I don’t take time to read novels very often so when I do I make sure it comes highly recommended.  I just finished reading this book and loved it.  Swedish author Stieg Larsson pulled off a coup when you think about it. The book has a Swedish setting with Swedish characters and yet became popular enough in the US to get a Hollywood movie. The other element that must have been fun to write is one of the hero characters is a professional writer himself.

I’m looking forward to watching the movie and reading the sequel.

When I developed my first commercial website about a decade ago there were no decent website development frameworks like Symfony so I created my own.  It even had a simple ORM known simply as the Entity class.  It made the rest of the development effort faster and more scalable.

My decision was informed by a masters in computer science and 15 years of software development projects.  I knew good architecture was crucial for complex projects. It might have been one of the most important things we did to make New Afternic a success in the beginning.

However, when I recently discovered Symfony I was thrilled.  Symfony is like a Cadillac Escalade, fully loaded, compared to my Yugo.  I had considered learning a new language (Ruby) just to get a good framework, but Symfony seemed to offer a framework similar to Ruby’s but using PHP.

After using it for a over a month now, I can say that Symfony really does include all the features I wanted and more.  It is well organized.  And it seems pretty stable.  However, if I started this project over from scratch, I’d strongly consider switching to Ruby for one reason alone: documentation.  The documentation is scattered in tutorials, APIs, YML file references, plugin references, Doctrine website APIs, Doctrine YML file references, etc.  And worst of all, none of it is complete.

Let me give a recent example.  Say you’re working on your schema and you’re defining a special column so you wonder what are the valid options for specifying a column?  I still don’t know where to find documentation that answers that straightforward question.

Its hard to complain about an otherwise fantastic framework that is free, but I hate to see such a brilliant project and so much hard work fail to get adopted faster due to a problem that is so much easier to fix than developing the framework in the first place.  Complete some documentation.  In my humble opinion as a newbie, documentation is by far its biggest weakness.

In recent post I mentioned an engineering process.  When most developers hear the word process they instinctively brace themselves for the overbearing, bureaucratic, time-wasting requirements that usually follow.  This is not that kind of process. Every development team uses a process whether it is documented or not. A good process makes work more predictable and even enjoyable for all parties, inside and outside the engineering team.

This process allows developers to work more independently with less task-by-task direction than required in most organizations. This is a few years old and I’ll update it before I use it again, especially to add more testing requirements now that frameworks come with better testing features.

Here it is, as it was.

Do not multitask.  Work on the highest priority CR until it is blocked or completed.  Blocked means you have to wait on someone else (a customer, manager, vendor, etc.).

When a manager is available, discuss with manager before beginning a new CR so that most current company priorities are considered.

Each CR should go through the following phases in this order:

1. Analyze
2. Implement
3. Code Review
4. Test
5. Publish
6. Business Review

Analyze

Assign the CR to yourself at the beginning of this step.

Analyze means to understand the request fully.  Interview the reporter, manager, customers, etc. as necessary.  Seek direction from other business functions like Marketing and Operations.

Present the alternatives and a proposed high-level design to the team for the most complex requests.  This is rarely required but do it at your discretion for large requests.  Use story board, prototypes, or any tool you want.

Implement

Implement means to develop the solution in a development tree and using a development database.  Some Do’s of implementation:

• Perform some unit testing for medium to complex changes, but not simple changes.
• Use comments liberally.
• Follow the coding style (indenting, naming convention, etc.) of the current code.
• Make sure any new database features can be managed from the admin interface.
• Make sure online documents are updated to match features.  Add likely questions to FAQ, etc.
• Get all new copy written or reviewed by Marketing.

Code Review

Code Review before Test is not a mistake.  It saves time to catch errors by review rather than by testing.  Another engineer or manager reviews the changes line by line to identify errors.  Count lines reviewed and number of errors found.  Post this info as a bug note on the CR.  Simple rework can be included in this step.  Complex rework should be reviewed again.

Commit changes to source code control after Code Review is complete and advise all engineers that the tree cannot be published until testing is complete.  Make sure any new files are added and committed to source code control.

Test

Test.  A different specialist should test the new feature using a read-only tree.  This phase includes any required rework.

Publish

Publish.  Implement any database changes required on the production server.  Publish the code and “touch test” on the production server to test the publish process.  The CR should be changed to Resolved at the end of this step.

Business Review

Business Review.  Implementer should demo user interface changes to Marketing and Support so the change can be communicated and supported effectively.  This phase includes training internal users.  Manager should change the CR to Closed at the end of this step.

There is a profound lesson to be found in the simple courtesy that is part of most transactions in the free market.  We are taught very young that when someone gives you something or does something for you, you say, “thank you,” and the other person responds, “you’re welcome.”  But most of the time when we buy something, both parties say, “thank you.”  Listen for it the next time you’re at the store, restaurant, bar, or coffee shop.

