Derik Whittaker

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• Unused code is the worst of the 7 Wastes of Software

  Today I was having another round of conversations with a buddy of mine about the concept of waste and unused code. In agile there is a concept called YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It) that basically states that you should not add code that is not immediately... Posted Aug 06 2008, 04:21 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 32 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, Opinion

• Subclassing for Success

  As someone how has been designing and developing WinForms based applications for the past 7+ years, I have learned that subclassing UI controls is a must. You may be thinking, why would I want to subclass a text box? Or a combo box? The answer is simple... Posted Nov 02 2007, 07:36 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, WinForms, Opinion, Featured

• Object Construction - Constructing for Success - Part Duex

  A few months ago I posted about my thoughts on Object Construction (found here ). In the post I talk about constructing object with ALL the required values to make the object valid. This post is just a quick follow up to that. The other day I was refactoring... Posted Oct 24 2007, 09:07 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology

• Backing in Unit Tests into an existing project

  Recently I was asked about backing in unit tests into an existing project. In particular I was asked A) was possible and B) is it worth it. In short my answers to both these are Yes and Yes. However, backing in unit tests is not without its challenges... Posted Oct 09 2007, 07:35 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Agile, Methodology, TDD, Opinion

• Why I believe IN and WRITE unit tests

  In my last post I think I struck a cord with some people in my post 'Unit tests taking too much time'. My intent was NOT to sound like an elitist Agilist or any else of that nature. My intent was simply to put a post out there about the misperception... Posted Oct 01 2007, 07:27 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Agile, Methodology, TDD, Opinion, Featured

• Standard questions to be asked when logging bugs

  In my last post ( here ) I spoke about different do’s and don’ts when it comes to logging bugs. What I really did not hit on was the different types of questions I feel should be asked when logging bugs. Here are my questions, in no particular order.... Posted Aug 21 2007, 07:51 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, Opinion, Best Practice

• Logging Bugs: Do's and Don'ts

  All software that is being developed WILL have bugs, sorry, but this IS a fact. Now I know some people and companies don't like to call them glitches in software bugs. They would rather call them issues or defects. For all I care we can call them... Posted Aug 19 2007, 05:40 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, Opinion, Featured

• Great Test-and-Fix quote in regards to wasted time.

  I am in the process of reading Mary and Tom Poppendieck's latest book ' Implementing Lean Software Development ' and I came across a great quote that is ALL too true in our industry. (I am only 2 chapters in on the book, but so far it is as good as their... Posted Jul 03 2007, 05:50 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with no comments Filed under: Development, Methodology

• Switch Statements with Enums best practice

  Over the years I have come to the conclusion when working with switch statements that switches on enum values, a DEFAULT block MUST be required. Not only should it be required, I think it should throw a developer exception. *** NOTE *** My stance on this... Posted Jun 26 2007, 07:08 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, .Net, Opinion, Best Practice

• Code Reviews: Rules of the Game

  Code reviews are thought to be painful by many, but in my opinion that can be avoided. Code reviews can be a great tool for a project to help keep the code clean and concise. Last time I talked about Code Reviews and how to make them successful , this... Posted Jun 12 2007, 08:41 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology

• Code Reviews: How to be successful

  Code reviews are something that not all of us like or do, but they can be very valuable. I thought I would express some of my thoughts/opinions about the benefits and pit falls of performing code reviews. Benefits of Code Reviews Performing regular and... Posted Jun 11 2007, 09:08 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology

• Technical Debt, How we accumulate it, and how we can reduce it

  All software projects will amass some amount of technical debt. This is not a necessarily bad thing; it is just he cost of doing business. As developers the only thing we can do is try to control/limit the amount of technical debt we build up. If you... Posted May 25 2007, 09:03 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with no comments Filed under: Development, Methodology, TDD

• Learning to use Mocks and the power they provide

  Up until a few months ago I had never even attempted to use mocks ( NMock , RhinoMock , etc). Every time I would read about Mocking I thought to myself, this is kinda cool, but seems to be a waste of energy. At the time I saw Mocks as only a way to create... Posted May 23 2007, 06:54 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with no comments Filed under: Development, Agile, Methodology, TDD

• Shelf Life of a Software Application

  How long can we expect the applications we write to live on? What types of things increase or decrease the shelf life of our applications? Is it practical to suggest that software is only good for a certain period of time? Or should software be able to... Posted May 21 2007, 07:03 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology

• Kinda like performing surgery in the dark

  Have you ever needed to make rule changes to an existing application? I am sure you have. Have you ever had to make these changes when you understand the change, but have pretty much no clue about the implementation of the code base you are changing?... Posted May 15 2007, 10:53 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with no comments Filed under: Development, Methodology