What to do, What to do

[swatts]

Hello Comrades in Coding

I hope all your wires are straight and true.

I have come back from Austin with a list of things to write about and come back from my vacation with an urge to purge my things to do list.

So in the spirit of full disclosure here's my current list of things to write about, with a brief synopsis.

Diary of a week in the life of....

I thought it might be interesting to scribble down my working week, perhaps we can compare and contrast.

Management Attitudes to LabVIEW

I've been witness to various instances where ill-equipped engineers are thrown at a project and not monitored in any way... explores why this is so.

People - Getting them to work together

Starting to think about team-based software development and how it may work out, the issues and egos etc etc.

Controversial thoughts on reuse

I have reached a conclusion (for SSDC) about re-use and how the dynamic is somewhat different if the speed of development is high.

Informal paths to software process

What are the easiest routes to a decent process, also will discuss process design techniques.

Open Source System Reference Designs

This is my big idea of the moment (it seems as if I'm the only one as usual).

Multi-Developer Teams - Subcontractor Method

I briefly touched on this in my presentation, I'll expand the idea.

Mindworks

Constructionism (learning theory)

The problem with software is people!

ranty rant rant rant, I love people really.

Requirement Zero

I've touched on this, will expand and add jokes and examples

Hire a Consultant or Not?

Recent events have pushed this up my list, some dos and don'ts

A few of these will involve more work than the usual 20 minute brain-dump so it may go quiet.

Are there any you would like me to do? If so the comments are the place to vote.

I can also do requests (stop writing stupid blogs on LabVIEW for example)

Much Love

Steve

[crossrulz]

I am personally quite curious on your controversal thoughts on reuse.  Plus that is likely to cause a good argumentdiscussion.  I have had mixed results with Open Source, so that is another one I am anxious to hear opinions on.

[Thoric]

Hey Steve - great to see you're still full of ideas, means I can look forward to some more great material this year.

I'm particularly interested in your Open Source System Reference Designs, and how that overlaps (or rather doesn't) with productivity toolkits aimed at accelerating the creation of architectures that solve a particular problem.

Also, the topics that relate to people (consultants/teams/egos/subcontractor method etc.)

If possible, would be good to hear your thoughts on "distance versus involvement" - how not being centrally located inhibits participation and minimising that impact, or conversely the tangible benefits of locality.

[swatts]

I think it'll be framed as what we do/reject and some thoughts about why we reject certain practices.

The open source discussion will be more about supplying than using. It will also be talking about the advantages of opening up source code rather than the current closed license a lot of commercial LabVIEW projects use.

[swatts]

Idea bucket is not empty yet!

Sounds as if I should hear what you have to say on "distance versus involvement". I've added it to the article pigeonhole.

[SercoSteveB]

Hi Steve - Love reading your blog, it's guaranteed to lift me out of a Monday morning funk.

I am happy to listen to it all but am particularly interested in 'Informal approach to Software Process', 'People - Getting them to work together' (good luck with that) and 'The problem with software is people'.

[swatts]

Thanks for your kind words Steve,

I've been thinking about the people aspects of software.

I think I need to invest in Tom DeMarcos book

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (3rd Edition)

and do some homework first.

[swatts]

Written both of these now, probably wait a bit before releasing tho', try to keep them fortnightly (every 2 weeks) or so.

Plus they could do with a bit of polishing.

[swatts]

The research has started well, the preface made me laugh