Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dictionary.com’s “Word of the Day” for the 8th: deprecate DEP-rih-kayt, transitive verb: 1. [Archaic] To pray against, as an evil; to seek to avert by prayer. It brings to mind the times I’ve deprecated code with that thought: “Dear God, … Continue reading →

What code does Code does: Sequencing: performing actions in a certain order. Logic: performing actions according to logic. Transformation: changing data from one form to another. Utility: getting some data from some other data, eg: “cat,dog,horse”.split(“,”). State: removing from, adding … Continue reading →

How do you use tests to drive well-designed code, when you’re not able to write automated acceptance tests? Sometimes we do this, whether there are automated tests or not: Write some code that gets accesses the database (and turns the … Continue reading →

This is a quick’n’dirty picture of the cost of change (y) against time (x) on a Big Design Up Front project (red) and an Agile one (green). For the colour-blind, the Agile cost is the one that stabilises with time, … Continue reading →

Communication is important. Ensure that your Martian has a working translator. Provide expletive vocabulary as required. All Martians look alike. All humans look alike. Wear name badges and teach each other how to pronounce them. Remember that alcohol may have … Continue reading →

While I was away in China, a friend kindly lent me Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” (great book). In “Blink”, Gladwell touches briefly on the subject of improvisational theatre. “The important thing,” he says (my paraphrasing) “is never to say ‘no’ to … Continue reading →

Agile means “responsive to change”. Unfortunately for me, that means coming home early. Just one of those things that happens in the big, wide world of consultancy and changing requirements! Xi’an has been amazing. The team here is incredibly dynamic, … Continue reading →

Running a project with a customer in the UK and development split between China and India is, as you can imagine, full of challenge. The biggest problem we could have faced was the communication bottleneck. In the first week of … Continue reading →

That was easy. I got through Chinese security in 3 minutes, picked up my bags in 10 minutes after both flights (to Beijing and then on to Xi’an) and breezed through customs. Buying the ticket to Xi’an in Beijing was … Continue reading →

Thoughtworks UK is recruiting. We’re particularly after Java devs with 4+ years’ experience – but all bright, creative, problem-solving, honest, courageous, fun-loving, responsible, mad, weird and wonderful people will be considered for a variety of roles.