June 2005 - Posts

• On my way home

  Well - it is 6:15 am Orlando time and I am sitting in the airport connected to a data jack because there are no other internet options - so far so good - but 50 Kbps is not the optimal option. Some would argue that was the speed/reliability of the TechEd wireless network during the week though!!! The last couple of days were spent kicking the tires if you will of the various technologies. By Friday afternoon my brain was fried. The Designer tools in VS 2005 are really cool - the fact that they integrate back into the code so well was great. Many of the labs had a variety of problems though that sometimes made it difficult to get through it. One example is the C# lab I did - it covered the new enhancements like Generics, Partial classes, iterators - since syntax changed from Beta 1 to Beta 2 - the solutions for the labs themselves wouldn’t even compile - it was cool though to be able to go to the people working on the language and ask why this didn’t work and have them explain the reasons for the changes between Beta 1 and Beta 2. The yield keyword is an example of that - you use it with iterators to return values to the caller as you loop through the list - it used to be yield , but is now yield return . I expected Generics to be cool and they were - I had used them slightly in C++ (I think they are named differently in that language…can’t remember). Now the challenge is taking this all back to my managers and selling them that we need to start using this stuff. I can definitely see some distinct advantages from moving this direction. Encourages better planning and designing by allowing those steps to move you towards your end goal of delivering the product. The Team System has a lot of nice pieces to support team collaboration if we buy into it. But for the next few days I will be in San Diego trying to relax and refresh and stay away from computer talk as much as possible. I am sure that my twin brother and I will stray down that path once of twice, but doing it on the beach while relaxing doesn’t sound so bad. After that it is up to Scout Camp for a couple of days and then on to Utah for my little brother’s wedding. I am not sure how all this counts as vacation because it sounds busy enough to me. Until then - Bryan   Technorati tags: Tech Ed 2005 Posted Jun 11 2005, 10:04 PM by Bryan Hinton's space: Technology

• My wife replies

  I have been telling my wife all week to check out my blog and she finally did - and came up with a pretty snappy response. She is definitely a good sport allowing me to get my technology fix especially since today (it is now past midnight) is our anniversary - six wonderful years - she is the best!!!!!! I love her so much and can’t wait to see her on Saturday!!! Here is what she had to say - ain’t she awesome!!! I was just sitting here all alone thinking, “hey, I really need a handyman, yard man, protector, babysitter, provider of income, counselor, companion, confidant….oh, yeah, and a best friend!” Wait, that’s you Bryan Hinton and where are you? Eating 15,600 ice cream bars in Florida! Hope you enjoy every minute….cuz there’s a LOT for you to do when you get home!!!! Love ya, Noel (wife, cook, daycare provider, accountant, housekeeper, and best friend!) Posted Jun 09 2005, 10:05 PM by Bryan Hinton's space: Technology

• Where have all the testers gone….

  In my organization today everybody does everything - if we started using Visual Studio Team System today we would all have to use each piece because everyone does everything. I am not quite sure why either. Every class I take, conference I go to, my whole Computer Science education talked about division of labor and establishing roles. Industry as a whole didn’t really start to be productive until what… the good old assembly line - focused roles so that people could become good at what they did and increase output and quality. Some might argue that roles end up limiting growth, etc… I would disagree. Roles give people a choice - they can choose to become very proficient in their core competency and if they choose they can stay there and provide great value to the company on a continual basis or at some point they could under guidance by their manager, find a mentor in a role that they want to grow into, learn and work towards that goal. This also would promote and facilitate appropriate career growth. At least that is my take on it - Now if I could only find an architect, or a business analyst, or a project manager, or a developer, or a tester, or an implementer, or a support rep - oh wait that is me… Posted Jun 07 2005, 10:06 PM by Bryan Hinton's space: Technology

• Random Thoughts on Planning

  Planning Never was something more key to an organization’s success! Some would argue that there has been successes out there that just sort of happened. I was talking to my Dad the other day as we were driving up to a family wedding and he gave me a real life example of a company whose success just kind of happened - sadly a few years later their demise also just kind of happened. Could it have been avoided…. Yeah probably - that leads me to the two types of planning that I see. Now as I drone on I should state that I have no educational expertise in this area - I am not an MBA - I am a techno-geek with a Computer Science degree. I enjoy getting lost in an afternoon of coding. Even when I try though - you can’t hide from planning - My two types of planning aren’t unique, Strategic and Tactical StrategicThis may be better named Vision. Many projects were well managed tactically, but because of poor vision of where they fit or what was actually needed the project end up somewhere it didn’t want to be. A frustrating thing I have run into from time to time is situations in which the owner of the project punts on where they want to take the project and drops the decision down to customers. Customer input is critical of course, but unless the owner can sense the pulse of the customers, understand the business, and have vision for where true benefit can be added they will be left to manage priorities that shift based on the current fires facing their customers. It is common for the application vision to fly in the face of the issues that seem to be most important at the moment. A cousin of mine had a quote in her home that said “Don’t sacrifice what you want most for what you think you want now!”. So true for Strategic Planning. As a last point there is obviously a balance here between dealing with the real, current issues and spending time on the things that will take you where you think you need to be. TacticalDetails, Details, Details - timelines, resources, progress, status, and crisis management. I have gained greater appreciation lately for the need for someone dedicated in this area. I previously felt like these people didn’t add much in the way of value, but somehow I ended up in a job that is much more that type of stuff than programming. So maybe to justify what I do I see more value in it. The role of tactically managing and planning a project is interesting - you have to be technical enough to be able to dabble in the details and provide direction, but not so lost in the dungeon of details that you can’t get your hands around all that is going on. Being honest about the challenges being faced and the realities of schedules is so refreshing - too bad that seems to be so rare. Saying No seems to be impossible to do Planning is also key to my work happiness. There is nothing more frustrating than getting yanked around from fire to fire to fire or being overloaded because everything seems to be absolutely urgent. I get so tired of it - my brains at times feels like scrambled eggs because of it.   Technorati tags: Software Development Posted Jun 01 2005, 10:07 PM by Bryan Hinton's space: Technology