem that comes from improper focus and lack of communication.  Those are two prevalent weaknesses i...

This podcast season is a great excuse to highlight new anti-patterns.  We look at a new one we call statistical bigotry in this episode.  That is an excellent emotional word and a common challenge across many areas of problem-solving and debate.  This anti-pattern appears when we give too much weight to our data and improperly use statistics. Statistical Bigotry Defined We use data and facts to su...

We have highlighted many areas of quality software development.  However, the stovepipe enterprise is a maintenance anti-pattern.  This situation occurs when we build a system that has a high maintenance cost.  Even worse, maintenance often requires to be done quickly and more as a patch than a build.  Therefore, we produce a house of cards that becomes more fragile as time goes by. Stovepipe Ente...

The "warm bodies" anti-pattern is sometimes subtle.  However, it can be frustrating and sink more than a project.  This approach is based on the fallacy that more developers or resources will create better software sooner.  Instead, the reality is closer to the idea of getting nine women to give birth to a baby in one month. Warm Bodies Defined This anti-pattern is an attempt to work faster or get...

This episode covers the vendor lock-in anti-pattern.  It is another one that we have seen before.  However, it is slightly different when you apply it to software architecture.  This situation is fascinating as we can fall into it thinking we are making the best decisions.  However, comfort and ease are not always the best way to assess our solution.   Vendor Lock-in Defined This anti-pattern occu...

This next anti-pattern is "reinvent the wheel."  It is not a rare issue in solving problems.  However, it is still worth exploring.  Knowledge is not enough to avoid it.  Otherwise, it would be less common.  Likewise, the speed of progress in technical solutions makes it a challenge to keep current and avoid this anti-pattern.   Reinvent The Wheel Defined We see this in many ways.  However, it alw...

Communication and consistency are key traits of patterns.  Likewise, a lack of these creates anti-patterns like the wolf ticket.  We all know that standards are helpful and a worthy pursuit.  However, there are de facto standards that can cause us headaches.  Let's look at how a good intention can turn into an anti-pattern. A Wolf Ticket Definition A wolf ticket is not that different from smoke an...

One of the funny things about anti-patterns is that they are obvious in the name alone.  We might not know what it is but everyone avoids a jumble.  There is no technical knowledge required to judge this is not a good idea for a solution architecture.  In this episode, we review the jumble anti-pattern, what it looks like, and how to avoid it. The Jumble Defined The key to the jumble anti-pattern...

Overkill is a theme among many anti-patterns.  The cover your assets approach is one of those types where it just goes too far.  There is nothing wrong with providing a solid paper trail and communication.  However, we can make documentation the point and miss the true goal of a project. Cover Your Assets Defined This anti-pattern is the same as documentation for documentation's sake.  We get lost...

Much like the make people happy obstacle, we have the Swiss Army Knife Anti-Pattern.  This mistake is another example of over-architecting a solution.  Think of it as throwing everything into a design instead of thinking through what is needed.  However, this approach is not gold-plating and bells and whistles.  Instead, it adds things "just in case" they are required. The Swiss Army Knife Anti-Pa...