Articles by Nigel Cheshire

iPhone - Service as Important as Software Quality

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 08:45:00 EDT

The iPhone story that interested me the most though, was Bubba Murarka's tale of his service experience with Apple. Here's someone who clearly likes the product, but the whole experience is let down by the support model. I had a similar experience when I returned my malfunctioning Macbook 17 days after I purchased it. If the problem had arisen within 14 days, the Apple ?Genius? happily told me, they would replace the device with no questions asked. But because it was now 17 days old, they would have to repair it. I won?t bore you with details of the story, other than to say that ultimately I was left with no laptop for more than 2 weeks.

Outage at All-the-Rage Social Networking Site Facebook

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:15:00 EDT

From the many reports of software glitches this week, (including an outage at all-the-rage social networking site Facebook), I decided to focus on a couple of interesting (to me, anyway) stories that have one thing in common: speed. The world of Formula One racing is not familiar to many Americans, and yet it is a wildly popular sport in other parts of the world. It also is seen as a crucial testing ground for many new automotive technologies that eventually find their way into the cars that we drive. Being an ex-European, I like to keep an eye on that sport, and so it was that this story caught my eye.

Speaking at Real-World Java Seminar Next Week

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:15:00 EDT

I'll be speaking at SYS-CON's Real-World Java One-Day Seminar in New York City next Monday, August 13. Despite the fact that it's August, it looks like they have lined up an interesting panel of speakers for the day, including sessions by Yakov Fain on using Flex with Java (that'll be interesting to me) as well as sessions by Sun on Java 6.0 and a panel session on Java 7.0. The title of my session is 'Code Quality: Pay Now or Pay Later', and I will be talking about why code quality is an issue that many sweep under the rug, why we should care deeply about it, as well as some practical steps to start down that path. Our CTO Mark Dixon will be there with me, so if you're in the NYC area, come say hello!

SYS-CON.TV Posted an Interview That Roger Strukhoff Did with Me at JavaOne

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:15:00 EDT

SYS-CON.TV just posted an interview that Roger Strukhoff did with me at JavaOne last month. While there's not too much you can say about software quality in 9 or 10 minutes, I did drop a few hints about what we are working on here at Enerjy, which we are pretty excited about. I'll start to blog about that here soon, but in the mean time you can go check out my funny British accent here.

Eclipse and Enterprise Open Source Plug Ins For Better Software

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:30:00 EDT

The folks at Stelligent entered the brave new world of vidcasting with an interview with Levent Gurses, previewing his presentation at the Better Software Conference. Levent talks about the key Eclipse plug-ins that help track code quality metrics. In particular, he makes a couple of key observations:

Software More an Art Than a Science?

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:45:00 EDT

Infoworld ran a story yesterday on comments made by Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Craig Mundie. 'The problem is,' said Mundie, 'that software development is an important endeavor but it has not matured as an engineering process, it's still an art form.' He was responding to the claim that Microsoft is racing too fast into the brave new world of a 'multidevice environment where mobile phones get smart, and people will demand both integration and segregation of their various computing devices', when Windows can't function without having to be constantly patched and updated.

"Kitchen Client" Version of Windows

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:30:00 EDT

A quick thought for a Friday afternoon. Mary Jo Foley reports at ZDNet that Microsoft is starting work on the Kitchen Client version of windows. Among the features Microsoft is planning to make part of its forthcoming kitchen computing environment are a family calendar, recipe center, entertainment features and a shared bulletin board, she says. Is that burning toast I smell?

No Silver Bullets

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 15:00:00 EDT

David Seruyange pointed me to a great presentation by Yahoo! Javascript Architect Douglas Crockford on software quality. At least, 'Quality' is the title of the presentation, but in fact Crockford gives a wonderful history lesson, showing how we got to where we are today. This is a 48-minute presentation, and well worth the time. If you don?t have time to watch the whole thing at work, do yourself a favor: forgo an episode of American Idol, set 48 minutes aside at home, don the headphones and listen in. You won?t regret it.

Thinking About Pair Programming?

Wed, 30 May 2007 14:30:00 EDT

When I worked for IBM, back at the start of the e-business phenomenon, the management of our group made a very uncharacteristic decision for the time (and as it turned out, a very wise decision). None of the e-business technical staff went on-site; all work was performed within IBM's offices. The decision was based solely on the fact that this was a new area of the business where there was very little resource available, and practical experience was particularly scarce.

Software Quality and the Broken Windows Theory

Tue, 29 May 2007 10:30:00 EDT

'Evidence of decay (large defect backlogs, no documentation, no code reviews) remains in the system for a reasonably long period of time. Quality oriented engineers who work on the project feel more vulnerable and begin to withdraw. They become less willing to intervene to maintain software quality for example, to attempt to enforce code reviews, or to address signs of deterioration.'

Digg Contest Sparks Visualization Ideas

Tue, 29 May 2007 10:00:00 EDT

Having a particular interest in data visualization (more on how that relates to what we are doing here later), I was browsing around the Digg API visualization contest today. The many different approaches to building a meaningful representation of a dynamic data set made me realize that there are probably as many ways to solve that problem as there are people willing to build a solution (some wackier than others!).

Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width!

