Creating Software: Test, Test and More Test
“If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.”
-Edsger Dijkstra
Testing is arguably the most important step in any software project and also one of the most neglected steps. In most cases, testing is missed because clients don’t realize the importance of it and aren’t willing to pay for, or take the time to have the developers test properly.
In a perfect world, code would be thoroughly tested before it ever goes into the wild, but this just isn’t possible. Here are a few tips and tricks on testing so your product will never be released without even a little bit of testing.
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Take Time to Save Time
A difficult, yet obvious, lesson to learn is that you need to know what you’re doing before you do it. Many developers just dive into a project without the proper planning or without fully understanding what it is that they need to get accomplished.
You might get a feeling of productivity because you’ve started coding, but what does it get you? What have you actually started to code? Chances are it’s not exactly what is required, and that means you’ve wasted your time. No matter how you cut it, wasting time is not productive.
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Headphones: A Developers Best Friend
I don’t know about you but I personally work a lot better when I’m listening to music. I don’t know what it is but I can concentrate a lot easier and work a lot quicker when I’m listneing to my favourite tunes. The problem with most devevelopment jobs is that, unless you work from home, you’re constantly around co-workers and it would be rude to blast your music.
That is why it’s important to invest in a decent pair of headphones. Here are a few things you should look for when picking out your headphones:
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5 Things that Really Make a Sr. Developer
I’ve met, worked with or interviewed many “senior” developers, and it saddens me to say it, but most of them haven’t improved since the day they left school.
Time in the industry doesn’t make you any better at what you do, and it surely doesn’t make you worthy of the senior title.
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10 Tips for Being a Great Manager
Having a good manager can make the difference between an amazing work experience and a horrible one. At work, you can tell the developers that have a good manager from the ones that don’t based purely on how well they work and how happy they are.
As a manager, making your developers happy and comfortable can increase their productivity and make a better work experience for everyone. Here are 10 tips to becoming a great manager:
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Be Effective by Being Counter Intuitive
Management can be a tricky thing. Developing continuous improvement processes, input protocols, training procedures and a whole host of other things can be time consuming and difficult. And that’s when they actually work.
When it doesn’t though, you have to get at it again and try something else, taking up even more time and effort.
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How To Style Your Pages For Print
Last week I talked about an easy way to add a print link into each and every one of your posts using a little bit of javascript. The output of those pages however, looks extremely ugly and today I’m going to show you how to pretty up your print output with CSS.
Now, before we get started I just want to say that I’m not actually going to get into the dirty details of which colours you should pick and what font you should use to style your pages. I’m merely going to say which elements you need to include and which ones you should remove to make your pages look nice.
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Early Birds and Night Owls: A Productivity Tip
This tip is something I learned watching my father growing up. He’s the Director of IT for the insurance division of one of the largest banks in North America, so I’m pretty sure he knows what he’s doing.
He was always a big advocate for spending time with his family, or at least being at home should anyone need him. To ensure that he could do this, he found a chunk of the day where he could be the most productive that wouldn’t take away from his time with anyone else.
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Laptopical Laptop Reviews
One thing that I hate doing whenever I’m getting ready to buy a new laptop is going through the specifications of each computer. I find it annoying searching online for reviews on a specific laptop and then comparing this laptop to another one to see which is better. Who has the time to go to all of the different sites picking out reviews and getting the pro’s and con’s of each laptop; I certainly don’t.
Thats why Laptopical.com is one of the best stops on the internet for all of your laptop reviews and resources.
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Problem Solving 101
Problems are one of the few things we seem to never be in short supply of. Problem solvers, however, are more difficult to come by, and the reason for this is simple – most people don’t solve the real problem. They’ll come up with a short term patch and a clever spiel about how it’s the ultimate solution. Everyone then believes their hype and that’s that.
Two weeks, a month, or a year later the problem is back and twice as bad as it was before.
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August 28, '08
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