Software for Users

Here is the problem which I face all the time at work. We use Mantis for issue tracking.  If you need to exchange some message about an issue with another user you can use send reminder feature to send a note to that user. For that you need to find the user from a multi-selection list box and write your note in a multi-line text editor. You often start with a greeting to that person although it is clearly a duplication of information. I guess being a well educated user I know that the selection in the list box is for the software itself (so it knows to whom the message is going) and greeting is for my correspondence since I am a civilized person and I don’t start talking without addressing the person I am talking to.

I was watching a demo for Confluence 4.0. They were talking about a new feature they added to their tool, mentions. Here is their solution to a similar problem. You are editing an existing page and you’d like to send a comment to a specific user related to the page. You use add comment feature and start typing:

Hi @John Simith, …..

“@” Sign at the beginning of the name is a special character so software knows that you are addressing another user. It even provides auto completion while you are typing. When you save your comment that user receives an e-mail indicating that he was mentioned in a comment with the content of the comment and link to access the comment directly. Concept is not new. I guess @ character is used by tweeter for similar reason and I think facebook has a similar feature informing users when they are mentioned in some conversation. Seeing it in an enterprise wiki is quite refreshing.

Now thinking about it I see that I do the same everyday when I write e-mails. Select the person whom I want to sent the e-mail (they are mostly in my contact list so using their names rather than their addresses) and start the mail again with the greeting. Maybe I can play with an extension to provide the same functionality for mail client… Can this extension figure out if I am addressing the person (e-mail to) or just talking about him (e-mail cc)? Something disturbing with the current mechanism: I receive many e-mail messages where I am in CC but for some reason I don’t quite get why I am in that list. Somebody thought I might be interested in that conversation for some reason known only to him. Wouldn’t be better if I was added in that list only if somebody was actually mentioning me to make this reasoning explicit to all the parties?

I know there are cases where you send a message to a bunch of people (not necessarily defined as a group in your contacts) but you don’t necessarily greet them one by one. I am sure there can be a very nice solution which could cover those messages as well.

I had a discussion with a fellow developer today about a new feature we should implement. We had a dispute at some point about the behavior. It took me some time to realize that he was talking about code flow while I was talking about the application as user sees it.

It took me quite some time but I am getting there. I hope. Maybe I’ll manage to write some applications which users don’t have to negotiate or comply with in order to get what they want from it.

I think not thinking like a software developer is making me a better software developer.

A Discussion on Test Driven Development

I gave a short talk on test driven development as part of a training project for fresh graduates (or to be graduates). Main idea was to talk about test driven development and hopefully raise some interest so they can practice it during the remaining part of the training. I wanted to have a free talk with minimum presentation and if possible with a practical example. I decided to look around for existing material to see if I can get something as example.  After few articles I decided to change my topic as “Driven Development” since I found many different flavors of this very popular topic. It started to feel like choosing a title alone makes you a part of a community (and sometimes refuse another one) without you know it. I’d like to focus on something around Behavior Driven Development and Test Driven Development although there are plenty other interesting ones (Feature DD, Asshole DD, Readme DD, Model DD…)  I decided on the exercise (an algorithm question) and the main headlines and hoped that interactive discussion will lead to somewhere nice.

It is a dangerous hopeful approach. Didn’t turn out that bad but could have been better. Because of the later part I decided to take note on what went wrong and what went right so I can refer to it next time.

Algorithm question was nice. Something simple enough to be explained in few minutes. Taking some examples and getting answers for few input also took some minutes before we start thinking about general solution. Good thing with puzzle like questions is that they are interesting, mostly. It wakes most people and helps them to join the discussion regardless of the programming knowledge. I avoided any programming terms at this stage on my account and nobody jumped that direction.

“What do you do now?” was the question after we get a generalized solution for our problem. We defined our inputs (an array of integer values), an algorithm and what needs to be computed for output. Answers started coming like “I traverse the input values”, “I count the number of repeats of numerical values in given array” etc. That was not what I was looking for. I realize now that I use the same first person sentences when I try to explain a piece of code to a colleague: “here I check the first occurrence of the character…”. It felt strange then to think myself looping over the input array. I think it is a common habit among the programmers to jump from design (or identifying the solution) to running application. Especially the young ones are not that concerned about the actual practice of writing the program. “Looping over the array” is the main concern not how that loop is written. And yet, in a recent interview biggest clue I got about the candidate’s experience was the way she set up her for loop.

