welcome to my blargh

Sara Ford jumps off a building for Codeplex

This was a recent find surfing the internet. Sara is a tech evangelist at Microsoft, formerly program manager for Codeplex. It was in this position that she literally jumped off of a building during TechEd in New Zealand.

You can view the short and sweet version:

Or view the longer, more fulfilling version:

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What I'm Reading: Peopleware

Peopleware is a classic text on why most companies fail at software and what managers of development can do to avoid this failure. DeMarco and Lister decry the status quo of Corporate America taking on everything from building design to quality requirements and time estimates. What they say about the psychological need for quiet space and natural lighting hit home for me - these are all things we know to be true but it's great to hear someone else say it.

Most of their conclusions seem like common sense or at least conventional knowledge. I wish more of their data was collected more scientifically, but the authors are software consultants and this is just what they've observed.

Peopleware was originally published in 1987, and again in 1999. The second edition includes eight new chapters. I found the new chapters to be strikingly different in tone. By their own admission the new chapters were a result of another decade of experience and include a change in perspective. While the original content focused very sharply on identifying the things that organizations did to make software fail from an outside view, the new chapters could be considered almost a manager's handbook of how to keep that from happening.

This was a very enjoyable read, and is definitely a resource I will return to again and again for inspiration on 

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"Why can't we build software like we build bridges?"

Because when you build a bridge, the shoreline doesn't change and you don't redesign the purpose of the bridge every six months.

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So, I have a new job (shameless gushing)

(orignally posted at http://jwwest.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/so-i-have-a-new-job/)

I’ve held off on talking about my new job because it’s been in the works for a month or so, and I felt like I would jinx something. Also, I’ve had some thoughts about my old position that weren’t all positive, so I wanted to give it some time before I made an assbutt out of myself.

So this past Monday I started my new job as a Senior Developer. So far it’s an absolute fantastic company, great location and really, really nice compensation. I feel that I’m now in a position that I actively want to be in and doing the kinds of things I want to be doing. It’s been rare over the last 10 or so months I had been back at Journey to get any sort of task that I felt personally involved in. When everything’s a mess, and you’re just trying to make it through the day, you stop caring. Everything is someone else’s mess that you’re made to clean up. That’s really what I felt every day, and it’s a real shame because there are a lot of very simple things that could have been done to avoid that.

I’m probably experiencing a lot of New Job Energy, which is the rush of optimism and intellectual curiosity that accompanies doing something new for 8+ hours a day. But more than that, I feel like I now have a personal stake in my work. Currently I’m the only in house developer (we plan on hiring more in the coming months as our plans take shape), and everything’s a blank slate. I got to set up SVN today according to my layout and restructured the code base we’re using on my terms.

I don’t dread getting up earlier to go to work. I don’t care about staying later to finish up work so I don’t have to remember it for the morning. I’m no longer looking at the clock several times a day. These are all good things. These are signs that I am truly involved in my position and I really care about the company. It’s a refreshing feeling. For a long time I felt that I should change careers, that I didn’t belong in software development if it was all what I had experienced so far. I had left Journey for 6 months for another company and felt absolutely trapped and constantly judged by very high standards. So much so that I went back to Journey because it was a way out and I honestly liked the people in IT. This didn’t help my anxiety about my career choice. I’m finally in a position where I feel that I am strong, that I am a good developer and I can build awesome things.

So enough of the gushing: what exactly is different?

• I no longer punch a clock: Seriously guys, salaried employees are salaried because they are trustworthy. You are paying them because their jobs involve thinking and a high level of expertise. Making them punch a clock is degrading and shows an obvious lack of understand of what they do.
• The company has a cohesive plan: We are definitely not a start up, but our department is. We are gearing up for some very cool things and the energy of a small start up is definitely there. Believe it or not, employees are highly tuned into the direction of the company. It’s depressing to feel that your company is doing poorly or doesn’t know what direction it’s going in.
• So far, I’m not personally annoyed by anyone: This is a biggie. In almost every job I’ve had, there’s always been one person at the company that is just so annoying or weird or obnoxious that it makes it a pain to be nice to that person. So far I haven’t met anyone that I wouldn’t have a beer with. Everyone is into their work and I’m into mine.
• I’m in charge: I’m laying the groundwork for development. I’m making the standards. This gives me a high sense of personal responsibility in the work I do.
• The job is a 20 minute commute: I’ve had an hour long commute for two years. Finally I have a job where I can sleep a little later and get home at a decent time. Of course the office is moving in a few weeks, but it’ll still be shorter.
• I feel generally appreciated for my work: It’s only been three days, but people are happy to see some of the work I’ve been doing. My coworkers don’t seem to have the chicken little syndrome that plagued my previous job. Things are not blamed on IT, but rather given to us to resolve. Being in a scapegoat department and having management that passively approves of it is the biggest demoralizer I’ve ever encountered.
• I’m being paid in yachts: Not really true, but I’m doing well enough that I no longer fear paying off my student loans or not having health insurance for my wife. I feel that my compensation is proportional to my experience and education for the first time.