Voluntary transactions increase the utility of both parties in their own judgments.  Otherwise they wouldn’t do it.  That is why both parties say, “thank you,” and that is ultimately how we survive – billions and billions of utility-increasing transactions sustain us and fulfill the desires of our hearts.

Think about it the next time the cashier says, “thank you,” and you respond, “thank you.”

Anyone who has ever worked for me has heard me say this many times: don’t multitask. A recent blog post by Andy Jenkins reminded me of this old mantra.  I want to link to that article (done), elaborate on more reasons to not multitask, and recommend a book on the subject.

Andy and the Science article he references says we’re not good at multitasking even if we think we are.  I believe that, for sure, but that’s not the reason “do not multitask” is my mantra – and should be yours, too.

Even if you were perfect at multitasking (which nobody is) there are still two important economical reasons not to do it.

1. Prioritization.  Never do two projects have exactly the same priority.  If you think they do then you probably have not studied your operation enough.  One task is always more important than the others and you should do that first.  If you’re working on five projects, you’re working on four projects that are lower priority than the top priority.  You’re stealing time from the most important project.

2. Time value of completed work.  This last reason requires some thinking, so focus – I do not want to fail you.  A project typically has zero value until it is 100% complete.  Lets say you’re working for an indecisive manager who gives you four projects all at the same priority.  They all have the same value to the company.  Even in this contrived scenario, the company makes more money if you do NOT multitask, thanks to the time value of completed work.  If you pick one project and finish it, the company can start benefiting from that completed project right then. By the time you start on the fourth project, the company is benefiting on the first three projects already.  If you multitask and get four projects 75% complete, the company still isn’t making a penny even though you’ve spent just as long working.

Theory of Constraints teaches us to focus on whatever is constraining us (our company, our family, our teams, etc.) and attention to anything else is a waste by comparison.

The book Critical Chain is a business novel by Eliyahu Goldratt.  This book teaches Project Management in a very different way and I highly recommend it.  I’m a huge fan of books that teach important, big picture concepts in an interesting story that keeps your attention.  It feels like pleasure reading instead of study.  I’m also a huge fan of Theory of Constraints, and Goldratt invented it, so you’re getting your teaching straight from the horse’s mouth.  (Just a figure of speech, Eli.)

Buy Critical Chain on Amazon.com

If you sign up as a reseller, according to this press release, you can get domain registration years for $5.99 at Gossimer.com.  This is not an affiliate pitch.  I am not familiar with the company even though they are based in my home state, Florida.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

I read this book a while back and keep bringing it up again and again in conversation because its lesson is so profound.  During our childhood, kids and grownups alike admire those children with “natural talent.” They learn the piano faster, they  learn faster how to throw and catch a football or baseball, or they pickup chess and beat their peers soon after learning the rules of the game.

The problem is that all this attention and positive reinforcement is for something that is not that valuable in the long run.  What we admire (and pay for) most in the long run comes from practice – thousands and thousands of hours of productive practice.

The most amazing conclusion from the research discussed in this book is that the “natural talent” advantage actually evaporates in the long run. Chess players that beat the pants off their peers in the first couple years of playing have no advantage at all against those same peers if and when they get to a higher level of play.  What matters then is how much and how effectively they practiced.

The most talented people in the world did not achieve their skills by nature but by more and better practice.  Colvin describes how Tiger Woods became the best in the world at golf  – Mozart at composing symphonies – and more.  Practice worked for the best doctors, the most successful business leaders, and the most popular artists.

Read this book and get inspired to work hard and get great at something.

Thanks to the awesome creative talent at Appency, here’s a promo video for Custom Hangman, my first iPhone app project:

And here’s the press release on prmac.com.

I’m behind on my blogging because this post is about a movie I watched over a week ago.  It is so inspiring that I actually made my kids watch it.  (Hey, other parents make their kids go to church for inspiration.)

My son has Asperger’s which increased my interest in the movie.

This movie is about the school years of Temple Grandin who was diagnosed with Autism at age 4, but went on to revolutionize how the cattle industry handles cattle, write books, get a PhD, and become a famous speaker on Autism.  (The movie also made cowboys look pretty stupid but that’s beside the point.)

Temple’s mother was advised to institutionalize her at 4 years old, but her mother worked hard and “fought the system” hard.  She insisted her daughter get the education she needed – she was different, not less.

This movie is very, well, moving, very educational, very recommended by me.  Must see.

Find it on HBO.

To get more users interested in sharing their word lists with others, I released a web app version of Custom Hangman.  Its in beta.  Check it out at CustomHangman.com.