“So, what do you do now?”. Silence. So it needs a bit more help: “You came to the office busy with the algorithm from the previous night, got yourself a coffee, turned on your computer, checked your mails, and what now?”. That helps. Then we started our IDE, created a project, added our source code, wrote our main method and so on. Being a difficult person I put many “why” questions. “Why did we checked that check box?”, “Why did we put this keyword here?”… It is interesting to see how many thing we do even realizing but unfortunately not knowing why we do that. I expect that some actions are almost automated for an experienced developer but just because he (or she, let’s stick to he for now but mean that he or she) executed those actions so many times and he know exactly what do they mean so he doesn’t need to think about them again. That’s not the case always.

It was nice to go with coding and implement almost all the algorithm this way. Then came to the question that “how can you prove that this code does what you think that it does?”. That leads to testing and eventually unit testing and not much of a jump from there to test driven development. Some explanation on unit testing and some information on unit testing macros I am using. Then we did the exercise from beginning, this time with test first approach.

I have following guidelines  when it comes to writing a piece of code which I am trying to stick lately:

• Do not write any code without an actual need: This is a bit more complex. We realized that it is not that easy to decide the order of executing assignments. Wrong order of execution often leads to time loss due to design changes which could have been avoided if only pieces put together in the right order. Simple test for me is that if no body calls a method, you don’t need to write it.
• Having a test method checking your code is not an actual need: That is the trap we fell often when we try to stick to the first item.
• You don’t write anything if you don’t have a test for it: Test is where you write down your expectations from your code. This is often the most time consuming part lately and leads to lengthy discussions.

I think it went quite well until the last moment where there was a question on how those unit testing macros were working. I should have said it took me all day to study what I found and write my own and avoid going into that discussion. However, like any other programmer, I have a weak spot. I like talking about what I wrote. Seeing lost faces made it only worse. I tried to explain that it was not actually that complicated but it looked complex etc. I am afraid that all they are left with are those macros and half explanation of how they work. Actual discussion on what to write, what to test, how to write is already forgotten.

I was attending to a ADA training as part of a project. I finished the exercise and wanted to ask a question which I thought it was related to what we did in the exercise. Answer was “that topic is not part of the training”. I first thought it was rather cold. Later I thought it was quite professional. After all he was paid for his knowledge and I was asking for some free material. Now I can also add that he was actually thinking about me and didn’t want to destruct me. I should have done the same.

Frustration is…

• … tracing a four digits number all day long and not knowing if there is something wrong with it or not.
• … riding bicycle on a long straight road, seeing the end, wanting to be there
• … climbing a sand hill, falling back in every few steps
• … staring at a computer screen, frozen, wandering what the f*ck it would be doing while all you asked was a context menu
• … knowing it could be better
• …

Highlights from “Team Work Is An Individual Skill”

Here is some highlights from Cristopher Avery’s speech “Team Work Is An Individual Skill: How To Build Any Team Any Time“.

• Responsibility is feeling of ownership. Don’t mix it up with accountability.
• Idea is to keep range of your responsibility bigger than your accountability. Most of the problems lay between the zones of accountability which are not owned by anybody.
• Team is shared responsibility
• Agile is a mind set, not a tool-set problem.
• There are five phases when faced with problems, know them so you can snap out of them until reaching the last one: 1. Lay blame, 2. Justify, 3. Shame, 4. Obligation (have to but don’t want to), 5. Responsibility
• It is prisoner’s dilemma. Turn it into win-win game.

Yep, as guessed, no silver bullet once more.  Problem is summarized nicely at the beginning of the speech actually: What do you do when your reputation depends on other people whom you have no control over? Answer lies in the hope that everybody feels the same.  There can be a solution once the game rules are for everybody.

