Hal Helms On Web Development - Project Management

Working Off the Clock

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:50:00 -0400

Recently, I read Ben Nadel's post of his thoughts stimulated by a book that we both seem to be reading, Drive by Daniel Pink. Ben is thinking about the best way of compensating workers. It's a great read with lots of comments. It reminded me of how I stumbled into something that I had pretty much forgotten about -- and I wonder if it would work in a different context. [More]

No More Resumes

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:28:00 -0400

We're looking to hire some developers. The first person I thought of was my friend, Ben Edwards. In talking with Ben, he had an unusual -- and I think brilliant -- idea about resumes: kill them all. [More]

The Pre Post-Mortem

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:26:00 -0400

For an upcoming, large job, I did a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats". It's a formalized way of assessing both the business opportunity and one's abilities to leverage the opportunity. (Sorry for the market-speak...) SWOT is helpful in thinking realistically about one's strengths and weaknesses -- and it is a more formal way of doing something that I've undertaken for years with clients: the pre post-mortem. [More]

Team Development

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:58:00 -0400

I spoke with a friend recently who told me that his company had just hired another programmer to keep up with the work. Good problem. Bad solution. [More]

A Secret: Managing the "Exacting" Client, Refire

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:08:00 -0400

Yesterday, I inadvertently made public a draft of an unfinished post I was working on. You can read the first part of the post here. Today, we finish the story. [More]

A Secret: Managing the "Exacting" Client

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:46:00 -0400

Many years ago, I worked on a construction crew on Cape Cod. The builder, Bill, was an old guy with tons of experience and a great reputation. He built high-end custom homes for people with money. And one day, I learned a lesson from him that has served me well when I became a developer of high-end custom software applications. [More]

On Not Going to CFUnited This Year

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:18:00 -0400

On Saturday morning, I had to tell Liz Frederick, organizer of CFUnited that I would not be able to attend. I was very disappointed as I was looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones, but the decision was a simple, if not easy, one. [More]

Concluding an Experiment on Pair-Programming

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:08:00 -0400

Over the last eight days, my colleague, Maciej, and I conducted an experiment in pair-programming. The experiment was inspired by a terrific piece on pair-programming by a highly-respected Java guru, Elliott Rusty Harold. (You can find his article here.) I've done pair-programming in the past, but never rigorously and so wasn't sure whether my affinity for it was justified. Today we concluded the experiment and discussed what we thought of it. [More]

Dancing With the Devil: A First Meeting with a New Client

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:54:00 -0400

"We have a 3.00 at Maduro's with a new prospect for a big job," my partner told me recently. The word, "Maduro's" caught my attention: it's a cigar bar just minutes away from our office. I get to do a sales call while smoking cigars? Cool! [More]

Event-Driven Programming: Why?

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:09:00 -0400

Yesterday, we looked at some simple server code that is called by events generated on the client. We saw that the server returns an EVENT property in its response -- but that my example never uses it. Today, we're going to see how that is used -- and why I think EDP is a BigDeal(tm). [More]

Creating a Domain Vocabulary

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:52:00 -0400

Recently, I've been working on a somewhat complex application for a company. There are several people involved and a lot of work to be done. Where to start? My recommendation is that you start defining a domain vocabulary. [More]

Thoughts on Power: Part I

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:18:00 -0400

I had a very interesting talk with a good friend last night. He had a prospective customer who went out of their way to be dismissive of him and the way he approaches a software project. While they (these were partners) wanted his excellent ideas for their project, one of the partners made sure to get the message across that the developer was needed merely to handle the technical aspects of implementing their vision. After the phone call with the prospect, my friend became increasingly unsettled; there was just something wrong about the situation. After thinking over his options, he rejected all the normal ones and decided, instead, to do something crazy. [More]

Stages of Maturity for Software Shops

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:53:00 -0400

We know that group development is different from individual development. The best groups foster individual development, leading to a "sum is greater than the parts" dynamic. But getting to that nirvana usually occurs in stages. In this article, I discuss the stages of maturity for a software shop with each stage (hopefully) leading to the next.

Large-Scale Software Projects: Learning from Bullfighters

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:26:00 -0400

"It was a brave man that ate the first oyster."
- Jonathan Swift There are certain activities that I find myself asking, "How did anyone figure this out while managing to remain alive?" Things like snake-charming, bullfighting, taking on a large complex software project. [More]

Difficult Customers: An Update

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:57:00 -0400

In a previous blog post (http://www.halhelms.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/11/24/Clients-Who-Needs-em-Part-Deux), I related my experience inheriting a difficult customer. After trying to work with them and finding it unsuccessful, I essentially gave them a "time out". Jason asked me if, in doing something like that, I'm looking for a graceful exit, or whether I was trying to restore the relationship. I told him I wanted to restore what was broken. Here, what was broken was the power dynamic that led the client to wanting to do something they were uniquely unqualified to do -- run the project. [More]