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Learning from your Burn Down chart
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 12:36 AM

The chart to the left represents the Burn Down chart for the Secret Server 4.1 release which shipped on March 14th 2008.  We have always shipped Secret Server on the published date (or in the early hours of morning the next day!) but this release pushed things a little too close for our liking.  What was the problem?  Did we take on too much? ... Read More...

by thycotic | with no comments

Filed under: Extreme Programming, Software Development, ISV, General Software Development, Agile

Removing dead code
Wednesday, December 05, 2007 1:09 AM

What does your code terrain look like?  Are there bodies of dead logic lying here and there?  Maybe they helped briefly while you worked towards a better solution or perhaps they just fell victim to changing business rules. At a recent Code Camp, there was a question about code generation and I answered that we (as developers) are required to love every... Read More...

by thycotic | 5 comment(s)

Filed under: Extreme Programming, Software Development, General Software Development, Refactoring, Agile

Do you have what it takes to be a Thycotic TDD Developer?
Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:43 AM

Thycotic is gearing up for a new product development cycle and we are looking to grow our team of passionate test-first developers. Our team is one of the best places to learn and improve your agile development skills. Can you solve the problem below? http://www.thycotic.com/codetest.txt Please submit your solution with your resume to tddjobs@thycotic.com You... Read More...

by thycotic | 5 comment(s)

Filed under: Extreme Programming, .NET, Test Driven Development, Pair Programming, ISV, General Software Development

Agile Estimating and Planning with TargetProcess - RCC4
Monday, October 08, 2007 8:36 AM

On Saturday, the Thycotic crew (well, only three of us this time) went down to Richmond to the forth Richmond Code Camp. It is a 2 hour drive but my new handy TomTom GPS did well - asides from one occasion where it decided to re-route us back through Washington DC when we were only 30 minutes from the event! Kevin presented on "C# 3.0" and the audience seemed... Read More...

by thycotic | with no comments

Filed under: Extreme Programming, Software Development, Code Camp, General Software Development

Refactoring example in C# and VB.NET
Monday, March 26, 2007 7:57 PM

Our very own Bryant Smith has revamped his conversion of Martin Fowler's refactoring example (originally in Java) to now cover both C# and VB.NET. You can find the article here with the relevant downloads and walkthrough. Martin Fowler's example works nicely because it is a simple class structure that is easy to understand. It also has enough complexity to allow... Read More...

by thycotic | 1 comment(s)

Filed under: Extreme Programming, Test Driven Development, Pair Programming, TDD, General Software Development, Refactoring

Whitespace is a code smell
Friday, March 23, 2007 12:39 AM

Do you space out your code so there are line breaks between the pieces of logic? Why do you think this is necessary? Typically this is done to separate chunks of logic so that they can be easily distinguished. If it is a complicated enough chunk, then it may even make sense to put a comment at the top of the chunk. At this point, the Agile police will jump on... Read More...

by thycotic | 7 comment(s)

Filed under: Extreme Programming, Test Driven Development, TDD, General Software Development, Refactoring

Pair Programming improves your communication skills
Monday, March 19, 2007 11:50 PM

Many developers in our industry prefer a dark corner to the presentation podium. This is often explained away with references to introverted personalities and geekish tendencies. While this may be true for certain individuals, there are definitely many benefits to breaking away from this stereotype. One of the best ways to progress in the business world is to... Read More...

by thycotic | 4 comment(s)

Filed under: Extreme Programming, Test Driven Development, Pair Programming, Software Development, Code Camp, TDD, General Software Development

Will TDD become mainstream?
Sunday, February 25, 2007 12:26 PM

I have been asked a number of times in the last few years if I think TDD (Test Driven Development) will go mainstream. Firstly, we need to agree on what mainstream is – Wikipedia does not give any hard numbers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream ) but it seems like 20% would be a good number for software development (I pulled this out of thin area... Read More...

by thycotic | 3 comment(s)

Filed under: Extreme Programming, .NET, Test Driven Development, Pair Programming, Software Development, TDD, General Software Development

Speaking on TDD at the CMAP Architect Group in Maryland tonight (2/20/2007)
Tuesday, February 20, 2007 12:07 AM

I will be presenting on Test Driven Development at the CMAP Architect Group in Maryland. Session details and directions here . Abstract: TDD is hard. It is hard because we have to unlearn the way many of us have always coded. Instead we have to start writing unit tests and what is more; we have to write the test BEFORE the code. Come along to learn the history... Read More...

by thycotic | with no comments

Filed under: Extreme Programming, .NET, .NET User Groups, Test Driven Development, Software Development, TDD, General Software Development

When the developer tools fail
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 12:04 AM

As developers, we pride ourselves on our analytical skills and being able to quickly deduce a problem. Being “engineers” and “craftsmen” we use tools to gain insight and learn about a problem while we determine our diagnosis. Every now and then, the tools fail. This evening I was dabbling with some licensing code in one of our dependent... Read More...

by thycotic | with no comments

Filed under: Extreme Programming, .NET, Test Driven Development, Software Development, TDD, General Software Development

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