Columns on StickyMinds.com
Stickyminds.com, the website associated with Better Software magazine is a useful, practitioner-centric portal for those working in software development.
The Neglected Practice of Iteration
December 2007
In this week’s column, Jeff Patton sends a reminder that software developers who neglect the practice of iteration will get caught either delivering poor quality software or delaying schedules in order to make time to iterate. We kick ourselves, or others, for not “getting [software] right up front” when we all know that the hardest part of software development is figuring out what to build. But there’s hope, and it comes in the form of prototypes and frequent iterations.
The Forgotten Side of Quality
September 2007
Our perception of quality includes objective and subjective factors. In this column, Jeff Patton explains the difference between the two and proposes we forget those differences so we can start viewing the two as equals.
Get Back on Track
March 2007
Jeff Patton will admit that he’s easily sidetracked. In a meeting or simply working on a problem with a small group, a cool idea or puzzling problem can send Jeff sideways. His head spins off track, and his mouth goes with it. He’s not alone in this behavior; Jeff suspects everyone reading this week’s column has been confined in a meeting called to resolve an important problem while someone—and it may have been you—burned up critical time to take the meeting off on a tangent. While not a completely curable condition, there are a few useful techniques Jeff explains in his column that will help keep a collaborating group on track.
Collaborative Card Play
March 2007
Ever find yourself spinning in a conversation where the discussion of ideas gets stuck in a circuitous route? In the world of software development, where the need to effectively communicate elaborate and complex ideas is most important, such conversations end up being counter-productive. In this week’s column, Jeff Patton shares a technique that keeps such conversations on a straight and productive path. Find out how he channels different ideas and categorizes them—all within one very fun and productive meeting.
The Whole Product
November 2006
It’s easy to split user-experience experts and software architects into different categories and still grant them equal importance; the former deals with the facade of the software while the latter deals with the workings beneath the surface. This separate, but equal attitude changed for Jeff Patton after attending a workshop in which his eyes opened to an epiphany of holism in software development. From this enlightened moment, Jeff realized a way software development could change for the better.
Test Software Before You Code
August 2006
Testing doesn’t have to begin after the code has been written. In this week’s column, Jeff Patton resurrects the oldest and most overlooked development technique, which can be used to test a product before any piece of it materializes.
Write a Blockbuster Using User Scenarios
May 2006
Big projects require many little user stories. But if these scenarios don’t add up to one good story, then you’re probably missing out on the big picture. In this week’s column, Jeff Patton describes how his team weaves many small tales into a single strong report by identifying key characters and themes.
Finish On Time By Managing Scale
Feb 2006
When deciding how a user’s task is to be supported in our software, we often look at possible design solutions and select one that’s best for the product and the user. As the project deadline approaches, however, we might choose to dismiss some features outright. In this column, Jeff Patton suggests we try keeping more features by adjusting their scale.
Web 2.0—The Next Generation
Oct 2005
The new Web 2.0 has quietly emerged; well, maybe not so quietly for those who were paying attention. But it is already changing the way we design, develop, test, and release Web applications. This change came about from users’ new expectations of the Web. Web developers’ and programmers’ willingness to adopt these new expectations will not only change the way we see the Web, but will also change the way in which we work every day.
Show Me the Money pdf
Apr 2005
How does your software earn money for your organization? Sometimes the most neglected users of our system are the people who asked for it in the first place—our stakeholders. What happens when we forget that? In this week’s column, Jeff Patton admonishes software experts not to ignore the reasons they built the software in the first place, as it’s busy earning them money!
Test Driven Development Isn't Testing
Jan 2005
There’s a common misconception that test-driven development is a testing technique when in fact it’s a design technique. In this week’s column, Jeff Patton explains this and how you might use your unit tests to explicitly guide and describe the design of your software.
