I've been pretty quite lately - job change plus other changes have had me pretty heads down. I've started into a new position where we're in the middle of a 1.0 product release - the benefits of testing approaches are always so apparent at these times. I'm spending the morning the catching up on email...

Here's a thought I just had - Microsoft Project is to Software Project Management as UML is to Code UML is not architecture nor is it code design. UML is a static picture that describes intent at a given point in time. These diagrams may have significant value at certain points in time and zero value...

I've been spending some time checking out Duncan Bayne's blog where he is discussing some of his run-ins with InstallShield. I ran across a particularly interesting post where Duncan and some commenters got into a debate over which product is worse - InstallShield or Wise.

Whenever I deal with disposable objects, I always wrap them in a using() statement religiously. Now that I am writing a graphical application where the drawing engine may paint on different surfaces (24-bit bitmap vs. black and white), I've abstracted a 'Pallet' object with concrete implementations for...

I just bought my PDC tickets today. I sure hope I win the contest - here's my pdc contest entry post . I'm going to hold off on the airline and hotel reservations until I'm sure everything pans out. If I won I was thinking about taking my video camera and posting bits about the show. I think I'll still...

Here is a handy GraphML primer that I'm referencing frequently. The primer starts with a basic node/edge example and builds to more complex graphs and even conversion to an SVG format.

I sat through a two-day presentation on project estimation and lifecycle selection by Steven Tockey of Construx Consulting . The material was exceptional as I would expect from a company owned by Steve McConnell of Code Complete fame. When we got to the Agile approach, he explained scheduling as follows...

I need to check out Rolling Wave project scheduling when I have a chance. I've been looking at Mark Graban's kanban blog and digging into the articles he has linked - it's fun reading. I've got a couple of blog topics that will fall out of this, but in the meantime this Rolling Wave approach is very...

The company I work for, American Standard/Trane , in White Bear Lake, MN is now hiring a Lead Development Software Test Engineer. White Bear Lake is a northern suburb of the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metro area and located merely 12.5 miles from Jay Kimble's adopted hometown of Stillwater, MN . Part of...

A couple of months ago I came across a link on Amazon to a 2nd Edition of Jim McCarthy's " Dynamics of Software Development " While it's a bit dated now, the first edition remains one of my favorite books and I was excited to hear that an updated edition was in the works. I checked out my Amazon wish...