Probably I was not very careful while listening the speech since I missed the part about how to play the same game.

Blind

I remember a friend saying “if you hate someone, stick a potato in his car’s exhaust pipe”. He will most likely start digging from the engine, make his way through all imaginable parts but not the exhaust pipe.

Today, I was that silly mechanic once more. I went through many methods, double and triple checked many numbers and dived into some theoretical discussions even. Almost two days of struggling just to find a stucked potato, just 10 minutes before Friday ends. A copy-paste error between two closely named variables.

I should find a nice exhaust pipe photo, or a desktop toy, and keep it somewhere visible.

Honesty

I remember a bold moment of honesty. We were at university and one of the girls was having some conversation with few boys in between classes. I am not sure what was it about but a friend of mine could not stand anymore and decided to share an honest comment with a girl. He approached the girl and said: “I can not think any man approaching you for anything but sex“.

It was a rare moment where someone puts aside all social rules and dares to put thoughts as they are. You know, like a piece of shit suddenly drop in the middle, smelly and ugly that nobody can pretend  that it is not there. You should be really really honest/daring person to do such things or you should have nothing to loose (everybody hates you already). 

I think he is in the first category. I remember him when I manage to catch some honest words just before they escape from my mouth. 

For me the radio reporter from The District was from the second category. I don’t remember if he ever had a face. He had this distinct voice coming out while camera is roaming over the city, criticizing Chief Jack Mannion. You would tolerate the others, they were human. But he would not. You would hate him having such hard comments without any understanding. After all they all were trying their best.

When I was preaching for intranet blogs in the company I thought about the second one. My unsuccessful attempt was not like that because I was a real human, meaning vulnerable. I turned the focus on myself to be on safe side and did my criticism through my own mistakes. Ironically, you are safer if you put yourself in the target mark. But, I missed the existence of such a voice in the company. A voice with honesty. It is almost like a super hero behind his mask. Someone that would dare to say you suck to… you know, to the ones who suck.

Writing

I have a nice view, especially at night. It is not high raise buildings of a metropolis but still yo can see almost half of the city from window. That is when you are standing. From here, where I sit comfortably only the dark and the reflection of the room. It will not be possible to enlarge the windows and make them from bottom to up but raising the sitting position might be a solution. A platform in large living room so you can see lights of the city from where you sit.

It was a quite day. I sort of worked on another slowly progressing and tend to go nowhere pet projects. Cats were outside. Nice music on internet radio, some Turkish tea and occasional eating breaks. I managed to keep my wasted time in internet under control while successfully avoiding studying Romanian. Having no TV is a good think. You have less distractions and it forces you to be creative to waste your time. When I need to take my daily doze of video I am heading to the TED usually. It is less dangerous than youtube when it comes to getting lost within videos. Videos are relatively longer and you don’t really jump from one to other. Even if you find yourself spending some hours (I didn’t reach to that, yet) you don’t feel that bad.

I just listened Mena Trott there and it reminded me why I wanted to blog in the first place. I had few failed attempts on blogging and this is also going in that direction. I keep postponing writing for several reasons but mostly because I am not sure how to put words together so it makes sense. This urge to make sense is disturbing since I wanted to write just to keep record of things, put what is in my head to somewhere where I can come back later. It is more convenient than writing in paper and easier to archive. It doesn’t have to make sense, sometimes it just doesn’t. Maybe later. You just write.

You should just write. It is the start. If you don’t start it will never reach to someplace. If you do, it might.

My idea of raising the floor to see the lights outside will, most likely, not reach anywhere for example. But fortunately that is not the only thing I keep my mind busy with. I take notes on some of those other things here and there reminding myself that I should write about them. I should dig in the notes and start writing.

One Hand Syndrome

Lately I am catching myself with one hand on mouse, other on my chin infront of the computer. Not a very fortunate position for a software developer. It feels a lot better when both are on the keyboard.

I noticed this behavior when I start seeing other developers doing the same thing.  Not very fortunate for a software development house. 

I think this is a side effect of working on a large scale project. Everything takes time. Copying data files over network, compiling your last changes, executing the application for a quick test, everything. Any break over 5 seconds leads to one hand syndrome. 