Fri, 18 May 2007 16:30:00 EDT

Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width' was the title of a British TV sitcom in the late 60's (yes, I really am that old), which has nothing to do with Java software development. Or does it? The more I talk to people about the issue of Java software quality, the more I am reminded of the name of that seemingly ridiculous TV show. It seems to me that however much we talk about the need for quality in software development, it's an issue that takes a backseat to the 'width' - by which I mean the number of feature requests that get crammed into our development projects.

Quality Metrics and the Personal Software Process

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:45:00 EDT

I was in a meeting with a customer earlier this week, discussing some of the changes that we see in development teams that start a metrics program and begin to measure the results. I used the phrase 'change in the culture and behaviors' of development. In most cases, the skills are there, but the reason best practices aren't being adhered to, or unit tests aren't being written has more to do with that fact that there is no measurable goal to work toward in these areas.

JavaOne - TDD Controversy

Wed, 16 May 2007 15:45:00 EDT

The obvious thing I see here is an education issue. TDD is a big topic with plenty of reference material available on the web, and people interpret different parts of it in different ways. Sure, some people may have had bad experiences with TDD depending on the culture of the organization, especially if they are not fully committed to a TDD approach, which can quickly result in them slipping back into more traditional development methodologies. Or, from a technical standpoint, some organizations find it difficult to implement a TDD approach in, say, an embedded environment.

Can You Manage What You Can't Measure?

Tue, 15 May 2007 17:00:00 EDT

The argument against the claim is that as a species, we manage things that we don't measure all the time. You don't need to measure every hair on your head, for example, to know that you need a hair cut. The flip side of the argument says that, in fact, you are applying a broad measurement to your hair every time you look in the mirror - you are comparing your own assessment of the length of your hair with what you would normally expect it to be.

Poka-Yoke and Better Software

Fri, 11 May 2007 11:15:00 EDT

Gojko Adzic has a great post today on the application of the 'Poka-Yoke' principle to software development. I'd bever heard of Poka-Yoke before, but it looks like it's another application of a Japanese manufacturing technique to software development. Personally, I think you have to be careful about these analogies, but this one works, in my opinion.

JavaOne - JavaFX abuzz

Wed, 09 May 2007 20:15:00 EDT

I'm at JavaOne this week, where the talk from Sun is all about mobile, or JavaFX and JavaFX Script. I'm not sure the world needs another scripting language, but then what do I know? I know it's a bit off-topic, but the thing that struck me about JavaOne this year is just how busy it is. I didn't hear any numbers yet, but there are a lot of people here. And, more surprisingly to me at least, is that the product pavilion is packed with people. I would have thought that in this day and age, the old trade show formula would be getting old by now, but I guess not. Maybe it's the t-shirts and trade show tchotchkes. But whatever brings them here, I guess people still like to see products close up and personal.

Change Is Good!

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:30:00 EST

In an article in the October edition of the FTP Webzine 'Upside' Peter Varhol laments the trend toward per-developer metrics in the software development process. 'Individual developer data is stored and available to be manipulated in less than honorable ways,' he says, 'and there are people in enterprises who know how to take advantage of such information for their own purposes.'

How Good Is Good Enough?

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 11:00:00 EST

Intellectually everyone understands that improving code quality is a good thing. After all, we know bad quality when we see it. (Anyone old enough can cast his or her mind back to the late '80s and Microsoft Word for Windows 1.0.) But we also know that there comes a point where there's a diminishing return on our investment in code quality. How much work would you put into tracking down a bug that's only ever been reported once by a user running on OS/2 Warp?

Why Coding Standards?

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:00:00 EDT

Show me code written by ten developers and I'll show you ten different coding styles. So why try to develop and enforce coding standards? Who cares what a program looks like as long as it works

Java Development Managers Stress the Need to Improve Software Quality

Mon, 08 May 2006 12:30:00 EDT

We've all experienced it - the 'get it out the door' mentality that seems to be the driving force behind many software application deliveries - a prime example of the software industry's immaturity that favors completion over quality, and an end user's preference for hot new features over stable, reliable systems. Deferring the QA process is an expensive way to operate and corporations are taking a financial hit for these software errors. According to the Washington, D.C., National Institute of Standards and Testing (NIST), software errors cost the U.S. economy $60 billion per year. This report was issued back in 2002 and, since then, the software industry has done little to improve the situation.

Using Java Development Tools to Enforce Best Practices

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 16:45:00 EST

In the conclusion of a two-part series, Enerjy Software CEO Nigel Cheshire outlines source code control systems, static code checking software, testing frameworks, and coverage tools.

Using Java Tools to Enforce Best Practices

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 16:30:00 EST

Bad code abounds, and the cost to fix it is expensive. A 2002 federal study found that software errors and bugs in code cost the U.S. economy nearly $60 billion a year. And a study conducted by The Standish Group reports a 27-month backlog on end-user requests for application enhancements. With bugs and enhancements coming out of the same budgets, only the loudest voices are heard. Many organizations with overrun projects have development teams that spend most of their time fixing bugs, fighting fires and leaping from one crisis to the next. Meanwhile, the ?too little, too late? approach to QA means that development teams consistently underestimate the time needed to test and debug applications.