Summary of my weekly readings.
The Test Waste Ratio
Have we replaced bugs with test failures? Interesting analysis.
http://www.gilzilberfeld.com/2014/03/the-test-waste-ratio.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gilzilberfeld+%28Geek+out+of+water%29
Treat bugs as fires
Fire deaths have been drastically reduced by using a continuous improvement methodology. Are we doing the same for our products? “Here is the typical sequence of actions for a production bug… 1.Alarm bells ring… 2.Wake up someone at random… 3.Decide whether this fire is big enough to deal with. Most often, this is an alarm we have seen many times before. And each time the fire only affects 1 person, so we will just let that person burn to death. Go back to sleep”. We should focus more on fire prevention than on fire fighting.
http://arlobelshee.com/treat-bugs-as-fires/
Where is the Foreman?
Very interesting article by Uncle Bob Martin, asking/proposing for a “software project foreman”, the guy who makes “sure everything was done, done right, and done on time”. Would you accept a foreman in your project?
http://blog.8thlight.com/uncle-bob/2014/02/21/WhereIsTheForeman.html
An Empirical Investigation into Programming Language Syntax
Almost nobody does usability testing of programming language syntax, and this is the result. “Programming language designers needlessly make programming languages harder to learn by not doing basic usability testing. For example, “…the three most common words for looping in computer science, for, while, and foreach, were rated as the three most unintuitive choices by non-programmers.””
http://neverworkintheory.org/2014/01/29/stefik-siebert-syntax.html
Have a very good weekend, and Happy Purim!