Reading is also a one handed process. I do quite some reading due to non-development related tasks in adition to filling larger than 5 seconds breaks with internet browsing. Scrolling and left click are the most used user interactions for such times.

I didn’t measure seriously but I think my getting things done probability is a lot higher if my both hands are on keyboard. One handed usage puts me in a passive mode where I actually wait something to happen, like a magic answer shines through the google search results after 20 pages (yes I have such desparete searchs time to time).

I think here is the right place to say sorry for those mouse dependent applications I wrote.

What My Cats Teaching Me

Note: This is one of failed “let’s start now and finish later” attempts. I decided to publish them even they are not finished. My experience with myself (more than 30 years) if I don’t complete it in a reasonable time, I never will. So here it is, with hope that it will all make sense one day…

Once in a while I decide that I had enough with the cats at home and kick them out. Out to the garden of course, not further. I lock my self in, or them out. When we were in an apartment in Bucharest it was difficult to keep them in. Now in a house with garden, they don’t want to go out. Anyway, I like them out and start cleaning around, and re-organizing. I had all sort of hopeless attempts to organize their living area to minimize the interaction with mine. I don’t really enjoy for example trying not to step on their foot plates, or stare each other in the bathroom. Their sand box and food court are things that I still believe I can control. I lost hope controlling where they leave their hair a while ago.

Leaving them out during re-organization is crucial so they don’t bother me during the process. I take everything somewhere else, clean all around, put them back where I think their disturbance will be minimum. Sandbox is especially important since they like going wild in it.

This time, when I looked back all the work done and pleased with my self, once again thought, it will not take long. Then I realized where I make my mistake (no not that one, they are in already, it’s too late to discuss on it now). A mistake that I tend to repeat during software development (yes, I also felt weird with this connection).

When I nicely isolate their sandbox, even thinking so they will not be disturbed by us in their private moments, I am after my own agenda. I set up everything nicely so they are not on my way. But things don’t stay as you leave. They come and start using it. It would work perfect if it wasn’t the cats around.

Clash of expectations. We all have our own agendas. As a programmer, even when I try to put myself in user’s shoes to design/implement a GUI, I have my programmer agenda. When I don’t pay attention, programmer reaches out and implements a weird hack which makes everything easy. I even feel pleased myself. Until someone else comes and can not frigging understand the beauty in it. His agenda does not necessarily involve all the stuff I have to deal with as a programmer. What do you mean at this stage you don’t have access to selected file he asks for example.

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Modularity is key to scalability

Note: This is one of failed “let’s start now and finish later” attempts. I decided to publish them even they are not finished. My experience with myself (more than 30 years) if I don’t complete it in a reasonable time, I never will. So here it is, with hope that it will all make sense one day…

Note II: “Scalability” here is used as the project size rather than problem size. I noticed that it was not the best choice of words.

I was listening a talk on google tech talks and this came up: This morning I was thinking modularity is key to simplicity at the office. As a developer I love modularity, especially if you are dealing with large scale projects involving tens of developers you appreciate the ability to take a piece of functionality and dig into it knowing it fits all together at some level.

A developer learns to appreciate the modulariy (either for scalability or for simplicity) but hopefully your software has some users, and users do not always makes the connection between lack of modularity and the pain he is facing. Since user has an easy way out (this software suck, let’s uninstall) it is better someone walks him through the logic.

Modularity requires avoiding duplications in functionality. Simpler your modules are, or more specialized in their functionality, the better. However, users like short cuts. Yes I know that command is available there but can’t we put a small button here too he says. Most of the time it is simple to add and developers like that. But then, can’t we have that list box here too he says. It looks like it’s becoming simple at first since number of clicks is getting less and less to perform a certain functionality with each click. But, short cuts start becoming duplicated or worse imitated functionalities since it is not always easy to be that much modular.

I thought about lego blocks this morning. Each block has a one and only one functionality (at least the ones I know). Success of lego comes from the way different blocks work together, not how much additional built-in functionality each block comes with.

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