So what made me leave my last job? Pretty much if you think about the reverse of the aforementioned list, you’d have my complaints. Honestly, though I will probably write what I feel in another post, I will say that it came down to a real lack of direction in the department and company as a whole, as well as a pervasive disregard for the work we did. The company had acquired another one back in January of this year, and its IT department absorbed ours.

With any merger there’s a clash of cultures, but we never really recovered. In our case it was a clash on several levels: Microsoft versus Open source, Dallas pragmatism versus Austin optimism, etc. While unfortunate, it did teach me a lot about leadership and what exactly people need on a social level in such a setting. People don’t want to be pigeonholed as X, sometimes they want to be Y but haven’t had the chance. Sometimes idealism and pure optimism aren’t enough to steer a ship clear of rocks. I have the highest respect for the members of my team that had come on board from Austin. They are a very, very smart group of people but very insular. I think it’s really to their detriment that such a bubble exists, but then again, it’s not their fault but rather upper management that reinforced it. All companies experience “the bubble” or “groupthink” to some extent, and it takes a very good team to break out of it. Keep it real, don’t let it form in the first place.

When I do get the chance to lead a team, I fully plan on taking the lessons I’ve learned from what didn’t work at Journey and applying them in a positive way. Letting people experiment and be creative or take full ownership of important projects are two of the best tools a leader can have to instill a sense of personal investment for members of their team.

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Palm: Sorry, but your Mojo is in another castle

via developer.palm.com

So I was trying to find information on the Mojo SDK for the new Pre.

"Not everyone will receive the Mojo SDK right away."

Not really a good way to gain acceptance for a new platform I've got to say.

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preDevCamp Fail

I've been reading over the drama of preDevCamp this evening and just can't shake a certain feeling that most of it could have been avoided with a little bit less ego.

Sure Palm isn't the most savvy company, but it is a company that is releasing a platform that people want to develop for. What's the best way for a large group of early adopters to get Palm's attention and possibly support from? Obviously it's not showing up one day on Palm's doorstep demanding they pay attention to you because you're the "he largest active developer community on the planet" and work with you. Reading the blog posts from the organizers of the event you get the distinct feeling that their arrogance may have brought this down on them.

The tldr; version is this: a couple of folks put together a very, very large community of developers to come together to develop for the Palm Pre. Said organizers reach out to Palm to ask for their support, and seeing as how "Palm just doesn't get it" were nearly brushed off but eventually came around and offered to help in exchange for NDAs. Now I've signed quite a few NDAs in my time, and the one thing that they all have in common is that you don't talk about the NDA. One of the organizers did just that on Twitter and quickly as they came, Palm pulled out of the partnership. Touchy? Yes. Douchebaggy? Absolutely. But playing devil's advocate here, I can sort of see where Palm was coming from. Here's a company that had no idea who or what preDevCamp was prior to January, nor had they fully or perhaps even at all fleshed out their developer plans. I think you'd be a little bushwacked at that as well.

Following company protocol and promising essentially nothing, you offer an NDA which is then talked about in a very public forum (Twitter). As a company trying to keep tight control of information, I'd be a little scared as well. Obviously responding to this with a mandate that includes the quote:

"While you should be actively involved, you seem only capable of distancing yourself from what is undoubtedly the most vital component required for your success; a strong developer community."

really isn't going to gain you any brownie points. The takeaway is that Palm does not know these people from Adam, and has no obligation to support preDevCamp in anyway.

That being said, Palm wasted a golden opportunity as well. They have developed the Pre upon an open source platform without any regard to fostering a community for their product. Palm surely doesn't "get" it but then again the preDevCamp organizers don't "get" how to deal with companies like Palm.

There's absolutely too much ego in software development, let's cut the crap guys.

http://blog.gallucci.net/2009/05/palm-doesnt-get-it.html

Dan Rumney has a more level headed view of the fiasco here: http://www.danrumney.co.uk/2009/05/21/predevcamp-palms-missed-opportunity/

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