Categories
General

The more you write the better you will get

writing skills

One of the most important skill in software development is your ability to communicate with others. Going back to my high school days, my writing class was the most influential class that has helped me become a better software engineer.

For the first 10 minutes of our writing class, we had to write in our journal about a specific topic. At the beginning it was tough but after a few written pages, you start writing with more confidence. I also started to like this writing class that most of my friends hated it.

For the past 12 months, I’ve written at least one article per month on my blog. My first articles were under 300 words and not well organized. But my latest articles have better content and are easier to read.

The more you write the better you get.

Practice makes it perfect. As of today, I have written 42 articles and I would like to continue writing to help other software developers.

Now I can say that I enjoy writing and want to push myself more. My new goal is to write at least 1 blog post per week. Another goal that I have in mind is to write a book. If I can write 42 articles within a year, I can definitely write 84 articles in a year and complete my first book.

I spent more than 10 years working with my parents at their small furniture store and learned so much about running a business that I can write about our failures and also our success.

I can also write a book about web development. Many writers write on the topics that they have a passion for. I can say that my passion for web development will help me write this book.

I will keep you posted once I have a basic outline and a title for my book.

Categories
Agile

It is crucial to be agile

agile

Agile is defined as able to move quickly and easily. When we apply this definition to software development, we can see the benefits of delivering software quickly and easily. Being agile helps you release software sooner rather than later.

How to move quickly in software development?

When I worked at Ristken, we had 1 week sprints and daily scrum meetings. This setup allowed us to release software features quickly to our customers. After our customers started using the new features, we received valuable feedback. This feedback enabled us to modify software quickly and easily.

At Verizon, we had a longer sprint. In average they ranged from 3 to 4 weeks. In my opinion, we delivered great software but our feedback loop was longer.

As a general rule, smaller teams are more agile than bigger teams. This might be related to communication and logistics. It is easier to communicate with 1 person in comparison to 10. Scott Hanselman said that at the beginning of his career at Microsoft, getting things done was like moving the Titanic. Change is happening but it’s slowly happening.

How do we move easily in software development?

I think having scrum meetings everyday is crucial when it comes to “move easily”. Usually the scrum master would say at the end of the meeting “any road blocks or impediments”. The sooner we removed those road blocks, the better.

Open communication is very important here. Are you encourage to communicate problems? Do you have the resources needed to remove problems? Are you willing to solve your own problems? Having a work environment that removes obstacles quickly and encourages employees to solve problems will help you move easily and create quality software.

We can see how agile plays a key role when it comes to mobile apps. The most popular apps release software quickly. The app owners read comments and ratings so that they can fix bugs or add new features. It is in their best interest to keep their customers happy.

Conclusion

Moving quickly and easily in software development allows your team to deliver quality software applications. The end user (customer) plays a key role since their feedback allows us (developers) to improve our software applications.