This is the extended abstract of my dissertation for module T802, which is the final module of my Open University Master of Science degree in Technology Management. It was a tough module, spanning just over 12 months (including preliminary research), but at the same time was very rewarding. Background Software is becoming increasingly common in …
Five jobs in ten years: Lessons that I have learned
The period between Christmas and New Year always allows me some time for reflection that I typically don’t get during the rest of the year. Today I realised that I have now worked for five different companies over the past ten years, which started me thinking about the lessons that I have learned from these …
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How I tackle an Open University Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA)
I’ve been studying with the Open University now for six years; the first three years studying at undergraduate level, and the past three years at postgraduate level. Over this time I have developed what I feel is quite a nice system for tackling the Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs) that OU students regularly complete, so I thought …
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Developer Anarchy
The latest episode of Software Engineering Radio contains an interesting discussion about a project management technique known as Developer Anarchy. Fred George, the interviewee, defines anarchy as a group of people managing themselves, with few or no rules being imposed by higher levels of management. George describes how he first discovered this technique when working …
On organisational structure and software architecture
Organisational structure In his 1975 book, The Mythical Man-Month, Fred Brooks claimed that adding more people to a late software project would make it even later. His reasoning behind this claim, which has now become known as Brooks’ Law, was that people in a team need to communicate with each other. As the team grows …
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Daily stand-up meetings: A communications pattern and anti-pattern
The pattern I like the idea of holding a daily stand-up meeting. This involves a team coming together at the start of each day to provide brief status updates and discuss the challenges ahead. I see stand-ups as being particularly useful in helping to resolve issues that are blocking progress, such as in this fictional …
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Mobile apps (Oops, something went wrong…)
A personal perspective The first time I came across an error message telling me “oops, something has gone wrong…” was when I installed the LinkedIn app on my Windows Phone back in 2013. After a little research, I discovered that what this particularly unhelpful message was trying to tell me was that the time on …
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Functional requirements by the book
In preparation for my next Open University module, I have invested in getting an early copy of the set book so that I can start working through it at a nice relaxed pace. The book itself – Mastering the Requirements Process (Robertson and Robertson) – is a renowned text that deals with the specification of …
Good luck, and watch out for bugs!
The latest issue of The Embedded Muse contains the following quote regarding the use of the term “bug” by software developers: We could, for instance, begin with cleaning up our language by no longer calling a bug “a bug” but by calling it an error. It is much more honest because it squarely puts the blame where …
Investigating the Internet of Things: Part 1
This weekend I have been reading the IEEE Computer Society’s Computer magazine that was kindly offered as a free download via their Twitter feed: COMPUTER MAGAZINE: Reminder/Download the first digital edition of 2015 for free! http://t.co/I3xmEBeGuc — IEEE ComputerSociety (@ComputerSociety) January 23, 2015 Two articles in this publication particularly caught my attention: Firstly, Hal Berghel’s cases …
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